On the Duties of the Clergy

5. The Wisdom of Knowing When to Speak

But what ought we to learn before all else, but to keep silence, that we may be able to speak, lest my own voice condemn me before another's absolves me; for it is written: By thy words thou shalt be condemned. What need is there, then, to hasten to incur the danger of condemnation by speaking, when by keeping silence you can be safer? I have seen very many fall into sin by speaking, scarcely anyone by keeping silence; and therefore it is harder to know how to keep silence than to speak. I know that many speak, though they know not how to keep silence. It is rare for anyone to keep silence, when speaking profits him nothing. He, therefore, is wise who knows how to keep silence. In fine, the Wisdom of God said, The Lord hath given me the tongue of instruction, that I should know when it behoveth to speak a word. Rightly, then, is he wise who receives from the Lord the time at which he ought to speak.

Whence Scripture well says: A wise man will keep silence until the time.

6. Guarding Against Sinning with the Tongue

Therefore the saints of the Lord, who knew that the voice of man is very often the announcement of sin, and the beginning of human error is man's speech, loved to keep silence. In fine, the saint of the Lord says: I said, I will guard my ways, that I sin not with my tongue. For he knew and had read that it is a mark of divine protection that a man be hidden from the scourge of his own tongue, and from the testimony of his own conscience. For we are scourged by the silent reproach of our own thought and by the judgment of conscience; we are scourged also by the lash of our own voice, when we speak things by whose sound our soul is struck and our mind wounded. Who indeed is there who keeps his heart clean from the defilement of sins, or does not sin with his tongue?

And therefore, because he feared that he could not keep his holy mouth safe from the uncleanness of speech, he imposed on himself the law of innocence through silence; that by keeping silence he might avoid the fault which he could scarcely escape by speaking.

7. Eve's Fall and the Duty to Hear Before Speaking

Let us then hearken to the master of caution: I said, I will guard my ways, that is, I said to myself, I laid upon myself by a silent precept of thought, that I should guard my ways. There are some ways which we ought to follow, others which we ought to guard: to follow the ways of the Lord, to guard our own; lest they lead into fault. But you can guard them, if you do not speak hastily. The Law says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God. It does not say, speak, but hear. Therefore Eve fell, because she spoke to her husband what she had not heard from the Lord her God. The first voice of God says to you, Hear. If you hear, you guard your ways; and if you have fallen, you correct yourself quickly. For in what does a young man correct his life, except in guarding the words of the Lord? Be silent, then, first, and hear, that you may not sin with your tongue.

8. The Danger of Idle and Impious Words

It is a grave evil that anyone should be condemned by his own mouth. For indeed if for every idle word each man shall render an account, how much more for a word of impurity and baseness! For words of rashness are more grievous than idle ones. Therefore, if an account is demanded for an idle word, how much more is punishment exacted for a word of impiety!

9. A Time to Speak, a Time for Silence

What then? Must we be mute? By no means. For there is a time to keep silence, and a time to speak. Then, if we render an account for an idle word, let us see that we do not also render one for idle silence. For there is also a busy silence: such was Susanna's, who accomplished more by keeping silence than if she had spoken. For by keeping silence before men, she spoke to God, and found no greater proof of her chastity than her silence. Conscience spoke, where no voice was heard: nor did she seek for herself the judgment of men, who had the testimony of the Lord. From him, therefore, she wished to be absolved, whom she knew could in no way be deceived. The Lord himself in the Gospel, by keeping silence, worked the salvation of men. Rightly, then, David did not impose on himself perpetual silence, but a guard.

10. Guarding the Heart and the Mouth

Let us then guard our heart, let us guard our mouth; for both are written: here, that we should guard our mouth, and elsewhere it is said to you, With all watchfulness guard thy heart. If David kept guard, will you not keep guard? If Isaiah had unclean lips, who said: Woe is me, for I am pricked to the heart, because being a man, I have unclean lips, if the prophet of the Lord had unclean lips, how have we clean ones?

11. The Mind as a Possession to Be Hedged

And to whom, save to each one of us, is it written: Hedge thy possession with thorns, and bind up thy silver and thy gold, and make for thy mouth a door and a bar, and for thy words a yoke and a balance? Thy possession is thy mind: thy gold is thy heart: thy silver is thy speech: The words of the Lord are pure words, silver tried by fire. A good possession, too, is a good mind. In fine, a precious possession is a clean man. Hedge, then, this possession, and wall it about with thoughts, fortify it with thorns, with anxieties, lest the irrational passions of the body rush in upon it and lead it captive, lest grievous impulses assail it, lest those passing by the way plunder its vintage. Guard your inner man. Do not neglect and disdain him as a thing of little worth, because he is a precious possession. And rightly precious, whose fruit is not perishable and temporal, but stable and of eternal salvation. Cultivate, then, your possession, that you may have fields.

12. Binding Speech Like an Overflowing River

Bind your speech, lest it run riot, lest it grow wanton, and gather sins for itself through much talking. Let it be more restrained, and held within its own banks. A river overflowing quickly gathers mud. Bind your understanding, let it not be loose and flowing, lest it be said of you: There is no plaster to lay on, nor oil, nor bandage. Sobriety of mind has its own reins, by which it is ruled and governed.

13. A Door and a Balance for Your Words

Let there be a door for your mouth, that it may be closed where it ought: and let it be bolted more carefully, lest anyone provoke your voice to anger, and you repay insult with insult. You heard read today: Be angry, and sin not. Therefore even if we are angry, since this is an affection of nature, not of will, let us not utter an evil word from our mouth, lest we fall into fault: but let there be a yoke for your words and a balance, that is, humility and measure; that your tongue be subject to your mind. Let it be restrained by the bonds of reins, let it have its own bridles, by which it can be recalled to measure, let it bring forth words weighed in the scale of justice, so that there be gravity in feeling, weight in speech, and measure in words.

If anyone keeps these things, he becomes mild, gentle, modest. For by guarding his mouth, and restraining his tongue, and not speaking before he questions, weighs, and examines his words—whether this ought to be said, whether it ought to be said against this man, whether this is the time for this speech—he certainly practises modesty, and gentleness, and patience; so that he does not burst into speech out of indignation and anger, does not give judgment on any passion in his words, does not show the flame of desire burning in his speech, nor let the stings of anger be present in his sayings, lest speech, which ought at last to commend the inner man, should instead reveal and betray some vice in character.

15. The Adversary's Snare in Our Own Words

For then especially does the adversary lie in wait, when he sees that some passion is being generated in us: then he stirs the kindling, prepares the snares. Whence not without reason, as you heard read today, the Prophet says: For he hath delivered me from the snare of the hunters and from the harsh word. Symmachus said the word of irritation, others of perturbation. Our own speech is the adversary's snare: but it is no less an adversary to us also. We speak very often what the enemy catches up, and as it were wounds us with our own sword. How much more tolerable is it to perish by another's sword than by our own!

16. The Adversary Baiting Us Toward Vengeance

The adversary therefore explores our weapons, and shakes his own darts. If he sees me moved, he inserts his stings, that he may stir up the seedbeds of quarrels. If I let slip an unbecoming word, he draws his snare tight. Sometimes he sets before me, as it were a bait, the possibility of vengeance; so that while I desire to be avenged, I myself thrust into the snare, and tighten the knot of death upon myself. If, then, anyone perceives this adversary to be present, he ought all the more to keep guard over his mouth, lest he give place to the adversary; but not many perceive him.

17. Practicing Silence When Provoked by Others

But that other also must be guarded against, who can be seen, whoever irritates, whoever incites, whoever exasperates, whoever suggests incentives to luxury or lust. Therefore when someone reviles us, provokes us, challenges us to violence, calls us to strife, then let us practise silence, then let us not blush to become mute. For he who provokes us is a sinner, who does injury, and desires us to become like himself.

18. Neither Reviling Wins When Both Are Condemned

Indeed, if you keep silence, if you dissemble, he is wont to say: Why do you keep silence? Speak, if you dare. But you dare not, you are mute, I have made you tongueless. If, then, you keep silence, he chafes the more; he thinks himself victorious, mocked though he thinks you, despised and derided. If you answer, he thinks himself made superior, because he has found an equal. For if you keep silence, it will be said: That man reviled, this one he despised. If you return the insult, it will be said: Both reviled. Both are condemned, neither is absolved. His zeal, then, is to provoke, that I may speak like things, do like things; but it is the part of the just man to dissemble, to say nothing, to hold to the fruit of a good conscience, to commit more to the judgment of good men than to the insolence of the accuser, to be content with the gravity of his own character.

For this is to be silent from good things; because he who is well conscious of himself ought not to be moved by falsehoods: nor to reckon that there is more weight in another's reviling than in his own testimony.

19. The Temptation to Answer Insult with Insult

Thus it comes about that he even guards humility. But if he does not wish to seem more humble, he handles such thoughts, and says within himself: Shall this man, then, despise me, and in my very presence speak such things against me, as though I could not open my mouth against him? Why should I not also say things by which I might grieve him? Shall this man, then, do me injuries, as though I were not a man, as though I could not avenge myself? Shall this man accuse me, as though I could not lay graver charges against him?

20. The Just Man Conquers by Yielding

He who says such things is not gentle and humble, is not without temptation. The tempter harasses him, he himself instils in him such opinions. Very often he employs a man, and the wicked spirit sets him to say these things: but do you keep your footing fixed upon the rock. Even if a slave utters an insult, the just man keeps silence; even if a weak man commits an outrage, the just man keeps silence; even if a poor man brings an accusation, the just man does not answer. These are the weapons of the just man, that by yielding he may conquer. Just as those skilled in throwing the javelin are wont to conquer by yielding, and, fleeing, to wound the pursuer with heavier blows.

21. David's Silence Toward Shimei's Reviling

For what need is there to be moved when we hear reproaches? Why do we not imitate him who says: I was mute, and was humbled, and kept silence from good things? Did David only say this, and not also do it? Nay, he did it too For when Shimei the son of Gera reviled him, David was silent: and although hedged about with armed men, he did not return the reproach, he did not seek revenge, to such a degree that he would not permit the son of Zeruiah to say that he wished to avenge himself upon him. He went therefore as one mute and humbled, he went in silence, nor was he moved, though called a man of blood, he who was conscious of his own gentleness. He was not moved, then, by reproaches, he in whom the consciousness of good works abounded.

22. Despising an Injury Rather Than Grieving Over It

Therefore he who is quickly moved by injury makes himself seem worthy of the insult, while he wishes to be proved unworthy of it. Better therefore is he who despises an injury than he who grieves over it; for he who despises it, as though not feeling it, thus looks down upon it: but he who grieves, as though he had felt it, is tormented.

23. A Psalm's Lessons Inspire a Work on Duties

Nor was it without forethought that, writing to you, my sons, I used the opening of this psalm. This psalm the prophet David gave to holy Jeduthun to be sung; I urge you to hold it fast, delighted as I am by its profound meaning and the force of its sentences. For we observe from those things which we have briefly touched upon, that both the patience of silence, and the fitting occasion for speaking, and, in what follows, the contempt of riches—which are the greatest foundations of the virtues—are taught in this psalm. While I was considering this psalm, therefore, it occurred to my mind to write concerning Duties.

24. Writing for Spiritual Sons, After Cicero's Example

Concerning which matters, even though certain students of philosophy have written—as Panaetius, and his son among the Greeks, Tully among the Latins—it is not foreign to our office that I too should write. And just as Tully wrote for the instruction of his son, so I also write for the forming of you, my sons; for I love you no less, whom I have begotten in the Gospel, than if I had received you by marriage. For nature is not more vehement toward loving than grace is. Indeed we ought to love more those whom we think will be with us forever, than those who will be so only in this present age. Those others are often born degenerate, so as to disgrace their father: but you we have chosen beforehand, that we might love you.

And so those others are loved out of necessity, which is not a sufficiently fit and lasting teacher of perpetual love: you are loved by judgment, whereby a great weight of charity is added to the force of loving, so that you approve those whom you love, and love those whom you have chosen.

25. Zechariah's Priestly Office as Warrant for Duty

Therefore, since the persons are fitting, let us see whether the matter itself is fitting, that is, to write concerning Duties: and whether this name is suited only to the school of the philosophers, or whether it is also found in the divine Scriptures. Beautifully, then, while we read the Gospel today (as though it were exhorting us to write), the Holy Spirit offered us a reading by which we might be confirmed that “Officium” (Duty/Office) can also be spoken of among us. For when Zechariah the priest had become mute in the temple and could not speak: It came to pass, he says, that when the days of his office were fulfilled, he departed to his own house. We read, therefore, that “Officium” can be said by us

26. The Derivation of the Word Officium

Nor does reason itself shrink from this, since we suppose that “officium” is derived from “efficiendo” (from bringing about), as though “efficium”: but for the sake of the elegance of speech, one letter being changed, it is called “officium”; or certainly, that you should do those things which harm (officiant) no one, and profit all.

But we measure nothing at all except what is fitting and honorable, by the standard of the future rather than of the present: and we define nothing as useful except what profits the grace of that eternal life, not what serves the delight of the present. Nor do we reckon any advantages in wealth and abundance of riches: but we consider these to be disadvantages, if they are not cast aside; and we think they are to be reckoned more a burden than a loss when they are given away. 29. Not superfluous, then, is the work of our writing, because we measure “Officium” by a different rule than they measured it. They count the advantages of this age among goods, we count them even among losses; since he who receives good things here, like that rich man, is tormented there: and Lazarus, who endured evils here, finds consolation there.

Then, those who do not read those writers, will read ours if they wish: those who seek not the furniture of words nor the art of speaking, but the simple grace of things.

Was Panaetius earlier, was Aristotle—who himself also disputed concerning Duty—earlier than David? And did Pythagoras himself, who is read to be older than Socrates, following the prophet David, give a law of silence to his followers? But he did so in order that for five years he might restrain his disciples from the use of speech: David, however, did not do so in order to diminish nature’s gift, but in order to teach the guarding of speech when it is uttered. And Pythagoras indeed taught that by not speaking one should learn to speak, David that by speaking we should the better learn to speak. For how is there teaching without practice, or progress without use?

32. He who wishes to acquire skill in warfare exercises himself daily with arms, and, as though stationed in readiness, rehearses the battle beforehand, and, as it were, extends himself against an enemy set before him: and, for skill and strength in throwing the javelin, either tests his own arms, or dodges the blows of adversaries, and goes forth with a watchful gaze. He who studies to steer a ship on the sea with the rudder, or to guide it with oars, first practices on a river. Those who aim at sweetness of singing and excellence of voice, first gradually rouse the voice by singing. And those who, by strength of body and by the lawful contest of wrestling, seek the crown, hardening their limbs by daily practice of the palaestra, nourishing patience, accustom themselves to toil.

33. Practice as Nature's Teacher of Right Speech

Nature herself teaches us this in little children, that they first practice the sounds of speaking, in order that they may learn to speak. Thus sound is a kind of exercise and training-ground of the voice. So then, let those also who wish to learn caution in speaking not deny what belongs to nature, and let them practice what belongs to watchfulness; so that those who are on the watchtower may attend to watching, not to sleeping. For every faculty is increased by its own proper and familiar exercises.

34. David's Silence Toward the Provoking Sinner

Therefore David was not always silent, but according to the occasion: not continually, nor to everyone; but to a provoking adversary, to a challenging sinner he did not respond. And, as he says elsewhere, when they spoke vanity and devised deceit, he did not hear as though deaf, and as though mute he did not open his mouth to them; because elsewhere too you have: Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you become like him.

35. Moderation in Speech as the First Duty

The first duty, then, is moderation in speaking. By this a sacrifice of praise is paid to God, by this reverence is shown when the divine Scriptures are read, by this parents are honored. I know that most people speak when they do not know how to be silent. Rare is it for anyone to be silent when speaking would not profit him. The wise man, before he speaks, considers many things beforehand: what he should say, or to whom he should say it, in what place, and at what time. There is, then, a measure both of silence and of speech: there is also a measure of action. It is a beautiful thing, therefore, to hold to the measure of duty.

36. Keeping the Commandments as Intermediate Duty

Every duty, moreover, is either intermediate or perfect, which we can equally prove by the authority of the Scriptures. For we have it in the Gospel that the Lord said: If you wish to come into eternal life, keep the commandments. He said this? Which ones? And Jesus said to him: You shall not commit murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness: honor your father and mother; and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself These are intermediate duties, from which something is lacking.

37. Selling All Goods to Attain Perfection

Finally the young man says to him: All these I have kept from my youth, what do I still lack? Jesus said to him: If you wish to be perfect, go, sell all your goods, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me. And above it is written thus, where he says that enemies are to be loved, and prayer is to be made for those who slander and persecute us, and that those who curse are to be blessed; this we ought to do, if we wish to be perfect, as our Father who is in heaven is perfect, who bids His sun pour forth its rays upon the good and the evil, and by rain and dew makes fat the lands of all without any distinction. This, then, is the perfect duty, which the Greeks called κατόρθωμα, by which all things are set right, which might have suffered some fall.

38. Imitating the Father Through Mercy to the Poor

Good too is mercy, which itself also makes men perfect, because it imitates the perfect Father. Nothing so commends the Christian soul as mercy. First toward the poor, that you may consider them common partakers of the offspring of nature, which brings forth for the use of all the fruits of the earth; that what you have, you may bestow upon the poor man, and help your fellow and equal in kind. You bestow a coin, he has received life: you give money, he reckons it as his substance. Your penny is his estate.

39. Clothing the Naked and Sheltering the Stranger

Beyond this it confers more upon you than upon him, since he becomes a debtor for salvation. If you clothe the naked, you clothe yourself with righteousness. If you bring a stranger under your roof, if you take up the needy: he acquires for you the friendships of the saints and eternal dwellings. This is no small grace. You sow bodily things, and you receive spiritual things. Do you marvel at the Lord's judgment concerning holy Job? Marvel rather at his virtue, he who could say: I was the eye of the blind, the foot of the lame. I was the father of the weak, the shoulders of my lambs were warmed with their fleeces. No stranger dwelt outside: my door was open to every comer. Truly blessed is he from whose house the poor man never went forth with an empty bosom; nor is anyone more blessed than he who understands the need of the poor and the affliction of the weak and destitute.

On the day of judgment he will have salvation from the Lord, whom he will hold as debtor of His own mercy.

40. Objections to God's Care for Human Deeds

But many are called back from the duty of dispensing mercy, while they suppose that the Lord does not care for the deeds of men, or does not know what we do in secret, what our conscience holds; or that His judgment does not seem just at all, since they see sinners abounding in riches, rejoicing in honors, health, children: while, on the contrary, the just live in poverty, without honor, without children, weak in body, in frequent mourning.

41. Job's Friends Judge Him by His Suffering

Nor is this a small question, since those three friend-kings of Job, for this reason, pronounced him a sinner, because they saw him made needy from being rich, bereft of children though once a fruitful parent, covered with sores and bristling with welts, furrowed with wounds from head to foot To whom holy Job puts forth this assertion: If I suffer these things for my sins, why do the wicked live? They have grown old, moreover, and are in riches; their seed according to their desire, their children before their eyes, their houses abound, and there is no fear: nor is the scourge of the Lord upon them.

42. The Complaint of Those Who Serve God in Vain

Seeing these things, the weak in heart is troubled, and turns away his zeal. Whose words holy Job, about to speak, prefaced thus, saying: Bear with me, and I will speak, then laugh at me. For even if I am accused, I am accused as a man. Bear, therefore, the burden of my words. For I am about to say what I do not approve: but I bring forth against you unjust words for the sake of refuting you. Or certainly it is thus rendered: What then? Am I accused by man? That is, man cannot refute me because I have sinned, and if I am accused, I am worthy; because you do not accuse me from evident fault, but you judge the merits of my sins from injuries. Seeing, then, the weak one that the unjust abound in prosperous successes, while he himself is otherwise, says to the Lord: Depart from me, I do not wish to know your ways. What profit is it that we have served Him? Or what use, that we have gone to meet Him?

In their hands are all good things, but He does not see the works of the wicked.

43. Plato and Cicero on Feigned Arguments Against Justice

It is praised in Plato, that in his Republic he set the one who had undertaken the part of disputing against justice, to ask pardon for the words he did not himself approve, and to say that this persona had been imposed upon him for the sake of discovering the truth and examining the disputation. Which Tully approved so far, that in the books which he wrote On the Republic, he thought this same view ought to be stated.

44. Job's Resolution: God Judges by Conscience, Not Wealth

Since Job, older than these men, who first discovered these things, judged that they should be set forth not for the sake of adorning eloquence, but for the sake of proving the truth? And straightway he himself resolved the question, adding that the lamp of the wicked shall be put out, and their overthrow shall come: that God, the teacher of wisdom and discipline, is not deceived, but is the judge of truth: and that therefore the blessedness of each is not to be measured according to outward abundance, but according to inward conscience, which discerns the merits of the innocent and the wicked, a true and incorrupt arbiter of punishments and rewards. The innocent man dies in the possession of his simplicity, in the abundance of his own will, bearing a soul filled as it were with fatness.

But the sinner, though outwardly he abounds, flows over with delights, and is fragrant with perfumes, spends his life in the bitterness of his soul, and closes his last day, bringing back with him nothing good of the things in which he had feasted: bringing nothing with him except the wages of his crimes.

45. The Divine Recompense in Each Man's Conscience

Considering these things, deny, if you can, that there is a recompense of divine judgment. That man is happy in his own feeling, this one wretched: that man is acquitted in his own judgment, this one guilty: that man joyful in his departure, this one mourning. How can he be acquitted, who is not even innocent to himself? Tell me, he says, where is the shelter of his tabernacles? His sign will not be found. For the life of the wicked man is like a dream. He opened his eyes, his rest passed away, his delight vanished: although even that rest of the impious which is seen, while they yet live, is in hell: for living men descend into hell.

46. The Sinner's Feast Conceals an Ulcerated Conscience

You see the feast of the sinner; question his conscience. Does it not reek worse than all sepulchers? You behold his gladness, and marvel at the soundness of his body, at the number of his children and the abundance of his wealth: look within at the ulcers and bruises of his soul, and the sorrow of his heart. For what shall I say of his riches, when you have read: For his life does not consist in abundance: when you know that, even though he seems rich to you, he is poor to himself, and that your judgment is refuted by his own? What too shall I say of the multitude of his children, and of his freedom from grief; when he himself mourns, and judges that he will be without an heir, since he does not wish his own imitators to be his successors? For there is no inheritance for the sinner.

Therefore the wicked man is himself his own punishment: but the just man is himself his own grace; and to each the reward of good or evil deeds is paid out of himself.

Having gone through this, I think it easy to refute the rest. And first, the assertion of those who think that God has no care at all for the world, as Aristotle asserts that his providence descends only as far as the moon. And what workman neglects the care of his own work? Who abandons and forsakes what he himself thought worthy of making? If it is an injury to govern, is it not a greater injury to have made; since to have not made something is no injustice, but not to care for what you have made is the height of unkindness?

49. God's Power Penetrates the Human Mind

But if they either deny God as their creator, or reckon themselves to be counted among the number of wild beasts and brutes: what shall we say of those who condemn themselves by this injustice? They themselves assert that God goes through all things, and that all things consist in his power, that his might and majesty penetrate through all the elements, the lands, the sky, the seas: and yet do they think it an injury to him if he should penetrate the mind of man, than which he himself gave us nothing more excellent, and if the knowledge of the divine majesty should enter it?

50. Against Aristotle's Confined God

But do the philosophers themselves, who think themselves sober, not mock the master of these men as though he were drunk, and a patron of pleasure? For what shall I say of the opinion of Aristotle, who thinks that God is content with his own boundaries, and lives within the prescribed measure of his realm, just as the fables of the poets tell, who report that the world is divided among three, so that to one fell by lot the sky, to another the sea, to another the underworld to be governed by his rule; and that they take care lest, by usurping concern for another's portion, they stir up war among themselves? Likewise, then, he asserts that God has no care of the earth, just as he has none of the sea or of the underworld. And how do they themselves exclude the very poets whom they follow?

Though it be a creature, yet penetrates all things either by light or by heat.

51. The Maker Who Sees and Hears All

There follows that answer, whether, if God's care has not passed by his work, his knowledge passes it by. Does he then, who planted the ear, not hear? Who fashioned the eye, does he not see, does he not consider?

52. David's Rebuke of Those Who Deny God Sees

This vain opinion did not escape the holy prophets. Accordingly David introduces them speaking, whom he asserts to be puffed up with pride. For what is so proud as that they themselves, though they are under sin, should take it ill that other sinners live, saying: How long shall sinners, O Lord, how long shall sinners glory? And further on: And they have said, The Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob understand. To whom the Prophet answers, saying: Understand now, you foolish among the people; and, you fools, be wise at last. He who planted the ear, does he not hear? And he who formed the eye, does he not consider? He who chastises the nations, does he not rebuke, he who teaches man knowledge? The Lord knows the thoughts of men, that they are vain. Does he who detects whatever things are vain, not know the things that are holy, and is ignorant of what he himself made? Can a craftsman be ignorant of his own work?

Man detects hidden things in his own work; and does God not know his own work? Is the depth then more profound in the work than in its author? And has he made something that was above himself, of which the maker would be ignorant of its merit, of which the judge would not know its disposition? These things to them.

53. God and Christ Who Know the Heart's Thoughts

But for us it is enough to have his own testimony, who says: I am he who searches hearts and reins. And in the Gospel the Lord Jesus says: Why do you think evil in your hearts? For he knew what they were thinking that was evil. Accordingly the evangelist testifies, saying: For Jesus knew their thoughts.

54. The Sinner's Vain Hope to Hide from God

Their opinion cannot but be sufficiently moved, if we consider their deeds. They do not wish there to be over them a judge whom nothing deceives: they do not wish to grant knowledge of eyes to him, since they fear their hidden things being betrayed. But the Lord, knowing their works, has also delivered them into darkness. In the night, it says, shall the thief come. And the eye of the adulterer will watch for the darkness, saying: No eye shall see me: and he has set a covering upon his face. For everyone who flees the light loves darkness, striving to hide, though he cannot hide from God, who within the depths of the abyss, and within the minds of men, knows not only what has been done, but even what is about to be turned over in thought. Accordingly also he who says in Ecclesiasticus: Who sees me? And darkness covers me, and the walls, whom do I fear? Although he thinks these things lying upon his bed, is caught where he did not expect.

And it shall be, he says, a disgrace, because he did not understand the fear of God.

55. The Sun's Heat Reaching Hidden Places

What indeed is so foolish as to think that anything escapes God: when the sun, which is the minister of light, penetrates even hidden things, and the force of its heat breaks into the foundations of a house or into secret chambers? Who would deny that the interior of the earth, which winter's ice has bound fast, grows warm again with the spring's mild temperature? They know, then, the hidden power of heat or cold in trees, so much so that the roots of trees are either scorched by cold, or grow green by the warmth of the sun. Accordingly, where the mildness of the sky has smiled upon it, the earth pours itself forth into various fruits.

56. The Sun as Image of God's Knowledge of the Heart

If then the ray of the sun pours its light over all the earth, and inserts itself into things that are closed, and is not hindered by iron bars or the bolts of heavy doors from penetrating; how can it be that the intelligible splendor of God cannot insert itself into the thoughts of men and into hearts which he himself created: but rather he does not see the things which he himself made, and has made them so that the things made are better and more powerful than he who made them, so that they can, whenever they wish, hide the knowledge of their maker from him? Has he then instilled such great virtue and power into our minds, that when he wishes to comprehend it, he himself cannot?

55. The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus

We have finished two points, and, as I think, this discussion has fallen to us not incongruously. A third kind of question remains of this sort: why do sinners abound in wealth and riches, feast continually, without grief, without mourning; while the just are in want, and are afflicted either by the loss of spouses, or of children? To whom that parable of the Gospel ought to be satisfaction, that the rich man was clothed in fine linen and purple, and displayed abundant feasts daily; but the poor man, full of sores, gathered up the leavings from his table. But after the death of each, the poor man was resting in the bosom of Abraham, the rich man was in torments. Is it not evident that after death either the rewards or the punishments of merits remain?

58. Paul's Race Not Yet Finished

And rightly so, because in the contest there is toil, and after the contest, for some there is victory, for others disgrace. Is the palm given to anyone, or the crown conferred, before the race is finished? Rightly Paul says: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith: as for what remains, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the just judge, will render to me on that day: and not only to me, but also to those who love his coming. On that day, he says, he will render it, not here. But here, in labors, in perils, in shipwrecks, he strove like a good athlete; because he knew that we must enter the kingdom of God through many tribulations. Therefore no one can receive the prize unless he has striven lawfully: nor is victory glorious, except where the contests have been laborious.

Lest they clash; and it is added that temporal goods are granted to them for this reason, lest any excuse be left.

59. The Beatitudes Promise Reward in Heaven

Is he not unjust who gives the prize before the contest has been completed? And so the Lord says in the Gospel: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. He did not say: Blessed are the rich, but the poor. From there begins blessedness, by divine judgment, where human hardship is reckoned. Blessed are they who hunger, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall have consolation. Blessed are the merciful, for God will have mercy on them. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice's sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you, when they curse you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you, for the sake of justice. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, because your reward is abundant in heaven He promised the reward to be rendered in the future, not the present: in heaven, not on earth. Why do you demand elsewhere what is owed elsewhere?

Why do you demand the crown too hastily, before you have conquered? Why do you wish to wipe away the dust? Why do you desire to rest? Why do you long to feast, before the stadium is over? The people are still watching, the athletes are still on the sand, and you already seek rest.

60. Why the Wicked Are Spared Life's Contest

But perhaps you may say: Why do the wicked rejoice? Why do they live in luxury? Why do they not also labor with me? Because those who have not signed up for the crown are not bound to the labor of the contest; those who have not gone down into the stadium do not anoint themselves with oil, do not smear themselves with dust. Those whom glory awaits, disgrace awaits others. Those anointed with unguents are wont to watch, not to fight; not to endure the sun, the heat, the dust, the rains. Let then the athletes say to them: Come, labor with us. But the spectators will answer: We meanwhile judge you from here: but you, without us, if you conquer, will claim the glory of the crown.

61. Job on the Wicked Watching in the Tomb

These men, then, who have set their zeal upon delights, upon luxury, plunder, gains, honors, are spectators rather than combatants. They have the gain of labor, but they do not have the fruit of virtue. They cherish idleness, they heap up piles of riches by cunning and wickedness; but they will pay, though late, the penalty of their wickedness. Their rest is in the underworld, yours in heaven; their house is in the tomb, yours in paradise. Whence Job beautifully said that they keep watch in the tomb; because they cannot have the sleep of rest which he slept who rose again.

62. Awaiting Full Knowledge of God's Justice

Do not, then, be wise as a child, speak as a child, think as a child, claim as a child those things which belong to a later age. The crown belongs to the perfect. Wait for that which is perfect to come, when you will be able to recognize, not through a likeness in an enigma, but face to face, the very form of unveiled truth. Then it will be revealed for what reason that rich man, who was wicked and a plunderer of another's goods, was rich; for what reason another was powerful; for what reason one abounded in children, another was propped up by honors.

63. God's Reproach to the Rich, Powerful, and Blessed

Perhaps it will be said to the plunderer: You were rich, for what reason did you seize the goods of others? Poverty did not compel you, want did not force you. Did I not make you rich for this very reason, that you might not be able to have an excuse? Let it also be said to the powerful man: Why did you not assist the widow, and the orphans also suffering injury? Were you perhaps weak? Were you not able to help? I made you powerful for this reason, that you should not inflict violence, but repel it. Was it not written for you: Rescue him who suffers injury? Was it not written for you: Deliver the poor and needy out of the hand of the sinner? Let it also be said to the one who abounded: I heaped upon you children and honors, I granted you soundness of body; why did you not follow my precepts? My servant, what have I done to you, or in what have I grieved you?

Did I not then give you children, confer honors upon you, grant you health; why did you deny me? Why did you think that what you were doing did not come to my knowledge; why did you hold my gifts, and despise my commandments?

64. Judas and the Money Bag

Finally, this may be gathered concerning Judas the traitor, who was both chosen as an apostle among the twelve, and had committed to him the bags of money which he was to distribute to the poor, lest he should seem to have betrayed the Lord either as one dishonored or as one in need. And so, that the Lord might be justified in him, he conferred these things upon him; that he might not seem to have been exasperated by injury, but rather, having betrayed grace, be liable to a greater offense.

65. Modesty as an Ornament of Youth

Since therefore it has become sufficiently clear that both punishment awaits wickedness, and reward awaits virtue, let us proceed to speak of Duties; which are to be observed by us from our youth, so that they may increase together with our age. It belongs, therefore, to good young men to have the fear of God, to be dutiful toward parents, to show honor to their elders, to guard chastity, not to disdain humility, to love clemency and modesty, which are an ornament to youth. For as gravity becomes the old, and cheerfulness the young; so modesty is commended in the young, as it were, as a certain dowry of nature.

66. Isaac, Joseph, and Moses as Examples of Modesty

Isaac feared the Lord, as befitted the character of Abraham, being so dutiful to his father that he did not refuse even death against the father's will. Joseph too, though he had dreamed that the sun and moon and stars worshipped him, nevertheless showed to his father careful obedience; chaste to such a degree that he would not even listen to a word unless it were modest; humble even to servitude, modest even to flight, patient even to prison, so forgiving of injury as even to reward it. His modesty was so great that, seized by the woman, fleeing he preferred to leave his garment in her hands rather than lay aside his modesty. Moses too, and Jeremiah, chosen by the Lord to proclaim the oracles of God to the people, excused through modesty what they were able to do through grace.

67. Modesty Governs Speech and Song

Beautiful, then, is the virtue of modesty, and sweet its grace, which is seen not only in deeds but also in speech itself; let you not go beyond the measure of speaking, let your speech not echo anything unbecoming. For the mirror of the mind generally shines forth in words. Modesty regulates the very sound of the voice, lest too strong a voice offend someone's ear. Indeed, in the very manner of singing, the first discipline is modesty: nay, even in every use of speech; so that one may begin gradually either to sing psalms, or to sing, or finally to speak; so that modest beginnings may commend what follows.

68. Susanna's Silence and the Modesty of the Eyes

Silence itself also, in which there is a rest from the other virtues, is a very great act of modesty. Indeed, if it is thought to arise from either dullness or pride, it is counted a reproach: if from modesty, it is accounted praise. Susanna kept silent in her dangers, and thought the loss of modesty a graver matter than the loss of life, nor did she think that safety was to be preserved at the peril of chastity. She spoke to God alone, to whom chaste modesty could speak; she avoided looking upon the faces of men; for there is modesty even in the eyes, so that a woman would neither wish to see men nor to be seen by them.

69. Mary's Modesty at the Angel's Greeting

Nor indeed should anyone think this praise belongs to chastity alone. For modesty is the companion of purity, by whose fellowship chastity itself is made safer. For a good sense of shame is the guardian companion of chastity: which, if it presents itself against those things which are the first dangers, will not allow purity to be violated. This is the first thing that, at the very entrance of our knowledge of her, commends the Mother of the Lord to readers, and, as a trustworthy witness, establishes her as worthy to be chosen for such an office: in that she was silent in her chamber, alone, greeted by the angel, and was troubled at his entrance, in that the appearance of a strange man of the male sex disturbed the gaze of the Virgin.

Thus, although she was humble, yet from modesty she did not return the greeting to him who greeted her, nor did she give any answer, except when she learned about the conceiving of the Lord's generation; so that she might learn the nature of what would be effected, not merely to give a reply.

70. The Publican's Modesty in Prayer

In our very prayer, modesty pleases greatly, and gains much favor before our God. Did it not prefer the publican, and commend him who did not even dare to lift his eyes to heaven? Therefore he is justified more by the Lord's judgment than that Pharisee, whom presumption disfigured. And therefore let us pray in incorruption with a quiet and modest spirit, which is rich before God, as Peter says. Great, then, is modesty, which, since it is also more yielding of its own right, claiming nothing for itself, vindicating nothing, and, as it were, more contracted within its own powers, is rich before God, with whom no one is rich. Modesty is rich, because it is God's portion. Paul also commanded that prayer be offered with modesty and sobriety.

He wishes this to be first, and as it were a preface to the prayer that is to follow, so that the sinner's prayer may not boast: but drawn away, so to speak, by the hue of shame, the more it yields to modesty from remembrance of sin, the more abundant grace it may deserve.

71. Gait as a Voice of the Soul

Modesty must also be preserved in movement itself, in gesture, in gait. For the disposition of the mind is discerned in the posture of the body. Hence the hidden man of our heart is judged either as too light, or too boastful, or too turbulent; or, on the contrary, as more grave, and more constant, and more pure, and more mature. Thus, the motion of the body is a certain voice of the soul.

72. Two Clerics Whose Gait Betrayed Them

You remember, my sons, a certain friend, who, though he seemed to commend himself by diligent services, was for this reason alone not received by me into the clergy, that his gait was very unbecoming: also another, whom, when I had found him already in the clergy, I ordered never to walk before me; because with a kind of blow, as it were, from his insolent gait, he struck my eyes. And I said this when, after his offense, he was restored to his office. This alone I excepted, and my judgment did not deceive me; for both departed from the Church, so that just as they were shown by their gait, so their treachery of soul might be demonstrated. For the one, in the time of the Arian persecution, deserted the faith; the other, out of love of money, so as not to undergo the judgment of a priest, denied that he was ours. There shone in their walk the image of levity, a certain likeness of buffoons running about.

73. Walking Like Actors and Nodding Statues

There are also those who, by walking gradually, imitate the gestures of actors, and, as it were, certain dishes carried in a procession, and the movements of nodding statues, so that whenever they shift their step, they seem to be keeping a certain rhythm.

74. Against Walking Too Hurriedly

Nor do I think it honorable to walk hurriedly, except when some danger or just necessity requires it. For we often see those who hurry, panting, twist their faces; and if there is no cause of necessary haste for them, it is a blemish deserving of just offense. But I do not speak of those in whom rare haste arises from some cause: but of those in whom it becomes continual and habitual, turning into nature. Neither in the former do I approve, as it were, the likeness of statues, nor in the latter, as it were, the tumbling of the overthrown.

75. The Marks of a Becoming Gait

There is also a commendable gait, in which there is a semblance of authority, and the weight of gravity, and the trace of tranquility; provided, however, that there be no studied effort or affectation, but that the motion be pure and simple; for nothing feigned pleases. Let nature form the movement. But if there is indeed some fault in nature, let diligence correct it; so that though art may be lacking, correction may not be lacking.

76. Guarding the Mouth Against Base Speech

But if even these things are looked at more deeply, how much more must we take care that nothing base come forth from the mouth; for this gravely defiles a man. For it is not food that defiles, but unjust detraction, but obscenity of words. These things are shameful even in common estimation. But in our office, no word which falls indecently ought not to strike us with a sense of shame. And we ought not only ourselves to say nothing unseemly, but not even to lend our ear to such words: just as Joseph, so as not to hear anything unbefitting his modesty, fled leaving his garment behind; since he who delights to hear provokes another to speak.

77. Nature's Design of the Body's Hidden Parts

To understand what is base is also a matter of the greatest shame. But to behold such a thing, should it happen by chance, how great a horror it is! What, therefore, displeases in others, can it possibly please in oneself? Does not nature herself teach us this? She indeed has fully unfolded all the parts of our body; so as to provide both for necessity, and to add grace with beauty. But nevertheless those parts which would be comely to look upon, in which the summit of beauty, as it were, placed in a kind of citadel, and the sweetness of form, and the comeliness of countenance would stand out, and the use of which for working would be more ready, she left exposed and open: but those in which there was a natural obedience to necessity, lest they should present an unseemly spectacle of themselves, she partly banished and hid, as it were, within the body itself, and partly taught and persuaded us to cover.

78. Noah's Ark and the Body's Hidden Members

Is not, therefore, nature herself the mistress of modesty? By whose example the modesty of men (which I think is called from the "measure" of knowing what is fitting) has covered and clothed what it found hidden in this structure of our body; just as that door which was commanded to be made crosswise in that ark of Noah the just is spoken of; in which is figured either the Church, or our body: through which door the remains of food were removed. Therefore the Maker of nature took such care for our modesty, and so guarded that decency and honor in our body, that he set the channels and outlets of our hidden passages behind, and turned them away from our sight, lest the purging of the belly should offend the sight of the eyes.

Of which the Apostle beautifully says: "Those members of the body," he says, "which seem to be more feeble, are more necessary: and those which we think to be less honorable members of the body, upon these we bestow more abundant honor: and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness." For indeed by imitation of nature, diligence has increased grace. Which in another place we have also interpreted more deeply, that we should not only hide these things from the eyes, but also should think it unbecoming even to call by their proper names the signs and uses of the members which we have received as things to be hidden.

79. Ham's Mockery and the Custom Against Common Bathing

Finally, if these parts are exposed by chance, one is confounded with shame: if by design, it is accounted impudence. Hence also the son of Noah, Ham, incurred offense, because, seeing his father naked, he laughed: but those who covered their father received the grace of blessing. From this arose the old custom, both in the city of Rome and in many cities, that grown sons should not bathe with their parents, nor sons-in-law with their fathers-in-law, lest the authority of paternal reverence be diminished: although many cover themselves as much as they can even in the bath, lest, even where the whole body is bare, such a portion be left uncovered.

80. The Priestly Linen Breeches of Exodus

Priests also, according to the ancient custom, as we read in Exodus, received breeches, as it was said to Moses by the Lord: "And thou shalt make for them linen breeches, that the shame of nakedness may be covered. They shall reach from the loins to the thighs; and Aaron and his sons shall have them, when they enter into the tabernacle of the Testimony, and when they draw near to minister at the altar of the Sanctuary, and they shall not bring sin upon themselves, lest they die."

This some of our own are said still to observe: many think it was said, according to a spiritual interpretation, for the safeguarding of modesty and the guarding of chastity.

81. Modesty Fitting Every Age, Especially Youth

It has pleased me to dwell somewhat longer on the aspects of modesty; because I was speaking to you, who either recognize its benefits from your own experience, or are unacquainted with its losses. And though it is fitting for every age, person, time, and place, yet it especially becomes youthful and young years.

82. Preserving Order and Consistency in Conduct

But at every age it must be observed that what you do be becoming and fitting, and that the order of your life be consistent with itself. Hence Tully also thinks that order ought to be preserved in that becomingness: and he says this consists in comeliness, order, and adornment fitted to action: which he says is difficult to explain in words, and therefore it is enough that it be understood.

83. Modesty, Grace, and the Manly Voice

But why he placed comeliness among these, I do not fully understand; although he even praises bodily strength. We certainly do not place the seat of virtue in bodily beauty, yet we do not exclude grace; for modesty is wont to suffuse even the countenance itself with a blush, and to render it more graceful. For as a craftsman is wont to work better in more suitable material, so modesty stands out more even in the very comeliness of the body; yet so that this very comeliness of body be not affected: but natural, simple, more neglected than sought after, aided not by costly and glistening garments but by ordinary ones; so that nothing be lacking to honor or necessity, nothing added to display. 84. The voice itself not relaxed, not broken, sounding nothing effeminate, such as many are accustomed to feign under a semblance of gravity, but preserving a certain form and rule and manly vigor. For this is to preserve the beauty of living, to render what befits each sex and person.

This is the best order of conduct, this the adornment fitting to every action. But as I do not approve a soft and broken sound of voice, or gesture of body: so neither do I approve one that is rustic and boorish. Let us imitate nature: her image is the pattern of discipline, the form of honor.

85. The Reefs of Modesty in Company

Modesty certainly has its own reefs, not such as it brings on itself, but such as it often runs into; if we fall into the company of the intemperate, who under the guise of pleasantness pour poison into good men. If such men are constant companions, and especially at banquets, in play and jest, they weaken that manly gravity. Let us therefore take care that, while we wish to relax the mind, we do not dissolve all harmony, as it were a certain concord of good works; for habit quickly bends nature.

86. Declining the Banquets of Strangers

Wherefore I consider it prudent, and especially suited to ecclesiastical conduct and the duties of ministers, to decline the banquets of strangers: whether so that you yourselves may be hospitable to travelers, or so that by this caution there may be no occasion for reproach. For the banquets of strangers involve occupations, and moreover betray a desire for feasting. Tales too creep in frequently about worldly things and pleasures: you cannot close your ears, and to forbid is thought a mark of pride. Cups also steal upon one against one's will. It is better that you excuse yourself once from your own house than frequently from another's; and even though you yourself rise sober, still your presence ought not to be condemned on account of another's excess.

87. Caution in Visiting Widows and Virgins

It is not fitting for younger men to visit the houses of widows and virgins, except for the sake of visitation: and this together with elders, that is, either with the bishop, or, if the matter is more serious, with the presbyters. What need is there for us to give worldly people occasion for detraction? What need is there for those visitations, if frequent, to acquire an air of authority? What if one of those women should perhaps fall? Why should you incur the odium of another's fall? How many strong men has enticement deceived? How many have not given occasion to error, yet have given occasion to suspicion!

88. Preferring Scripture to Idle Visits

Why do you not spend on reading those times when you are free from the Church? Why do you not revisit Christ, speak to Christ, hear Christ? We speak to Him when we pray, we hear Him when we read the divine oracles. What have we to do with other men's houses? There is one house that receives all. Let those rather come to us who seek us. What have we to do with tales? We have received a ministry at the altars of Christ, not a service of attendance owed to men.

89. The Virtues of a Measured Character

It befits us to be humble, gentle, mild, grave, patient, to keep measure in all things; so that no vice in our character be announced either by a silent countenance or by speech.

Similar to disturbances. The saying of Archytas is recorded, and it is shown that David had already preceded him in this matter, both in deeds and in writings.

90. Guarding Against Anger and Indignation

Anger must be guarded against, or, if it cannot be forestalled, it must be restrained; for indignation is an evil enticement to sin, which so disturbs the mind that it leaves no room for reason. The first thing, therefore, is, if it can be done, that by a certain habit, disposition, and purpose of tranquil character it be turned into nature. Then, since this impulse is for the most part so fixed in nature and character that it cannot be uprooted or avoided, if it can be foreseen, let it be restrained by reason. Or if the mind has already been seized by indignation before it could be foreseen and provided against by counsel, meditate on how you may conquer the motion of your soul and temper your anger. Resist anger, if you can; yield, if you cannot; because it is written: “Give place unto wrath”.

91. Jacob's Patience with His Brother

Jacob yielded dutifully to his indignant brother, and, instructed by the counsel of Rebecca, that is, of patience, preferred to be absent and to sojourn abroad rather than provoke his brother's indignation; and to return only when he thought his brother had been appeased. And therefore he found such great grace with God. With what services afterward, with what great gifts did he reconcile his brother to himself, so that the latter did not remember the blessing snatched away, but remembered the satisfaction offered!

92. Holding Your Post Against Anger

Therefore, if anger has anticipated and taken possession of your mind, and has risen up in you, do not abandon your post. Your post is patience, your post is wisdom, your post is reason, your post is the calming of indignation. Or if the obstinacy of someone answering you has moved you, and perversity has driven you to indignation: if you cannot soften your mind, restrain your tongue. For thus it is written: “Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips that they speak no guile. Then seek peace and pursue it”. Consider that peace of holy Jacob, by which you should first calm your soul: if you cannot prevail, put a bridle on your tongue; then do not neglect the effort of reconciliation. These things the orators of the world took over from our writings and set down in their own books; but that meaning has the grace which belongs to him who said it first.

93. The Innocence of Children and Christ's Example

Let us therefore avoid, or temper, anger; lest it be either an exception among praises or an aggravation among vices. It is no small thing to soften anger: it is not less than not being moved at all. This latter is ours to achieve, the former belongs to nature. In fact, the disturbances of children are harmless, and have more of charm than of bitterness. And though children are quickly stirred up against one another, they are easily calmed, and return to one another with greater sweetness. They do not know how to treat one another with cunning and artifice. Do not despise these children, of whom the Lord says: “Unless you be converted, and become as this child, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven”. And so the Lord Himself, that is, the Power of God, like a child, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He was struck, struck not again.

So then conduct yourself, that like a child you may not hold on to injury, may not practice malice: let all things proceed from you in innocence. Do not consider what may return to you from others. Keep your post, guard the simplicity and purity of your heart. Do not answer an angry man with his own anger, nor an imprudent man with imprudence. Fault quickly strikes off fault. If you rub stones together, does not fire burst forth?

94. Archytas, David, and Abigail's Intercession

The Gentiles report—as they are accustomed to exaggerate everything in words—the saying of the philosopher Archytas of Tarentum, which he is said to have spoken to his steward: “O unhappy man, whom I would afflict, were I not angry!” But David had already restrained even his armed right hand in indignation. And how much greater a thing is it not to revile in return, than not to take vengeance? And Abigail's entreaty had called back warriors ready for vengeance against Nabal. Whence we perceive that we ought not only to yield to timely intercessions, but also to take delight in them. Indeed he was so delighted that he blessed the one who intervened, because he had been called back from his eagerness for revenge.

95. Longing for the Wings of a Dove

He had already said of his enemies: “For they have turned aside iniquity upon me, and in anger they were troublesome to me”. Let us hear what he said, disturbed in anger: “Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly away, and be at rest”? Those provoked him to anger; he chose tranquility.

96. Be Angry and Sin Not

He had already said: “Be angry, and sin not”. The moral teacher, who knew that natural affection was to be bent by reason of doctrine rather than to be uprooted, teaches moral lessons; that is: Be angry where there is fault, with which you ought to be angry. For it cannot be that we should not be moved by the unworthiness of things; otherwise it is judged not virtue but sluggishness and remissness. Be angry, then, in such a way that you abstain from fault. Or thus: If you are angry, do not sin, but conquer anger by reason. Or certainly thus: If you are angry, be angry at yourselves, because you have been moved, and you will not sin. For he who is angry at himself, because he has been quickly moved, ceases to be angry at another; but he who wishes to prove his anger just becomes more inflamed, and quickly falls into fault. But better, according to Solomon, is he who restrains anger, than he who takes a city; because anger deceives even the strong.

97. Forestalling Anger by Reflection

We ought therefore to take care that we do not fall into disturbances before reason has composed our minds; for often either anger, or grief, or fear of death, examines the mind, and strikes it with an unforeseen blow. Therefore it is a fine thing to forestall it by reflection, which by turning the matter over should search out the mind: lest it be aroused by sudden disturbances, but rather, bound by a certain yoke and reins of reason, grow mild.

98. The Twin Motions of Thought and Appetite

There are, moreover, twin motions, that is, of thoughts and of appetite: one belonging to thoughts, the other to appetite—not confused, but distinct and unlike. Thoughts have the office of seeking out truth and, as it were, grinding it out; appetite impels and stirs one on to some action. And so, by the very nature of their kind, thoughts pour in the tranquility of calm, and appetite stirs up the motion of acting. Let us, then, be so formed that the thought of good things enters the mind, and that appetite obeys reason (if we truly wish to keep our mind intent on preserving that becomingness), lest the affection for some thing exclude reason; but let reason examine what befits honorableness.

99. Measure and Calm in Speech

And since we have said that the preservation of becomingness has regard to our knowing what measure there is in deeds and words, and since the order of speaking comes before that of doing, speech is divided into two kinds: familiar conversation, and the treatment and discussion of faith and justice. In both, care must be taken that there be no disturbance; but let speech be conducted mildly and calmly, full of goodwill and grace, without any insult. Let there be no stubborn contention in familiar conversation; for questions tend rather to stir up idle disputes than to bring any benefit. Let discussion be without anger, pleasantness without bitterness, admonition without harshness, exhortation without offense. And just as in every act of life we ought to guard against letting excessive emotion exclude reason, but should keep the place of counsel; so also in speech it is fitting that this rule be observed, that neither anger nor hatred be stirred up, nor any signs of our desire or of sloth be expressed.

100. Let our speech, then, be of this kind, especially concerning the Scriptures. For what should we speak of more than the best manner of life, exhortation to observance, the keeping of discipline? Let its beginning have reason and its end measure. For tedious speech provokes anger. How unbecoming it truly is that, whereas every conversation is accustomed to have an increase of grace, it should instead bear the blemish of offense.

101. A treatment also of the doctrine of faith, of the teaching of continence, of the discussion of justice, of the exhortation to diligence, should not always be one and the same, but as the reading has offered itself, we must take it up and, as far as we are able, pursue it: neither too prolonged, nor too quickly broken off, lest it either leave behind weariness, or betray sloth and carelessness. Let the speech be pure, simple, clear, and plain, full of gravity and weight: not with affected elegance, but without ceasing grace.

Secular writers give many further precepts about the manner of speaking, which I judge should be passed over by us, such as the discipline of jesting. For although at times honorable and pleasant jests may occur, yet in the end, in the diligence which pertains especially to the worship and service of God—(as for what he adds, that there ought not to be one single treatment, but that whatever the reading accomplished in the assembly of the Church offers, that should be taken up)—he indeed prescribes that speech be conducted differently when the Scripture treats of continence, and differently when it treats of justice or piety; yet he does not thereby remove meditation or preparation; rather he requires it, since, forbidding speech to be shorter than fitting, he gives this reason: lest it betray sloth and carelessness. But perhaps occasion will arise again to speak on this matter. They are alien to the ecclesiastical rule; for what we do not find in the sacred Scriptures, how can we make use of it?

103. For even in tales one must beware lest they bend the gravity of a more austere purpose. “Woe to you that laugh, for you shall weep”, says the Lord: and do we seek out material for laughter, that laughing here, we may weep there? I judge that not only excessive but all jests whatsoever should be avoided; unless perhaps it is not unbecoming for speech to be full of pleasantness and grace.

104. As for the voice, what shall I say of it, except that I think it enough that it be simple and pure: to be melodious is a matter of nature, not of effort. Let it indeed be marked by a distinct manner of pronunciation, and full of manly vigor: so that it may not affect a theatrical rhythm, but keep a mystical one.

But the first of these is, as it were, the foundation of all, that appetite should obey reason: the second and third are the same thing, that is, moderation in each. For with us there is no place for that outward beauty which is called comeliness, and the consideration of dignity. There follows the order of things, and the fitness of times. And by this there are three things which we must see whether we can teach as consummated in any of the saints.

107. First, the patriarch Abraham himself, who was formed and instructed for the teaching of a future line, being bidden to go out from his land, and from his kindred, and from his father's house: did he not, though restrained by the affection of manifold ties, nevertheless offer an appetite obedient to reason? For whom would not the delight of his own land, of kindred, and of his own house please?

And so indeed the sweetness of his own was soothing to him, but the thought of the heavenly kingdom and of eternal reward moved him more. Did he not consider that his wife, weak for toils, tender to injuries, comely as an incitement to insolence, could not be led without the utmost peril? And yet he judged it more prudent to undergo all things than to excuse himself. Then, when he was going down into Egypt, he warned her to say that she was his sister, not his wife.

108. Observe how great was the appetite. He feared for his wife's modesty, he feared for his own safety, he held the lusts of the Egyptians suspect: and yet reason for carrying out his devotion prevailed with him. For he considered that by God's favor he could be safe everywhere, but with the Lord offended, he could not remain unharmed even at home. Reason, therefore, conquered appetite, and rendered it obedient to itself.

109. When his nephew was captured, he was not terrified nor troubled by the peoples of so many kings, but renewed war; having gained the victory, he refused the part of the spoil of which he himself was the author Also, when a son was promised to him, though he considered the strength of his own body as good as dead, the barrenness of his wife, and his extreme old age, he yet believed God even against the course of nature.

110. Observe how all things agree together. Appetite was not lacking, but it was restrained: a mind equal to the business at hand, which counted neither great things as trifles nor small things as great; moderation in affairs, order of things, fitness of times, measure of words. First in faith, preeminent in justice, vigorous in battle, not covetous in victory, hospitable at home, attentive to his wife.

111. His holy grandson Jacob also would have delighted in dwelling securely at home: but his mother willed that he should go abroad, that room might be given to his brother's wrath. The wholesomeness of counsel conquered appetite. An exile from home, a fugitive from his parents, he yet everywhere kept a fitting measure in his affairs, and reserved opportuneness for the times. Accepted at home by his parents, so that the one, moved by maturity of duty, gave the blessing, and the other inclined toward him with pious love. Preferred also by his brother's own judgment, when he thought his food should be yielded to his brother: he was indeed delighted with sustenance according to nature, but according to piety he yielded to the request. A faithful shepherd to his master's flock, an attentive son-in-law to his father-in-law, unwearied in labor, sparing at the feast, forward in making amends, generous in recompense. Finally he so softened his brother's wrath that he obtained the favor of him whose enmity he feared.

112. What shall I say of Joseph, who indeed had the desire of liberty, and yet took up the necessity of servitude? How submissive in servitude, how constant in virtue, how kind in prison, wise in interpretation, moderate in power, provident in abundance, just in famine, joining order of praise to affairs, and opportuneness to times, dispensing equity to the peoples by the moderation of his office?

113. Job too, alike blameless in prosperous and adverse things, patient, pleasing and acceptable to God, was vexed with pains, but consoled himself.

114. David too, brave in war, patient in adversities, peaceable in Jerusalem, gentle in victory, grieving in sin, provident in old age, kept the measures of things, the changes of times, through the tones proper to each age; so that he seems to me, no less by his manner of living than by the sweetness of his singing, most sweetly to have poured forth to God an immortal song of his own merit.

115. What duty of the principal virtues was lacking in these men?

Of these they set in the first place prudence, which is occupied in the investigation of truth, and instills a desire for fuller knowledge; second, justice, which renders to each his own, does not claim what belongs to another, neglects its own advantage in order to preserve common equity: third, fortitude, which stands out both in warlike matters by greatness of a lofty spirit, and at home, and excels in bodily strength: fourth, temperance, which preserves the measure and order of all things which we think ought to be done or said.

Perhaps someone might say that these things ought to have been set in the first place, since the kinds of duties are born from these four virtues. But this belongs to art, that duty should first be defined, and afterward be divided into certain kinds. But we flee from art, we propose the examples of our forefathers: which bring neither obscurity to understanding, nor subtlety to treating. Let, then, the life of our forefathers be to us a mirror of discipline, not a treatise of cleverness: a reverence for imitation, not a cunning for disputation.

117. In holy Abraham, then, prudence held the first place, of whom Scripture says: Abraham believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice. For no one is prudent who does not know God. Finally, the fool has said, there is no God; for a wise man would not say so.

For how is he wise who does not seek his own author, who says to a stone: Thou art my father: who says to the devil, as the Manichaean does: Thou art my author? How is the Arian wise, who prefers to have an imperfect and degenerate author, rather than a true and perfect one? How are Marcion and Eunomius wise, who prefer to have God evil rather than good? How is he wise who does not fear his God? For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And elsewhere you have: The wise do not turn aside from the mouth of the Lord, but deal in their confessions. And at the same time, Scripture saying: It was reputed to him unto justice, it conferred on him the grace of another virtue.

118. Our first forefathers, then, defined prudence as consisting in the knowledge of truth. For who among them was before Abraham, David, Solomon? Then, that justice looks to the fellowship of the human race.

So David says: He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor, his justice remaineth for ever. The just man showeth mercy, and lendeth. For the wise and just man the whole world is a wealth of riches. The just man holds common things as his own, and his own as common. The just man accuses himself before he accuses others. For he is just who neither spares himself, nor suffers his hidden things to lie concealed. See how just Abraham was. In his old age he had received a son through the promise, and when the Lord demanded him back for sacrifice, though he was his only son, he did not think he should be refused.

119. Observe here all four virtues in one deed. It was of wisdom, to believe God, and not to prefer the grace of a son to the precept of his Author: it was of justice, to render back what he had received: it was of fortitude, to restrain appetite by reason.

The father was leading the victim, the son was asking questions, paternal affection was being tempted, but it was not conquered. The son repeated the paternal appellation, it pierced the father's heart, but it did not lessen his devotion. There is added also a fourth virtue, temperance. The just man kept both the measure of piety and the order of execution. Finally, while he carries the things necessary for sacrifice, while he kindles the fire, while he binds his son, while he draws the sword, by this order of sacrificing he earned that he should keep his son.

120. What was wiser than holy Jacob, who saw God face to face, and merited the blessing? What more just, than he who divided with his brother, by offering gifts, the things he had acquired? What more brave, than he who wrestled with God?

What more temperate than he, who so showed regard for modesty both in places and in times, that he preferred to cover over the injury done to his daughter with a marriage, rather than to avenge it: because, being set among strangers, he judged that regard should rather be had to love, than that hatreds should be gathered?

121. How wise was Noah, who built so great an ark! How just, who, being preserved for the seed of all, alone of all men both survived the past generation and became the author of the future, born rather for the world and for all, than for himself! How brave, that he might overcome the flood! How temperate, that he might endure the flood! When he should enter, with what moderation he should live, when he should send out the raven, when the dove, when he should receive them returning, when he should seize the opportunity of going out, that he should recognize it?

And so they treat, in the investigation of truth, that comeliness must be held, that with the utmost zeal we should seek out what is true, not take false things for true, not involve true things in obscurities, not occupy the mind with superfluous or entangled and ambiguous things. What is so unbecoming as to venerate wood, which they themselves make? What is so obscure as to treat of astronomy and geometry, which they approve: and to measure the spaces of the deep air, and to enclose heaven and sea in numbers: to abandon the causes of salvation, to seek out errors.

123. But that Moses, learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, did not approve these things: rather he judged that wisdom to be loss and folly, and, turned away from it, sought God with his inmost affection: and therefore he saw, he questioned, he heard him speaking.

Who is wiser than he whom God taught, who by the power of his own work brought to nothing all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and all the powers of their arts? He did not hold unknown things as known, and rashly assent to them: which two things they should learn especially to avoid in this most natural and honorable place, who judge it neither contrary to nature nor shameful to worship stones, and to seek help from images, which perceive nothing.

124. As, then, wisdom is a loftier virtue, so much the more, I think, must we strive that we may be able to attain it. And so, that we may perceive nothing contrary to nature, nothing base and unbecoming, we ought to devote these two things, that is, both time and diligence, to the examination and consideration of matters.

For there is nothing by which man excels the other animals more, than that he is a partaker of reason, seeks out the causes of things, thinks that the author of his kind must be sought out, in whose power is the power of our life and death, who rules this world by his nod, to whom we know that account must be rendered of our deeds. For there is nothing which contributes more to an honorable life, than that we believe he will be our future judge, whom hidden things do not deceive, and whom unbecoming things offend, and honorable things delight.

125. In all men, then, according to human nature, there is implanted the investigation of truth, which draws us to the pursuit of knowledge and understanding, and instills the desire of inquiring.

In which to excel all seems noble, but it is given to few to attain it: who by turning over thoughts, by examining counsels, expend no small labor; that they may be able to arrive at that blessed and honorable life, and to draw near to works. For not he who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the things which I say. For studies of knowledge without deeds, I know not whether they do not rather entangle further.

The first fount of duty, then, is prudence. For what is so full of duty, as to render zeal and reverence to one's Author? This fount, moreover, flows also into the other virtues; for justice cannot exist without prudence, since to examine what is just or unjust is not the work of mediocre prudence; the greatest error lies in both. For he who judges the just to be unjust, and the unjust to be just, is execrable before God. Of what use are riches of justice to the imprudent? Says Solomon. Nor again is prudence without justice; for piety toward God is the beginning of understanding. Whence we observe that saying, translated rather than invented by the wise men of this age; because piety is the foundation of all virtues.

127. Of justice, moreover, the first piety is toward God, the second toward our country, the third toward our parents, likewise toward all: which itself also is according to the teaching of nature.

For indeed from earliest age, as soon as feeling first begins to be instilled, we love life as a gift of God, we cherish our country and our parents, then our equals with whom we desire to be joined. Hence charity is born, which prefers others to itself, not seeking the things that are its own, in which lies the primacy of justice.

128. In all living creatures too there is born, first, to guard their safety, to avoid what harms, to seek what benefits, such as food, such as shelters by which they may defend themselves from danger, from rains, from the sun, which is of prudence. There follows also that all kinds of living creatures are by nature gregarious: first with the partners of their own kind and form, then also with the rest; as we see cattle delight in herds, horses in flocks, and especially like delighting in like: stags also join with stags, and often with men.

Now what shall I say of the desire of procreating and of offspring, or even of the love of parents, in which is the especial form of justice?

129. It is clear, then, that these and the remaining virtues are akin to one another. For fortitude, which either in war protects the fatherland from barbarians, or at home defends the weak, or protects allies from robbers, is full of justice; and to know by what counsel one should defend and assist, and also to seize opportunities of times and places, belongs to prudence and moderation; and temperance itself without prudence cannot know its measure; to recognize opportunity, and to render according to measure, belongs to justice; and in all these things magnanimity is necessary, and a certain fortitude of mind, and often of body too, so that a man may be able to accomplish what he wills.

Justice, therefore, is referred to the society of the human race, and to the common good. For the principle of society is divided into two parts, justice and beneficence, which they also call liberality and kindness: justice seems to me more exalted, liberality more pleasing; the former holds censure, the latter goodness.

131. But the very first duty of justice which the philosophers suppose is, among us, excluded. For they say that this is the first form of justice, that one harm no one, unless provoked by injury: which is emptied of force by the authority of the Gospel; for Scripture wills that there be in us the spirit of the Son of man, who came to bestow grace, not to inflict injury.

132. Next they thought this the form of justice, that one should hold common things, that is, public things as public, and private things as one's own. Not even this is according to nature; for nature has poured forth all things for all in common.

For so did God command all things to be brought forth, that pasture might be common to all, and the earth might be a certain common possession of all. Nature, therefore, generated a common right; usurpation made a private right. In this connection they say it was the view of the Stoics that whatever is produced on earth is created for the uses of men; and that men were begotten for the sake of men, that they themselves might be of use to one another among themselves.

133. Whence did they take this, unless they took it up from our own Scriptures? For Moses wrote that God said: Let us make man according to our image and likeness, and let him have power over the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air, and the cattle, and all things that creep upon the earth. And David says: Thou hast put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, moreover the beasts also of the field, the birds of the air, and the fishes of the sea.

Therefore they learned from our writings that all things are subject to man, and for this reason they hold that all things were created for man's sake.

134. That man also was begotten for man's sake we find in the books of Moses, where the Lord says: It is not good for man to be alone, let us make him a help like unto himself. For help, then, was woman given to man, that she might bring forth; that man might be a help to man. Finally, before woman was formed, it was said of Adam: There was not found a helper like unto him; for man could have no help except from man. Of all living creatures, then, no animal like unto him was found, and, to speak absolutely, no helper of man was found; the female sex, therefore, was awaited as helper.

135. Therefore, according to the will of God, or the bond of nature, we ought to be of help to one another in turn, to vie in duties, to lay, as it were, all advantages in common, and, to use the word of Scripture, to bring help one to another, whether by zeal, or by service, or by money, or by works, or in whatever way, that among us the grace of fellowship may be increased. Nor should anyone be recalled from duty even by the terror of danger; but let him reckon all things his own, whether adverse or prosperous. Finally, holy Moses did not shrink from undertaking grievous wars on behalf of the people of his fatherland, nor did he tremble at the arms of a most powerful king, nor did he fear the ferocity of barbarian savagery; but he cast aside his own safety, that he might restore liberty to the people.

136. Great, then, is the splendor of justice, which, being born rather for others than for herself, assists our fellowship and society: she holds the height, so that by her judgment she has all things subject, brings aid to others, contributes money, does not refuse services, undertakes the dangers of others.

137. Who would not desire to hold this citadel of virtue, were it not that avarice, above all, weakens and bends the vigor of so great a virtue? For while we desire to increase wealth, to heap up money, to seize lands by possessions, to excel in riches, we strip off the form of justice, we lose common beneficence. For how can he be just who strives to snatch from another what he seeks for himself?

138. Does not the desire for power also unman the manly form of justice? For how can he intervene for others who strives to subject others to himself, and bring help to the weak against the powerful, who himself aims at a heavy power over liberty?

How great justice is can be understood from this, that it is exempted neither by places, nor by persons, nor by times, and is even reserved for enemies; so that if a place or a day for battle has been fixed with an enemy, it would be thought against justice either to anticipate by place or by time. For it makes a difference whether someone is captured in some battle and grave conflict, or by a superior favor, or by some chance event. For upon fiercer and treacherous enemies, and those who have done greater harm, a fiercer vengeance is exacted; as in the case of the Midianites, who through their women had caused many of the people of the Jews to sin, whence also the wrath of God was poured out upon the people of the fathers.

And therefore it came to pass that Moses, as victor, allowed none to survive; but the Gibeonites, who had deceived the people of the fathers by fraud rather than by war, Joshua did not attack; but he afflicted them with the injury of the condition imposed. But as for the Syrians, whom Elisha, besieging, had led into the city, having struck them with momentary blindness so that they could not see where they were entering, when the king of Israel wished to strike them, he did not consent, saying: Thou shalt not strike those whom thou hast not taken captive with thy lance and thy sword; set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and be sent back and go to their master; that, provoked by humanity, they might render gratitude in return. Finally, afterward the Syrian raiders ceased to come into the land of Israel.

140. If, then, justice avails even in war, how much more must it be observed in peace?

And the prophet showed this favor to those who had come to seize him. For thus we read, that the king of Syria had sent his army to besiege him, having learned that it was Elisha who opposed all his counsels and stratagems. Seeing this army, Gehazi, the prophet's servant, began to tremble with fear of his safety. To whom the prophet said: Fear not, for there are more with us than with them. And when the prophet prayed that the eyes of his servant might be opened, they were opened. And Gehazi saw the whole mountain full of horses and chariots round about Elisha. When these had come down, the prophet said: Strike, O God, the army of Syria with blindness. When this was obtained, he said to the Syrians: Come after me, and I will lead you to the man whom you seek. And they saw Elisha, whom they were eager to seize; and seeing him, they could not lay hold of him.

It is clear, then, that even in war good faith and justice ought to be kept, and that nothing can be seemly if faith is violated.

141. Finally, the ancients also called adversaries by a softer name, calling them strangers; for enemies, by ancient custom, were called strangers. This too, likewise, we may say was taken from our own writings; for the Hebrews called their adversaries Allophyloi, that is, in the Latin word, aliens. Finally, in the first Book of Kings we read thus: And it came to pass in those days that the aliens gathered together for battle against Israel.

142. Faith, therefore, is the foundation of justice; for the hearts of the just meditate faith; and he who accuses himself as just places justice above faith; for then his justice appears, if he confesses the truth. Finally, the Lord also says through Isaiah: Behold, I lay a stone for a foundation in Sion, that is, Christ as the foundation of the Church. For Christ is the faith of all; and the Church is a certain form of justice.

The common right of all prays in common, works in common, is tried in common. Finally, he who denies himself to himself, he is just, he is worthy of Christ. Therefore Paul also laid Christ as the foundation, that we might place upon him the works of justice, because faith is the foundation: but in works, either iniquity is in evil works, or justice in good ones.

But now let us speak of beneficence, which itself also is divided into benevolence and liberality. Of these two, then, beneficence consists, that it may be perfect. For it is not enough to will well, but also to do well; nor again is it enough to do well, unless it proceeds from a good source, that is, from a good will: for God loveth a cheerful giver. For if you act unwillingly, what reward have you? Whence the Apostle says generally: If I do this willingly, I have a reward; if unwillingly, a dispensation is entrusted to me. In the Gospel too we have received many teachings of just liberality.

144. It is a fine thing, then, to will well, and to give with such a purpose that you may benefit, not harm. For if you think you must give to a spendthrift for the outpouring of luxury, or to an adulterer as the price of adultery, that is not beneficence, where there is no benevolence.

For it is to do harm, not to benefit another, if you give to one who plots against the fatherland, who wishes to gather at his own expense reprobates who will assail the Church.

This is no commendable liberality, if you help one who contends in grievous litigation against a widow and orphans, or tries by some force to snatch away their possessions.

145. Generosity is not approved, if what one gives to one man he extorts from another: if he seeks unjustly, and thinks it should be justly dispensed; unless perhaps, like that Zacchaeus, you first restore fourfold to him whom you have defrauded, and compensate the vices of your pagan life by zeal of faith and works of a believer. Let your liberality, then, have a foundation.

146. This is asked first, that you give with good faith, and commit no fraud in what is offered; lest you say you are giving more, and give less. For what need is there to say it? Fraud is a violation of a promise: it is in your power to give what you wish. Fraud dissolves the foundation, and the work collapses. Did not Peter so boil with indignation that he wished Ananias, or his wife, to be struck dead?

But by their example he did not wish the rest to perish.

147. Nor is that liberality perfect, if you give more for the sake of ostentation than of mercy. Your disposition gives its name to your work: as it proceeds from you, so is it judged. See what a moral judge you have. He consults you, as to how he receives your work; he first questions your mind. Let not thy left hand, he says, know what thy right hand doeth. He speaks not of the body, but even your close companion, your brother, let him not know what you do; lest, while here you seek the reward of ostentation, there you lose the fruit of recompense. But perfect liberality is where one covers his work in silence, and secretly comes to the aid of each one's needs: whom the mouth of the poor man praises, and not his own lips.

148. Furthermore, perfect liberality is commended by faith, cause, place, and time: that first you work among the household of the faith.

It is a great fault if, while you know it, a believer should be in want: if you know that he is without means, enduring hunger, suffering hardship, especially one who would blush to be in want: if he has fallen into a case either of the captivity of his kin, or of calumny, and you do not help him; if he is in prison, and under penalties and torments, on account of some debt, being just, is tormented (for although mercy is owed to all, yet more to the just); if in the time of his affliction he obtains nothing from you: if in the time of danger, when he is being dragged to death, your money is worth more to you than the life of one about to die. Of which Job beautifully said: The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me.

149. God indeed is not a respecter of persons, because he knows all things.

But we indeed owe mercy to all: yet because many seek it by fraud, and feign hardship; therefore where the cause is manifest, the person is known, the time presses, mercy ought to pour itself forth more abundantly. For the Lord is not covetous, that he should seek very much. Blessed indeed is he who gives up all things, and follows him: but blessed also is he who does what he has, from the heart. Finally, he preferred the two mites of that widow to the gifts of the rich; because she contributed all that she had, whereas they contributed from their abundance a small part. Disposition, therefore, makes a contribution rich or poor, and sets a price on things. Moreover, the Lord does not wish wealth to be poured out all at once, but to be dispensed: unless perhaps, as Elisha killed his oxen, and fed the poor from what he had, so that he might be held by no domestic care, but, having left all things, might give himself to the prophetic discipline.

150. That liberality also is to be commended, that you not despise those near to your own stock, if you learn that they are in need. For it is better that you yourself come to the aid of your own people, who are ashamed to beg a loan from others, or to ask anyone for relief of their necessity: yet not so that they should wish to become richer by what you can bestow upon the needy; for the cause is what matters, not the favor shown. For you did not consecrate yourself to the Lord for this, that you should make your own kin rich: but that you might acquire everlasting life for yourself by the fruit of a good work, and redeem your sins by the price of mercy. Do they think they are asking too little? They seek your reward, they strive to take away the fruit of your life, and think they are acting justly.

And such a one accuses you because you did not make him rich, though he wishes to defraud you of the reward of eternal life.

151. We have set forth counsel; let us now seek authority. First, no one ought to be ashamed if he becomes poor from rich, while giving liberally to the poor; because Christ became poor, when he was rich, that he might enrich all by his poverty. He gave us a rule to follow, that the emptying of one's patrimony has good reason; if anyone has driven back the hunger of the poor, has relieved want. Whence also I give this counsel, the Apostle says: For this is profitable for you, that you may imitate Christ. Counsel is given to the good, rebuke restrains those who err. Finally, as though to the good, he says: Because you began not only to do, but also to will, from the past year. Both belong to the perfect, not merely a part. Thus he teaches that liberality without benevolence, and benevolence without liberality, is not perfect.

Whence he exhorts to perfection, saying: Now therefore also complete the doing, that as the readiness of will to do was in you, so also there may be a completion out of what you have. For if the will is ready, it is accepted according to what one has, not according to what one has not. For it is not that there should be relief for others, and hardship for you: but out of equality at this time, your abundance for their want, that their abundance may be for your want, that there may be equality, as it is written: He who had much, had no excess; and he who had little, had no lack.

152. We observe how he comprehends benevolence, and liberality, and measure, and fruit, and persons. Measure, because he was giving counsel to the imperfect; for none suffer hardship except the imperfect.

But also if someone, not wishing to burden the Church, being established in some priestly office or ministry, does not give all that he has, but works with honesty as much as suffices for his office, he does not seem to me imperfect. And I think that here he spoke of hardship not of mind, but of household resources.

153. Concerning persons, however, I think it was said: That your abundance may be for their want, and their abundance for your want; that is, that the people's abundance of good work may relieve their want of sustenance; and that their spiritual abundance may help the want of spiritual merit among the people, and confer grace upon it.

154. Whence he set forth a most excellent example: He who had much, had no excess; and he who had little, did not lack.

Well does this example exhort all men to the office of mercy; since he who possesses very much gold has no excess; because whatever is in this world is nothing: and he who has little does not lack; because what he loses is nothing. A thing is without loss, which is wholly loss.

155. There is also this good understanding: He who has very much, even if he does not give, has no excess; because however much he acquires, he who desires more is always in need: and he who has little does not lack; because it is not much that feeds a poor man. Likewise, then, that poor man too who confers spiritual things instead of personal goods, even if he has very much grace, has no excess; for grace does not burden but lightens the mind.

156. But it can also be understood thus: You do not abound, O man. For how much is it that you have received, even if it is much to you?

John, than whom no one is greater among those born of women, was nevertheless inferior to him who is least in the kingdom of heaven.

157. It can also be understood thus: The grace of God does not abound bodily, because it is spiritual. Who can comprehend either its magnitude or its breadth, which he does not see? If faith be as a grain of mustard seed, it can move mountains, and yet no more than a grain of mustard seed is given to you. If grace abounds in you, need one fear that your mind might begin to be puffed up by so great a gift?—since there are many who have fallen more grievously from the height of their own heart than if they had had no grace of the Lord at all? And he who has little does not lack; because it is not a bodily thing to be divided: and what seems little to him who has it is very much to him who lacks nothing.

158. In giving, one must also consider age and infirmity, and sometimes too the modesty which betrays a freeborn birth; so that you give more to the elderly, who can no longer by labor seek their own sustenance. Likewise also bodily infirmity, and this should be helped more readily. Then, if anyone has fallen from riches into want: and especially if not by his own fault, but has lost what he had through robbers, or proscription, or false accusations.

159. But perhaps someone may say: A blind man sits in one place and is passed over, and a strong young man frequently receives. And it is true, because he creeps in by importunity. That is not a matter of judgment, but of weariness. For the Lord also says in the Gospel of him who had already shut his door, that if someone should knock at his door more shamelessly, he rises and gives to him because of his importunity.

The same matter, the passage of Solomon about the banquet, is afterward expounded in a spiritual sense.

160. It is also fitting that a more favorable regard be had for him who has conferred some benefit or gift upon you, if he himself should fall into need. For what is so contrary to duty as not to repay what you have received? Nor do I think it should be repaid in equal measure, but in greater, and that the use of the benefit should be weighed; so that you may come to his aid, in such measure as you drive off his distress. For not to be superior in repaying a benefit than in conferring it, is to be inferior, since he who conferred it first is superior in time, prior in kindness.

161. Whence in this too we ought to imitate the nature of the earth, which is wont to return the seed it has received multiplied in greater number than it received.

Therefore it is written to you: Like agriculture is the foolish man, and like a vineyard the man void of sense. If you leave him, he will be desolate. Like agriculture, then, is also the wise man, that he may restore, as it were at interest, the seeds received in a greater measure. The earth, then, either germinates spontaneous fruits, or returns and repays with a richer heap what was entrusted to it. You owe both by a certain hereditary custom of the parent, lest you be left like a barren field. Yet suppose someone can excuse himself for not giving; how can he excuse himself for not repaying? Not giving to anyone is scarcely permitted; not repaying is truly not permitted.

162. Therefore Solomon aptly says: If you sit to dine at the table of a powerful man, wisely consider what is set before you: and put forth your hand knowing that you must prepare such things. But if you are insatiable, do not desire his delicacies; for these hold a deceptive life.

Desiring to imitate these sentences, we have written. To confer a favor is good: but he who does not know how to return it is most hard-hearted. The earth itself suggests an example of kindness. It furnishes spontaneous fruits which you have not sown, and also returns multiplied what it has received. It is not permitted to refuse to you money that has been counted out; how then is it permitted not to return gratitude that has been received? In Proverbs also you find that this repayment of gratitude is generally so valued before God, that it finds favor even on the day of ruin, when sins might outweigh it. And why should I use other examples, when the Lord himself in the Gospel promises a richer recompense for the merits of the saints, and exhorts us to work good works, saying: Forgive, and you shall be forgiven, give, and it shall be given to you; good measure, pressed down, running over, shall they give into your bosom?

163. And so that banquet of Solomon is not about foods, but about good works. For with what do souls feast better than with good deeds? Or what else can so easily fill the minds of the just, as the consciousness of a good work? What food is more pleasant than to do the will of God? Which food the Lord recorded as alone sufficing him, as it is written in the Gospel: My food is to do the will of my Father who is in heaven.

164. Let us delight in this food, of which the Prophet says: Delight in the Lord. They delight in this food, who have grasped the higher delights by wonderful understanding, who can know what sort of delight belongs to that pure and intelligible mind. Let us eat, then, the bread of wisdom; and be satisfied with the word of God; because not by bread alone, but by every word of God, is the life of man, made in the image of God.

Concerning the cup indeed, holy Job speaks quite plainly: As the earth waiting for rain, so also these my words.

It is fitting, then, that we be moistened by the discourse of the divine Scriptures, and that the words of God descend upon us like dew. When, therefore, you sit at that table of the powerful man, understand who that powerful one is: and placed in the paradise of delight, and set at the banquet of wisdom, consider what is set before you. Divine Scripture is the banquet of wisdom: each book is each dish. Understand first what the feast of the dishes contain, and then put forth your hand; that what you read or receive from the Lord your God, you may carry out in works, and represent by your actions the grace conferred upon you: as Peter and Paul, who by evangelizing rendered a certain return to the giver of the gift, so that each could say: But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace in me was not in vain: but I labored more abundantly than they all.

166. One person, then, repays the fruit of a received benefit, gold for gold, silver for silver: another repays labor, another—I know not whether even more richly—repays only affection. For what if there is no capacity to repay? In returning a benefit the spirit accomplishes more than wealth; and benevolence outweighs the possibility of returning a gift. For gratitude is returned in the very fact that it is held. Great, then, is that benevolence which, even if it confers nothing, shows more; and though it has nothing in its patrimony, gives liberally to many; and does this without any loss to itself, and to the profit of all. And therefore benevolence stands above liberality itself. The one is richer in character, the other in gifts; for there are more who are in need of a benefit than who abound in it.

167. Now benevolence is sometimes joined to liberality, from which liberality itself proceeds, when the practice of giving follows the disposition of generosity: and sometimes separate and distinct.

For where liberality is lacking, benevolence remains, a certain common parent of all, which binds and unites friendship: faithful in counsels, joyful in prosperity, sorrowful in sadness; so that each one trusts more in the counsel of one who is benevolent than of one who is wise: as David, though more prudent, nevertheless deferred to the counsels of the younger Jonathan. Take benevolence away from the intercourse of men, and it is as if you had taken the sun from the world; for the intercourse of men cannot exist without it—as to show the way to a traveler, to call back one who has strayed, to offer hospitality. Not a small virtue, then, is that of which Job boasted, saying: No stranger lodged outside, my door was open to every comer, to give water from flowing water, light from a kindled light.

Benevolence, then, is in all these things, like a fountain of water refreshing the thirsty, and like a light which shines also for others, and is not wanting to those who have kindled from their own light a light for others.

168. There is also that liberality of benevolence, that if you have a debtor's bond, you tear it up and give it back, having obtained nothing from the debtor of the debt. Which by his own example holy Job admonishes us to do. For he who has a bond does not borrow again; he who does not have it does not release the bond. What then, even if you yourself do not exact it, but reserve it for grasping heirs—how much better can you present it to him with the praise of benevolence, without any loss of money?

169. And that we may discuss more fully: benevolence, proceeding first from domestic persons, that is, from children, parents, brothers, through degrees of kinship, comes into the compass of cities, and, having gone forth from paradise, has filled the world. For indeed, when God had placed a benevolent affection in man and woman, he said: They shall both be in one flesh, and in one spirit. Whence Eve believed the serpent; since she who had received benevolence did not suppose that there could be malevolence.

Benevolence is increased by the fellowship of the Church, by the partnership of faith, by the association of initiation, by the bond of receiving grace, by the communion of the mysteries. For these things claim for themselves even the appellations of kinships—the reverence of sons, the authority and piety of fathers, the brotherhood of brothers. Much therefore does the bond of grace contribute to the heaping up of benevolence.

171. The pursuits of equals in virtue also help.

Since benevolence also produces a likeness of character. Thus Jonathan, the son of the king, imitated the gentleness of holy David, for which reason he loved him. Hence too that saying: With a holy man thou shalt be holy, seems to be applied not only to companionship, but also to be derived to benevolence. For the sons of Noah likewise dwelt together, yet there was no concord of character among them. Esau and Jacob too dwelt in their father's house, yet they differed. For there was not between them that benevolence which prefers one to the other, but rather a strife which sought to snatch away the blessing. For since the one was harsh, the other gentle, amid such disparate characters and conflicting pursuits, there could be no benevolence. Add that holy Jacob could not prefer his father-in-law's household to virtue.

172. But nothing is so associable as justice joined with equity: which, like a partner and companion of benevolence, causes us to love those whom we believe equal to ourselves.

Benevolence also has within it fortitude; for since friendship proceeds from the fountain of benevolence, it does not hesitate to endure grave perils of life for a friend: And if evils befall me through him, he says, I will bear them.

Benevolence is also wont to wrest the sword from wrath. Benevolence makes the wounds of a friend more profitable than the willing kisses of an enemy. Benevolence makes many become one; since if there are many friends, they become one, in whom there is one spirit and one mind. At the same time we notice that reproofs are pleasing in friendship, which have stings but no pain. For we are pricked by censorious words, but we are delighted by the earnestness of benevolence. 174. In sum, the same duties are not always owed to all, nor is regard always paid to persons, but most often preference is given according to causes and times, so that one may sometimes help a neighbor more than a brother. For Solomon also says: Better is a neighbor that is near than a brother far off. And therefore very often each man commits himself rather to the benevolence of a friend than to the tie of a brother. So much does benevolence prevail, that it often surpasses the bonds of nature.

Fortitude, then, is as it were a loftier virtue than the rest, but never uncompanioned; for it does not commit itself to itself alone: otherwise fortitude without justice is matter for iniquity. For the more valid it is, the readier it is to oppress the weaker; since in the very matters of war it is thought that regard must be had to whether wars are just or unjust.

177. David never waged war except when provoked. Thus he had prudence as the companion of his fortitude in battle. For when about to fight in single combat against Goliath, a man of monstrous bulk of body, he rejected the arms with which he would have been burdened; for virtue relies more on its own limbs than on another's covering. Then from a distance, so that the blow might strike the more heavily, he slew the enemy with the cast of a stone. Afterward he never undertook war except by consulting the Lord.

Thus, victor in all his battles, ready of hand even to extreme old age, when war was undertaken against the Titans, he mingled as a warrior with the fierce ranks, desirous of glory, careless of safety.

178. But this is not the only illustrious fortitude; we also recognize the glorious fortitude of those who through faith, by greatness of soul, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong: who, not girded about with retinue and legions, brought back a common victory with many, but by the naked virtue of the soul returned a singular triumph over the faithless. How unconquerable was Daniel, who feared not the lions roaring about his sides! The beasts raged, and he feasted.

The glory of fortitude, then, lies not merely in bodily strength and limbs, but rather in strength of soul: nor is the law of virtue in inflicting, but in repelling injury. For he who does not repel injury from a companion, if he is able, is as much at fault as he who commits it. Whence holy Moses began from this the first trials of warlike fortitude. For when he saw a Hebrew receiving injury from an Egyptian, he defended him; so that he struck down the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand. Solomon too says: Deliver him that is led to death.

179. Whence, then, either Tully, or even Panaetius, or Aristotle himself derived this, is quite evident. Yet Job, who was older than these two, said even before them: I delivered the poor out of the hand of the mighty, and I helped the fatherless who had no helper. Let the blessing of him that was ready to perish come upon me.

Is not this man most brave, who so bravely endured the assaults of the devil, and conquered him by the virtue of his mind? Nor indeed is his fortitude to be doubted, to whom the Lord says: Gird up thy loins like a man, take up loftiness and might: and humble every injurious man. The Apostle also says: We have a most strong consolation. He therefore is brave who consoles himself in some sorrow.

180. And in very truth that fortitude is rightly so called, whereby each man conquers himself, restrains anger, is softened and bent by no allurements, is not disturbed by adversity, is not lifted up by prosperity, and is not carried about, as by some wind, by the change of varying circumstances. What indeed is more exalted and more magnificent, than to exercise the mind, to discipline the flesh and reduce it to servitude; so that it obeys command, submits to counsels, and in undertaking labors carries out impigneously the purpose and will of the mind?

181. This, then, is the first force of fortitude, since fortitude of soul is viewed in two kinds. First, that it should hold external things of the body as of least account, and consider them, as it were superfluous, rather to be despised than sought after. Second, that it should pursue, with a splendid intention of soul even to the point of affection, those things which are of the highest, all matters in which honesty and that which is fitting (πρέπον) are discerned. For what is so splendid as so to form your soul that you set neither riches, nor pleasures, nor honors among the greatest things, nor wear out all your zeal upon them?

When you have been thus disposed in soul, it is necessary that you should think that the honorable and becoming ought to be preferred, and that you should so bend your mind to it, that whatever happens by which souls are wont to be broken—whether loss of patrimony, or diminution of honor, or the detraction of the faithless—you should feel it not, as one who stands above it. Then, that the very perils of safety, undertaken for justice, should not move you.

182. This is true fortitude, which the athlete of Christ has, who is not crowned except by lawful combat. Does the precept of fortitude seem to you a small thing: Tribulation worketh patience, patience proof, and proof hope? See how many combats, and one crown. This precept is given by none but him who is strengthened in Christ Jesus, whose flesh had no rest. Affliction on every side: without were fightings, within were fears.

And although placed amid perils, amid very many labors, in prisons, in deaths; yet in soul he was not broken, but fought on, so that he became more powerful than his own infirmities.

183. Consider, then, how he teaches that those who approach the offices of the Church ought to have contempt of human things. If then ye be dead with Christ from the elements of this world, why, as though yet living, do you decree things of this world? Touch not, taste not, handle not, all which things are to corruption in the very use thereof. And below: If then you be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, not the things that are on earth. And again: Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth.

And these indeed are said to all the faithful still: but to you, my son, it counsels the contempt of riches, and also the avoidance of profane and old wives' fables, permitting nothing except what may exercise you unto piety; because bodily exercise profiteth little: but piety is profitable unto all things.

184. Let piety, then, exercise you unto justice, continence, gentleness; that you may flee youthful desires, and, strengthened and rooted in grace, undergo the good fight of faith: entangle not yourself with secular business, since you fight for God. For if he who serves as a soldier for the emperor is forbidden by human laws from taking up lawsuits, from the conduct of forensic business, from the selling of merchandise; how much more should he who exercises the warfare of faith abstain from every practice of trading, content with the fruits of his little field, if he has one: if he has none, with the fruit of his stipends!

For he is a good witness who says: I have been young, and now am old; and I have not seen the just forsaken, nor his seed seeking bread. For that is the tranquility of soul and temperance, which is neither affected by zeal of acquiring, nor troubled by fear of want.

This is also what is called freedom of soul from anguishes; that we be neither softer in griefs, nor more elated in prosperity. But if those who exhort some men to take up public affairs give these precepts, how much more ought we, who are called to the office of the Church, do such things as please God; that the virtue of Christ may show forth in us, and that we may be so approved to our commander, that our members may be weapons of righteousness, not carnal weapons wherein sin reigns, but weapons mighty to God whereby sin is destroyed: let our flesh die, that in it all guilt may die; and, as it were living out of the dead, let us rise again to new works and manners! 186. These are the full stipends of the honorable and becoming office of fortitude. But since in all that we do we seek not only what is honorable, but also what is possible, lest perchance we undertake something which we cannot carry out.

Hence the Lord wills that in the time of persecution we withdraw from city to city, nay, to use the very word, flee; lest, while someone rashly desires the glory of martyrdom, he expose himself to perils which perhaps his weaker flesh, or his more slackened spirit, may not be able to bear and sustain.

This, then, belongs to diligence, that one should so prepare himself: that belongs to ingenuity, if one can foresee by vigor of mind the things that are to come, and set as it were before his eyes what may happen, and determine what he ought to do, if it should so happen; sometimes to turn over in the mind two or three things together, which he conjectures may happen either singly or jointly, and to arrange, according to either the single or the joined events, those things which he understands will be profitable.

189. It is, then, the part of a brave man not to dissemble when something threatens, but to look ahead, and as it were to survey from a certain watchtower of the mind, and to meet with provident thought the things to come, lest perhaps he say afterward: These things befell me because I did not think they could happen. For unless adversities are explored beforehand, they quickly seize hold.

As in war an unforeseen enemy is scarcely withstood, and if he finds men unprepared, easily overwhelms them: so unexplored evils break the mind the more.

190. In these two things, therefore, lies that excellence of soul, that first your mind, exercised in good thoughts, may with a pure heart see what is true and honorable: For blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God: and may judge that alone to be good which is honorable: then, that it be disturbed by no occupations, tossed by no desires.

191. Nor indeed does anyone easily accomplish this. For what is so difficult as to look down, as from some citadel, upon the wealth of wisdom, and all the other things which seem to most men great and lofty? Then, to confirm your judgment by a stable reason, and to despise as trifling, as though profiting nothing, the things you have judged light?

Then, if anything adverse should happen, and it be thought grave and bitter, to so bear it, that you think nothing has happened beyond nature, when you have read: Naked came I out, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away; he indeed had lost both his sons and his possessions. And that you preserve in all things the character of a wise and just man, as he preserved it who said: As it hath pleased the Lord, so is it done: blessed be the name of the Lord. And below: Thou hast spoken like one of the foolish women. If we have received good things at the hand of the Lord, shall we not endure the evil?

Not middling therefore, nor separate from the other virtues, is that fortitude of soul which wages war with the virtues themselves; but that which alone defends the adornments of all the virtues, and guards their judgments; and which in an inexpiable battle contends against all vices, unconquered in labors, brave against dangers, more rigid against pleasures, hard against enticements, to which it knows not how to lend an ear, nor (as they say) bid it welcome; which neglects money, and flees avarice as a certain stain which effeminates virtue. For nothing is so contrary to fortitude as to be conquered by gain. Often, when enemies have been routed and the battle-line of adversaries turned to flight, the soldier, while he is taken up with the spoils of the slain, has fallen wretchedly amid those very men whom he had struck down: and legions cast down from their triumphs, while they are occupied with plunder, have called back upon themselves the enemy who had fled.

193. Let fortitude therefore repel and trample down so monstrous a pestilence, and let it not be tempted by cupidities, nor broken by fear; because virtue is consistent with itself, so that it pursues all vices bravely, as the poisons of virtue: let it drive off anger as with certain weapons, which takes away counsel, and let it avoid it as a sickness. Let it also beware the desire of glory, which has often done harm when sought too immoderately, but always when usurped.

194. What of these things was lacking in holy Job, either in virtue, or crept in as vice? How did he bear the labor of sickness, cold, hunger? How did he despise the danger to his safety? Were riches heaped up by rapine, from which so much flowed to the needy? Did the possession of wealth stir up avarice, or the pursuits and desires of pleasure? Did the injurious contention of the three kings, or the insolence of servants, drive him to anger?

Did glory exalt him as something light, he who called down grave curses upon himself if ever he had concealed even an involuntary fault, or had feared the multitude of the people so as not to declare it in the sight of all? For virtues are not consonant with vices, but are consistent with themselves. Who therefore was so brave as holy Job, to whom scarcely anyone can be judged second, who scarcely finds an equal?

But perhaps some, fixed on martial glory, hold that warlike fortitude alone is fortitude, and think that I have turned aside to these matters because that kind was lacking to our people. How brave was Joshua the son of Nun, that in one battle he laid low five captured kings with their peoples! Then, when he was pressing the battle against the Gabaonites, and feared lest night should hinder the victory, with greatness of mind and faith he cried out: Let the sun stand still; and it stood, until the victory was accomplished. Gideon, with three hundred men out of a huge people, brought back a triumph over a bitter enemy. Jonathan, a young man, wrought valor in a great battle. What shall I say of the Maccabees?

196. But first I shall speak of the people of the fathers, who, though prepared to fight for the temple of God and for their lawful rights, being attacked by the guile of the enemy on the day of the Sabbath, preferred to offer their naked bodies to wounds rather than fight, lest they violate the Sabbath. And so all offered themselves gladly to death. But the Maccabees, considering that by this example the whole nation might perish, even on the Sabbath, when they themselves were provoked to war, avenged the slaughter of their innocent brothers. Whence afterward King Antiochus, stirred up, when he kindled war through his generals Lysias, Nicanor, Gorgias, was so worn down along with his Easterners and Assyrian forces, that forty-eight thousand of his men were laid low in the middle of the field by three thousand.

197. Consider the valor of the leader Judas Maccabeus from one of his soldiers.

For Eleazar, when he noticed an elephant towering above the rest, clothed in royal trappings, thinking that the king was upon it, rushed with a swift course into the middle of the legion, and, having cast away his shield, was slaying with both hands, until he reached the beast, and went in under it, and, thrusting his sword beneath, slew it. And so the falling beast crushed Eleazar, and thus he died. How great, then, was the valor of his spirit! First, that he feared not death; then, that, surrounded by the legions of enemies, he broke into the massed foes, penetrated the middle of the column, and, made fiercer by contempt of death, having cast away his shield, went with both hands under the mass of the wounded beast and sustained it; then went beneath it, so as to strike a fuller blow; by whose fall, enclosed rather than crushed, he was buried in his own triumph.

198. Nor did the opinion of the man deceive, though the royal garb had deceived him; for the enemies, fixed at so great a spectacle of virtue, did not dare to attack the unarmed man while he was occupied, and after the fall of the collapsing beast were so terrified that they all judged themselves unequal to the valor of one man. At length King Antiochus, son of Lysias, who had come with a hundred and twenty thousand armed men and with thirty-two elephants—so that from sunrise, through each of the beasts, a certain splendor of arms flashed like mountains, gleaming as with burning lamps—terrified by the valor of one man, sued for peace. And so Eleazar left peace as the heir of his valor. But let these things belong to triumphs.

But since fortitude is proved not only in favorable circumstances but also in adverse ones, let us now look at the death of Judas Maccabeus. For after Nicanor, the general of King Demetrius, had been conquered, more confident against the twenty thousand army of the king, he undertook war with nine hundred men, and when these wished to withdraw, lest they be overwhelmed by the multitude, he urged upon them a glorious death rather than a shameful flight: Let us not, he said, leave a stain upon our glory. And so, when the battle was joined, and they fought from the first rising of the day until evening, he attacked the right wing, in which he noticed the strongest force of the enemy, and easily turned it back. But while pursuing the fleeing enemy, he offered a place for a wound from behind: thus he found in death a place more glorious than in triumphs.

200. Why should I add his brother Jonathan, who, fighting with a small band against the royal armies, deserted by his own men and left with only two, restored the battle, turned back the enemy, and recalled his fleeing men to share in the triumph?

201. You have warlike fortitude, in which there is no small form of honor and decorum, in that it prefers death to servitude and disgrace. But what shall I say of the sufferings of the martyrs? And not to wander too far, the Maccabee boys won no lesser triumphs over the proud King Antiochus than did their own parents. For the latter conquered armed, the former without arms. The unconquered band of seven boys stood, girded by royal legions: the tortures failed, the torturers gave way, the martyrs did not give way. One, stripped of the skin of his head, had his appearance changed, but his valor increased.

Another, bidden to put forth his tongue to be cut off, replied: Not only does the Lord hear those who speak, He who heard Moses when he was silent. He hears more the silent thoughts of his own than the voices of all. Do you fear the lash of the tongue, and do you not fear the lash of blood? Blood too has its own voice, by which it cries to God, as it cried out in Abel.

202. What shall I say of the mother, who watched joyfully as many deaths of her sons as trophies, and was delighted by the voices of the dying as by the songs of those singing psalms, seeing in her sons the most beautiful lyre of her own womb, and the harmony of piety sweeter than every measure of the lyre?

203. What shall I say of the two-year-old children, who received the palm of victory before the sense of nature?

What of holy Agnes, who, placed in danger of two very great things, chastity and safety, protected her chastity and exchanged her safety for immortality?

204. Let us not pass over holy Lawrence also, who, when he saw his bishop Xystus being led to martyrdom, began to weep, not at his suffering, but at his own being left behind. And so he began to address him with these words: Where are you going without your son, father? Where, holy priest, are you hastening without your deacon? You were never accustomed to offer sacrifice without a minister; what then has displeased you in me, father? Have you found me degenerate? Test surely whether you have chosen a fit minister. To him to whom you have entrusted the consecration of the Lord's blood, to whom the partnership in completing the sacraments, do you deny to this one the partnership in your blood? See lest your judgment be endangered while your fortitude is praised. The rejection of the disciple is a detriment to the teacher's mastery. What!

For illustrious and outstanding men conquer more by the contests of their disciples than by their own. So Abraham offered up his son. Peter sent Stephen ahead. And you, father, show your virtue in your son; offer up him whom you have trained, so that, secure in your judgment, you may arrive at the crown accompanied by a noble escort.

205. Then Xystus said: I do not leave you, my son, nor abandon you; but greater contests are owed to you. We, as old men, take up the course of a lighter fight: a more glorious triumph over the tyrant awaits you as a young man. Soon you will come; cease weeping; after three days you will follow me. This interval befits priest and Levite. It was not for you to conquer under your master, as if you needed a helper. Why do you seek a share in my suffering? I leave the whole inheritance of it to you. Why do you require my presence?

Let weak disciples go before their teacher, let the strong follow, that they may conquer without their teacher, who no longer need his teaching. So too Elijah left Elisha. To you, therefore, I entrust the succession of our valor.

206. Such was the contest, worthy indeed, in which priest and minister contended over who should suffer first for the name of Christ. In the tragic tales it is said that great applause was aroused in the theater when Pylades said he was Orestes; Orestes, as he truly was, asserted that he was Orestes: the one, that he might be slain in place of Orestes, the other, that Pylades might not suffer death in his place. But it was not lawful for either of them to live, since both were guilty of parricide: the one who had done it, the other who had aided it.

Here no one was urging holy Lawrence to this, except the love of devotion; yet he too, after three days, when the tyrant had been mocked, was placed upon the gridiron and burned, and said: It is roasted; turn it and eat. Thus by the valor of his spirit he conquered the nature of fire.

42. Against Provoking Powers or Courting Flattery

Powers are not to be provoked, nor should our ears be lent to flattery.

207. I think it must also be guarded against, lest some, led by excessive desire for glory, abuse powers too insolently, and often stir up minds of the nations, already averse to us, into a zeal for persecution, and inflame them to wrath. And so, that those men may be able to persevere and overcome torments, how many do they cause to perish?

208. It must also be foreseen that we not open our ears to flatterers; for to be softened by flattery seems to belong not only to a lack of fortitude, but even to cowardice.

43. Temperance, Modesty, and the Choice of Companions

On temperance and its chief parts, namely, tranquility and moderation of soul, care for what is honorable, and consideration of what is becoming.

209. Since we have spoken of three virtues, it remains that we speak of the fourth virtue, which is called temperance and modesty: in which especially tranquility of soul, zeal for gentleness, the grace of moderation, care for the honorable, and consideration of the becoming are observed and sought.

210. A certain order of life, then, must be maintained by us, so that certain first foundations may be drawn from modesty: which is companion and familiar to placidity of mind, fleeing shamelessness, alien from all luxury, loves sobriety, cherishes honor, and seeks that becomingness.

211. Let the choice of companionship follow, that we join ourselves to the most approved elders of any sort. For as the company of equals is sweeter, so that of old men is safer, who by a certain mastery and guidance of life color the character of the young, and dye it, as it were, with the purple of probity.

For if those who are ignorant of the places are eager to undertake a journey with those skilled in the ways, how much more ought the young to undertake with the old the new journey of life, whereby they may be less able to err, and to deviate from the true path of virtue! For nothing is more beautiful than to have the same persons as both teachers of life and witnesses.

212. It must also be sought in every act what befits persons, what times and ages, what also is suited to the disposition of each individual. For often what befits one does not befit another. One thing is fitting for a youth, another for an old man; one thing in dangers, another in favorable circumstances.

213. David danced before the ark of the Lord; Samuel did not dance; nor was the former reproved for this, but rather the latter praised.

He changed his countenance before the king whose name was Achish: but if he had done this with the fear removed, so as not to be recognized, he could by no means have been free from the reproach of levity. Saul too, surrounded by a chorus of prophets, himself also prophesied; and it is recorded of him alone as unworthy: And Saul among the prophets.

Let each one, then, know his own disposition, and apply himself to that which he has chosen as fitting for himself. And so let him first consider what he should pursue. Let him know his good qualities, but let him also recognize his faults: and let him show himself an equitable judge of himself, so that he may attend to the good and avoid the faults.

215. One is more apt for distinguishing reading, another more pleasing at the psalm, another more diligent in exorcising those who labor under an evil spirit, another is considered more suited to the sanctuary. Let the priest consider all these things, and assign to each what is suitable as his office. For to whatever each one's own disposition leads him, or whatever office befits him, that is fulfilled with greater grace.

216. But while this is difficult in all of life, it is most difficult in our own calling. For each one loves to follow the life of his parents.

Thus most are drawn to military service, whose parents served in the military, others to various pursuits.

217. But in ecclesiastical office you will scarcely find anything rarer than one who follows the example set by the fathers: either because the severity of the conduct deters him, or because in the slippery age of youth abstinence is more difficult, or because to lively adolescence such a life seems too obscure; and so their pursuits turn to those things which they judge more applaudable. For most prefer present things to future ones. But those men fight for present things, we for future ones. Hence the more excellent the cause, the more attentive ought our care to be.

Let us then hold fast to modesty, and to that decorum which enhances the ornament of one's whole life. For it is no small thing to keep due measure in each particular thing, and to assign to it its proper order, in which that truly shines forth which is called becomingness: which is so joined with what is honorable that it cannot be separated from it. Indeed, that which is becoming is honorable, and that which is honorable is becoming; so that there is more distinction in speech than discrimination in virtue. For it can be understood that they differ from one another, but it cannot be explained.

219. And to attempt to draw out some distinction, honorableness is like good health, and a certain soundness of body; becomingness, however, is like comeliness and beauty.

Just as beauty, then, seems to excel soundness and health, and yet cannot exist without them, nor be separated from them in any way—since unless there be good health, there cannot be beauty and comeliness—so honorableness contains within itself that becomingness, such that it seems to proceed from it, and cannot exist without it. As, then, honorableness is like the soundness of our whole work and action, so becomingness is like its beauty, which, though blended with honorableness, is distinguished by our conception of it. For even if in some respect it seems to excel, yet it is rooted in honorableness, though it is its choicest flower, so that without honorableness it withers, while in it, it flowers. For what is honorableness but that which flees baseness as if fleeing death? What indeed is dishonorable, save that which brings dryness and death? While, then, the substance of virtue is green, that becomingness gleams forth like a flower, because the root is sound: but when the root of our purpose is corrupt, nothing sprouts.

220. You have this expressed somewhat more clearly in our own writings. For David says: The Lord has reigned, he has put on beauty. And the Apostle says: As in the day, walk becomingly. What the Greeks call εὐσχημόνως properly signifies this: in good habit, in good appearance. God, therefore, when he formed the first man, fashioned him with good bearing, with a good arrangement of limbs, and gave him the best appearance. He had not yet granted the forgiveness of sins; but after he renewed him by the Spirit, and poured grace into him—he who had come in the form of a servant, and in the appearance of man assumed the beauty of human redemption. And so the Prophet said: The Lord has reigned, he has put on beauty. Then elsewhere he says: A hymn befits thee, O God, in Sion; that is to say: It is becoming that we fear thee, that we love thee, that we entreat thee, that we honor thee; for it is written: Let all your things be done becomingly.

But we can also fear, love, entreat, honor a man: a hymn is specially spoken to God. To believe this more excellent than other things is the becomingness which we render to God. It is fitting too for a woman to pray in becoming attire: but it especially befits her to pray veiled, and to pray while professing chastity along with good conduct.

There is, then, a becomingness which stands preeminent, and its division is twofold. For there is a becomingness that is, as it were, general, which is diffused through the whole of honorableness, and is beheld, as it were, in the whole body; there is also a special becomingness, which shines forth in some particular part. The general kind is such that it holds an equal form and universality of honorableness harmonizing in every one of its acts; when a person's whole life is consistent with itself, and does not differ in any respect: the special kind, when some one act stands preeminent among the virtues.

222. At the same time note this, that it is also becoming to live according to nature, to pass one's life according to nature, and that it is base to act against nature. For the Apostle says, as it were asking: Is it becoming for a woman to pray to God unveiled?

Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wear long hair, it is a disgrace to him, since it is against nature? And again he says: But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her. For it is according to nature, since indeed hair serves as a covering; for this is the natural veil. Nature herself, then, dispenses to us our person and appearance, which we ought to preserve: and would that we could also guard its innocence, and that our own wickedness might not change what we have received!

223. You have here that general becomingness, in that God made the beauty of this world. You have it also in its parts, for when God made light, and distinguished day and night, when he established the heaven, when he separated the lands and seas, when he set the sun and moon and stars to shine over the earth, he approved each one.

Therefore that becomingness, which shone in the individual parts of the world, shone forth resplendent in the whole, as Wisdom proves, saying: I was she in whom he took delight, when he rejoiced that the world was complete. Likewise, then, in the fashioning of the human body the portion of each single member is pleasing: but the fitting composition of the members together delights still more in common, in that they seem so to match and agree with one another.

If, then, anyone preserves an evenness in his whole life and due measure in his individual actions, and keeps also order and constancy in words and deeds, and moderation, in his life that becomingness stands preeminent and shines forth as in a kind of mirror.

225. Let there be added, however, an agreeable manner of speech, so that he may win for himself the affection of his hearers, and show himself pleasing to his intimates, or to his fellow citizens, or, if possible, to all. Let him neither flatter, nor allow himself to be flattered by anyone; for the one belongs to cunning, the other to vanity.

226. Let him not despise what each person, and especially a most excellent man, thinks of him; for in this way he learns to show reverence to good men. For to disregard the judgments of good men belongs either to arrogance or to laxity: of which the one is ascribed to pride, the other to negligence.

227. Let him also be watchful of the movements of his own mind; for he must be both observed by himself and kept under his own scrutiny: and just as he must guard against himself, so also must he defend himself concerning himself. For there are movements in which there is that appetite which bursts forth as it were with a certain impulse; whence in Greek it is called ὁρμή, because it darts forth suddenly with a certain force. In these there is no small power of the mind and of nature. Yet this power is twofold, one placed in the appetite, the other in reason, which curbs the appetite and renders it obedient to itself, and leads it where it will: and, as if with diligent instruction, teaches what ought to be done, what ought to be avoided, so that it may obey its good tamer.

228. For we ought to be careful lest we do anything rashly or carelessly, or anything at all for which we cannot give a reasonable account.

For even if the reason for our actions is not rendered to all, yet it is examined by all. Nor indeed do we have anything by which we might excuse ourselves. For even if there is a certain force of nature in every appetite, yet that same appetite is subject to reason, to the law of nature itself, and obeys it. Whence it is the mark of a good watchman so to set his mind before him, that appetite neither runs ahead of reason nor deserts it; lest by running ahead it disturb and shut it out, and by deserting it, abandon it. Disturbance destroys constancy, abandonment betrays cowardice, and accuses one of sloth. For when the mind is disturbed, the appetite spreads itself more widely and more broadly, and, as though with a wild impulse, does not accept the reins of reason, nor perceives any of the charioteer's controls by which it might be turned back.

Whence very often not only is the mind agitated and reason lost, but the countenance too is inflamed, either with anger or with lust: it grows pale with fear, is beside itself with pleasure, and exults with excessive joy.

229. When these things happen, that natural sort of judgment is cast aside, along with gravity of character; nor can that constancy be maintained which alone, in the conduct of affairs and in counsels, can preserve its own authority and that which is becoming.

230. But a graver appetite arises from excessive indignation, which the pain of an injury received usually kindles. Concerning this the precepts of the psalm which we set at the beginning instruct us sufficiently. And it happened fittingly that we, about to write on Duties, should have used in our preface that assertion which itself pertained to the teaching of duty.

231. But because above, as was fitting, we touched only briefly on how each person may guard against being provoked by an injury received, fearing that the preface would become too lengthy, I think we should now discuss it more fully. For this is an opportune place to speak, among the parts of temperance, of how anger is to be restrained.

We wish, then, to show, if we can, that there are three kinds of men who receive injury, as the divine Scriptures demonstrate. One is of those whom a sinner insults, reviles, tramples upon. In these, because justice is lacking, shame grows, sorrow increases. Many of my order, of my number, are like these. For if someone should do an injury to me, weak as I am, perhaps, though weak, I may forgive my injury. But if he cast a charge at me, I am not so great that I could be content with my own conscience, even if I know myself innocent of what is charged: but I desire, weak as I am, to wash away the mark upon my noble sense of shame. So I demand an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, and repay insult with insult.

233. But if I am one who is making progress, and though not yet perfect, I do not turn back the insult: even if he pours forth abuse, and floods my ears with reproaches, I keep silent, and answer nothing.

234. But if I were perfect (I speak by way of example, for in truth I am weak)—if, then, I were perfect, I bless him who curses, as Paul also blessed; who says: We are cursed, and we bless. For he had heard him say: Love your enemies, pray for those who slander and persecute you. For this reason, then, Paul suffered and endured persecution, because he overcame and softened human feeling for the sake of the reward set before him: that he might become a son of God, if he had loved his enemy.

235. Yet we can also show that holy David, in this kind of virtue too, was not inferior to Paul.

For first, when his son Semei cursed him, and cast charges at him, he kept silent and humbled himself, and was silent about his own good deeds, that is, about the consciousness of his good works; then he even desired to be cursed, because by that curse he was gaining divine mercy.

236. Observe, however, how he reserved humility, justice, and prudence, in order to merit grace from the Lord. First he said: He curses me for this reason, because the Lord told him to curse. You have humility here; for he judged that things commanded by divine will must be borne with equanimity, like a servant. Again he said: Behold, my own son, who came forth from my body, seeks my life.

Here you have justice; for if we suffer worse things from our own kin, why do we take amiss what is inflicted by strangers? Thirdly he said: Let him alone, that he may curse; for the Lord has told him to, that he may see my humiliation, and the Lord may repay me for this curse. And not only did he endure the one reviling him, but even left unharmed the one who stoned him and followed after him; indeed, after his victory, he freely forgave the one who asked for pardon.

237. I have inserted this in order to show that holy David, in Evangelical spirit, was not merely inoffended, but even grateful, toward the one who reviled him, and was delighted rather than exasperated by injuries, for which he thought a reward would be given him. But yet, though perfect, he still sought more perfect things. He grew warm with the pain of the injury, as a man does: but he conquered as a good soldier does: he endured as a strong athlete does.

Now the goal of patience is the expectation of things promised, and therefore he said: Make known to me, O Lord, my end, and the number of my days, what it is, that I may know what is lacking to me. He seeks that end of the promises of heaven, or that time when each one shall rise in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then those who are Christ's, who believed in his coming, then the end. For when the kingdom has been delivered to God the Father, and all powers annulled, as the Apostle said, perfection begins. Here, then, is hindrance, here is the weakness even of the perfect; there, full perfection. Therefore he seeks also those days of eternal life, which are, and do not pass away; that he may know what is lacking to him, what is the land of promise bearing everlasting fruits, what is the first dwelling place with the Father, what the second, what the third, in which each one shall rest according to the measure of his merits.

238. Those things therefore are to be sought by us, in which there is perfection, in which there is truth. Here is shadow, here is image, there is truth. Shadow in the Law, image in the Gospel, truth in the heavenly things Formerly a lamb was offered, a calf too was offered, now Christ is offered: but he is offered as man, as one receiving suffering: and he offers himself as priest, that he may remit our sins: here in image, there in truth, where he intervenes with the Father for us as an advocate. Here therefore we walk in an image, we see in an image; there face to face, where perfection is full, because all perfection is in truth.

Let not the adversary find his image in you, not rage, not fury, for in these is the image of wickedness. For the adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, seeks whom he may kill, whom he may devour. Let him not find greed for gold, not heaps of silver, not the images of vices, lest he take away from you the voice of freedom. For that is the voice of freedom, that you may say: The prince of this world will come, and he will find nothing in me. And so, if you are secure that he will find nothing in you when he comes to search, you will say that which the patriarch Jacob said to Laban: Know if anything of yours is with me. Rightly blessed was Jacob, in whom Laban could find nothing of his own! For Rachel had hidden the golden and silver images of his gods.

241. And so if wisdom, if faith, if contempt of the world, if your grace hides all treachery, you will be blessed; because you do not look upon vanities and false follies. Is it a small thing to take away from the adversary his voice, that he cannot have authority to accuse you? And so he who does not look upon vanities is not troubled: for he who looks is troubled, and indeed most vainly. For what is it to gather riches, but a vain thing: since it is vain enough to seek things that perish? But when you have gathered them, who knows whether it will be lawful for you to possess them?

242. Is it not vain that a merchant makes his journey by nights and days, by which he may be able to heap up piles of treasure, gather merchandise, be troubled about price, lest perhaps he sell for less than he bought, hunt after the prices of places, and suddenly either stir up robbers against himself through envy of his famous trading, or, not waiting for calmer winds, while seeking gain, impatient of delay, fall into shipwreck?

243. Is not he also troubled in vain, who heaps up with the greatest labor what he does not know to which heir he will leave? Often what the miser has amassed with the greatest anxiety, a luxurious heir tears apart in headlong dissipation: and a base glutton, blind to the present, improvident of the future, swallows in some abyss things long sought, disgracefully. Often too the hoped-for successor incurs the envy of the acquired inheritance, and by a swift death transcribes to strangers the gains of the succession he had entered upon.

244. Why then do you vainly weave a spider's web, which is empty and without fruit, and hang up, as it were, useless nets of riches abundance: which even if they flow, profit nothing; indeed they strip from you the image of God, and clothe you with the image of the earthly. If someone should have the image of a tyrant, is he not liable to condemnation? You lay aside the image of the eternal Emperor, and set up in yourself the image of death. Cast out rather from the city of your soul the image of the devil, and lift up the image of Christ. Let this shine in you, let it shine forth in your city, that is, your soul, which blots out the images of vices. Of which David says: Lord, in your city you shall bring their images to nothing. For when the Lord shall have painted Jerusalem to his own image, then every image of adversaries is destroyed.

But if by the Gospel of the Lord even the people themselves have been formed and instructed to a contempt of wealth; how much more ought you Levites not to be held by earthly desires, whose portion is God? For when the earthly possession was being divided by Moses among the people, little was left, the Lord excepted the Levites from partnership in earthly possession, because he himself was their cord of inheritance. Whence David says: The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup. Finally the Levite himself is called "mine," or "himself for me." Great therefore is his office, that the Lord should say of him: "He is mine"; or as he said to Peter concerning the stater found in the mouth of the fish: You will give it to them for me and for you.

Whence also the Apostle, when he had said that a bishop ought to be sober, chaste, orderly, hospitable, apt to teach, not greedy, not quarrelsome, ruling his own house well, added: Deacons likewise must be grave, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of base gain, holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. And let these also first be tested, and so let them minister, having no crime.

246. We observe how great are the things required of us: that the minister of the Lord be abstinent from wine, that he be supported by the good testimony not only of the faithful, but also of those who are outside. For it is fitting that public opinion be the witness of our acts and deeds, lest disgrace be brought upon the office; that he who sees the minister of the altar adorned with fitting virtues may proclaim the Author, and venerate the Lord, who has such servants.

For the praise of the Lord is where possession is clean, where the discipline of the household is innocent.

247. But why should I speak of the testimonies concerning chastity, when only a single union, and not a repeated one, is permitted? And so even in marriage itself there is a law not to repeat marriage, nor to obtain the union of a second wife. This seems astonishing to many, why even before baptism a repeated marriage generates impediments to the choice of office and the prerogative of ordination; since even sins do not usually harm, if they have been remitted by the sacrament of the laver. But we ought to understand that by baptism guilt can be forgiven, but law cannot be abolished. In marriage there is no guilt, but law. What therefore belongs to guilt is released in baptism: what belongs to law is not dissolved in marriage. But how can he be an exhorter to widowhood who himself has frequented marriages?

248. But you know that the ministry must be shown unoffending and immaculate, not to be violated by any conjugal union, you who, whole in body, uncorrupted in modesty, estranged even from the very fellowship of marriage, have received the grace of the sacred ministry? I have not passed over this because, in many hidden places, while holding the ministry, or even the priesthood, they have begotten children: and they defend this as if by ancient custom, when at intervals of days the sacrifice was offered; and yet even the people were purified for two or three days, that they might approach the sacrifice pure, as we read in the Old Testament; and they washed their garments. If in the figure there was such observance, how much more in the truth? Learn, priest and Levite, what it is to wash your garments, that you may present a clean body for the celebration of the sacraments.

If the people were forbidden to approach their sacrifice without the washing of their garments, do you, unwashed alike in mind and body, dare to intercede for others, dare to minister to others?

249. Not slight is the office of the Levites, of whom the Lord says: Behold, I choose the Levites from the midst of the children of Israel instead of every firstborn that opens the womb among the children of Israel: their redemptions shall be these, and they shall be mine, the Levites. For I have sanctified to myself the firstborn in the land of Egypt. We know that the Levites are not reckoned among the rest, but are preferred to all, being chosen out of all, and sanctified: as the firstfruits of fruits and the firstfruits which are set apart for the Lord, in which is the payment of vows and the redemption of sins.

You shall not, he says, receive them among the children of Israel; but you shall appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the testimony, and over all its vessels, and to stand over whatsoever is in it. Let them bear the tabernacle and all its vessels, and let them minister in it, and let them themselves pitch camp round about the tabernacle, and in moving forward let the Levites themselves take down the tabernacle: and in pitching camp, let them themselves again set up the tabernacle. Whatever stranger shall approach, let him die the death.

250. You therefore are chosen out of the whole number of the children of Israel, esteemed as it were firstborn among the sacred fruits, set over the tabernacle, that you may keep watch in the camps of holiness and faith, to which if a stranger approach, he shall die the death, set to cover the Ark of the Testament.

For not all see the lofty things of the mysteries, because they are covered by the Levites; lest those who ought not to see should see, and those who cannot keep should take. Moses indeed saw spiritual circumcision: but he covered it, that he might prescribe circumcision in a sign. He saw the unleavened bread of truth and sincerity, he saw the Passion of the Lord: he covered the unleavened bread of truth with bodily unleavened bread, he covered the Passion of the Lord with the immolation of the lamb or the calf. And the good Levites kept the mystery under the covering of their faith; and do you think what has been entrusted to you a small thing? First, that you may see the lofty things of God, which is of wisdom: then, that you may keep watch for the people, which is of justice; that you defend the camp, and guard the tabernacle, which is of fortitude: that you present yourself continent and sober, which is of temperance.

251. These principal kinds of virtues even those who are outside have established: but they judged the order of community to be higher than that of wisdom; whereas wisdom is the foundation, justice is the work, which cannot stand unless it has a foundation. But the foundation is Christ.

252. First therefore is faith, which belongs to wisdom, as Solomon says, following his father: The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. And the law says: You shall love the Lord your God, you shall love your neighbor. For it is a beautiful thing that you should bestow your favor and your services upon the fellowship of the human race. But that comes first as fitting, that what you have most precious, that is, your mind, than which you have nothing more excellent, you devote to God.

When you have paid the debt owed to the Author, then it is lawful that you bestow your works upon the benefit and aid of men, and bring help to their necessities, either by money, or by service, or even by any gift whatsoever; which applies widely in your ministry: by money, that you may assist; by debt, that you may free one bound; by service, that you may take upon yourself the safekeeping of things which he who entrusted them for deposit fears to lose.

253. It is therefore a duty to keep and return a deposit.

But sometimes a change occurs, either by time or by necessity, so that it is not one's duty to return what you have received; as if someone, an open enemy bringing aid to Barbarians against his fatherland, should demand back money; or if you should return something to someone, when there is one present who would seize it by force: if you should restore to a madman, when he cannot keep it safely; if to a raging man you should not refuse a deposited sword, with which he may kill himself, is it not against duty to have discharged the deposit? If knowingly you receive things acquired by theft, so that he who lost them is defrauded, is it not against duty?

254. It is also sometimes against duty to fulfill a promise; to keep an oath: as Herod, who swore that whatever he should be asked he would give to the daughter of Herodias, and granted the death of John, lest he should deny his promise For what shall I say of Jephthah, who sacrificed his daughter, who had first met him as victor, in order to fulfill the vow which he had pledged, that whatever should first meet him he would offer to God? It would have been better to promise nothing of the sort than to fulfill a promise by parricide.

255. You are not ignorant how much foresight this requires.

And therefore a Levite is chosen to guard the sanctuary, that he not be deceived in counsel, that he not abandon fidelity, that he not fear death, that he not act too intemperately, that he may display gravity by his very appearance; not only having a continent mind, but also eyes that befit such a man; lest even a chance encounter violate the brow of sobriety; since: Whoever has looked upon a woman to desire her has committed adultery with her in his heart. Thus adultery is committed not only by the defilement of the deed, but also by the intention of the gaze.

256. These things seem great, and too severe, but in so great an office they are not superfluous; since so great is the grace of the Levites, that Moses in his blessings said of them: Give to Levi his manifest things, give to Levi the lot of his suffrage and his truth to the holy man, whom they tempted in temptations, whom they cursed at the water of contradiction.

Who says to his father and mother: I do not know you: and he did not acknowledge his brothers, and disowned his own sons: this man has kept your words, and observed your covenant.

257. Those therefore are his men, and his manifest ones, who have no guile in their heart, who conceal no fraud, but keep his words, and gather them in their heart, as Mary also gathered: who do not think their own parents ought to be preferred to their duty, who hate the violators of chastity, who avenge the injury done to modesty, who know the times of their duties: what is greater, what is lesser, what is fitting for which occasion, and that they follow only what is honorable; and indeed, where there are two honorable things, that they judge that which is more honorable to be preferred; these are rightly blessed.

258. If then anyone shows forth the justices of God, let him offer incense: Bless, O Lord, his strength, and receive the works of his hands; that he may find the grace of the prophetic blessing with him who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.

1. Honorableness Outshining the Body's Other Goods

In the previous book we treated of the Offices, which we judged to be in agreement with honorableness, in which none have doubted that the blessed life is placed, and which Scripture calls life eternal. For so great is the splendor of honorableness that tranquility of conscience and the security of innocence make the blessed life. And therefore, just as the rising sun conceals the orb of the moon and the other lights of the stars, so the brightness of honorableness, where it truly gleams with uncorrupted beauty, overshadows the other things which are thought good according to the pleasure of the body, or which are bright and illustrious according to the age.

2. Blessedness Independent of Human Judgment

Blessed indeed is that which is not estimated by others' judgments, but is perceived by one's own inward senses, as it were its own judge. For it neither seeks popular opinions as a reward, nor fears them as a punishment. And so, the less it follows glory, the more it rises above it. For those who seek glory, for them that reward is a present shadow, the shadow of future things, which impede eternal life: as it is written in the Gospel: Amen I say to you, they have received their reward; namely of those who, as if a trumpet were sounding, delight to publish abroad the liberality they show toward the poor. Likewise also concerning the fasting which they do for the sake of ostentation: They have, he says, their reward.

3. Almsgiving and Fasting Done in Secret

It belongs, therefore, to honorableness either to do mercy, or to observe fasting, in secret: so that you may seem to seek your reward from your God alone, and not also from men. For he who seeks it from men has his reward; but he who seeks it from God has eternal life: which none can bestow save the author of eternity, as in that saying: Amen I say to you, today you shall be with me in paradise. Whence Scripture more expressly called that which is blessed "eternal life": so that it might not be left to be judged by the opinions of men, but committed to the divine judgment.

4. Rival Philosophical Schools on the Highest Good

And so the philosophers placed the blessed life, some in the absence of pain, as Hieronymus: others in the knowledge of things, as Herillus, who, hearing from Aristotle and Theophrastus the knowledge of things wonderfully praised, set it up alone as the supreme good; whereas those men praised it as a good, not as the sole good. Others said it was pleasure, as Epicurus: others, as Callipho, and after him Diodorus, interpreted it thus, that the one joined pleasure, the other freedom from pain, together with the fellowship of honorableness, since without it the blessed life cannot be. Zeno the Stoic held that the sole and supreme good is that which is honorable: but Aristotle, or Theophrastus, and the rest of the Peripatetics, asserted that the blessed life consists indeed in virtue, that is, in honorableness, but that its blessedness is completed also by the goods of the body and external goods.

5. Eternal Life as Knowledge of God and Good Works

But divine Scripture places eternal life in the knowledge of the Godhead, and in the fruit of good work. Indeed the Gospel furnishes testimony for both assertions. For concerning knowledge the Lord Jesus said thus: Now this is eternal life, that they know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. And concerning works he answered thus: Everyone who has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or fields, for my name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall possess eternal life.

6. David's Anticipation of the Philosophers on the Blessed Life

But lest this be thought a recent thing, treated first by the philosophers before being preached in the Gospel (for the philosophers before the Gospel, that is, Aristotle and Theophrastus, or Zeno and Hieronymus, are nevertheless later than the prophets), let them receive proof that, long before the name of philosophers was heard, both things were clearly expressed through the mouth of holy David. For it is written: Blessed is the man whom thou hast instructed, O Lord, and taught out of thy law. We have also elsewhere: Blessed is the man that fears the Lord: he shall delight exceedingly in his commandments. We have taught concerning knowledge, whose reward the Prophet recalled to be the fruit of eternity, adding that in the house of this man who fears the Lord, or is instructed in the Law, and delights in the divine commandments: Glory and riches shall be in his house, and his justice remains for ever and ever.

Concerning works also, in the same psalm, he added that the reward of eternal life is at hand for the just man. For he says further: Blessed is the man who shows mercy and lends, he shall order his words with judgment: because he shall not be moved for ever. The just shall be in everlasting remembrance. And below: He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor: his justice remains for ever.

7. Faith as Foundation, Works as Its Proof

Faith therefore has eternal life, because it is a good foundation: good deeds also have it, because the just man is proved both by words and by deeds. For if he be practiced in words, and idle in works, he refutes his own prudence by his deeds: and it is more grievous to know what one should do, and not to have done what one has recognized ought to be done. On the other hand, to be strenuous in works while faithless in affection, is as if you wished to raise the fair heights of roofs upon a faulty foundation: the more you build, the more it collapses; because without the defense of faith, good works cannot endure. An untrustworthy anchorage pierces the ship even in port, and sandy soil quickly gives way, nor can it sustain the weight of a building placed upon it. There, then, is the fullness of reward, where there is perfection of the virtues, and a certain equality of sobriety in deeds and in words alike.

8. Scripture's Plain Judgment Against Confused Philosophy

And since the knowledge of things alone has been rejected, either as vain according to the superfluous disputations of Philosophy, or as a half-complete opinion: let us consider how plain and unentangled a judgment divine Scripture resolves concerning that matter of which we see the questions of philosophy to be so manifold, intricate, and confused. For Scripture asserts nothing to be good save what is honorable, and judges virtue to be blessed in every condition of things, which is neither increased by goods of the body or external goods, nor diminished by adversities: and nothing is so blessed as that which is estranged from sin, full of innocence, filled with the grace of God. For it is written: Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the wicked, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the chair of pestilence: but his will was in the law of the Lord. And elsewhere: Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.

9. Innocence and Knowledge as the Ground of Blessedness

Innocence and knowledge, therefore, make one blessed. We noted above also that the reward of good working is the blessedness of eternal life. It remains, then, that, the patronage of pleasure being spurned, or the fear of pain of which the one it spits out as broken and soft, the other as unmanned and weak, he should demonstrate that the blessed life stands out even amid pains themselves. This can easily be shown, when we read: Blessed are you when they shall curse you, and persecute you, and speak all manner of evil against you, for justice' sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for your reward is very great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you. And elsewhere: Whoever wills to come after me, let him take up his cross, and follow me.

10. Moses Blessed Amid Danger at the Sea

There is, then, blessedness even amid pains, which a virtue full of sweetness restrains and holds in check, itself abounding in its own domestic resources, whether toward conscience or toward grace. Nor was Moses, indeed, little blessed, when, hemmed in by the peoples of Egypt, and shut in by the sea, he found through the waves, by his pious merits, a footpath for himself and his people. And when was he ever stronger than when, surrounded by extreme dangers, he did not despair of safety, but rather demanded a triumph?

11. Aaron Amid Death and Daniel Among Lions

What of Aaron, when did he believe himself more blessed, than when he stood in the midst between the living and the dead, and by placing himself in the way, checked death, lest it should pass from the corpses of the dead over to the ranks of the living? What shall I say of the boy Daniel, who was so wise that among lions exasperated by hunger he was broken by no dread of bestial savagery: so estranged from fear that he could feast, without fearing that he would by his own example provoke the wild beasts to feeding?

12. Paul Counts All Things Loss for Christ

There is, then, virtue even in pain, which affords itself the sweetness of a good conscience; and this is evidence that pain does not diminish the pleasure of virtue. Therefore, just as there is no diminishing of blessedness to virtue through pain, so also there is no increase of it through pleasure of the body or the favor of advantages. Of which things the Apostle beautifully said: What things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. And he added: For whom I have counted all things as loss, and do esteem them as dung, that I may gain Christ.

13. Moses Forsakes Egypt's Treasures for Manna

Indeed Moses believed the treasures of the Egyptians to be his loss, and he preferred the reproach of the Lord's cross: he was neither rich then, when he abounded in money, nor poor afterward, when he lacked food; unless perhaps he seemed to someone less blessed at that time, when in the desert daily sustenance was lacking to himself and his people. But—what no one would dare deny of the highest good and of blessedness—manna, that is, the bread of angels, was ministered to him from heaven: and a daily rain of flesh abounded for the feasting of the whole people.

14. Elijah Fed by Ravens and a Widow's Oil

For holy Elijah too, bread for his living would have been lacking, if it had been sought: but it did not seem to be lacking, because it was not sought. And so, by the daily service of ravens, bread was brought in the morning, and flesh in the evening. Was he then less blessed, because he was poor as regards himself? By no means. Rather he was the more blessed, because he was rich toward God. For it is a greater thing to be rich for others than for oneself, as he was, who in the time of famine asked food of a widow, being about to grant that the jar of meal should not fail for three years and six months, and that the vessel of oil should suffice and minister to the daily uses of the needy widow. Rightly did Peter wish to be there, where he saw these men. Rightly did they appear on the mountain with Christ in glory; because he too was made poor, though he was rich.

15. The Beatitudes on Poverty and Blessedness

Riches, then, provide no aid at all toward the blessed life. This the Lord clearly showed in the Gospel, saying: Blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst now, for they shall be filled. Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh. Thus it has been most clearly declared that poverty, hunger, and pain, which are thought evils, are not only no impediment to the blessed life, but even a help to it.

16. The Gospel Woes Against Riches and Pleasure

But also that those things which seem good—riches, fullness, gladness free from pain—are to the detriment of the fruit of blessedness, is made clear by the declaration of the Lord's judgment, where it is said: Woe to you that are rich, for you have your consolation! Woe to you that are filled, for you shall hunger! And to those who laugh, for they shall mourn. Thus, then, the goods of the body or external goods are not only no help toward the blessed life, but are even a loss to it.

17. Naboth's Vineyard and Ahab's Condemnation

For this reason blessed Naboth, even while being stoned by a rich man, because he was poor and weak against royal wealth, was rich in affection and religion alone, so that he would not exchange the inheritance of his paternal vineyard for royal money: and so he was made perfect, because with his own blood he defended the rights of his forefathers. For this reason too, wretched Ahab was condemned even by his own judgment, because he had caused a poor man to be killed, that he might possess his vineyard.

18. Virtue Alone as the Path to Blessedness

It is certain that the sole and supreme good is virtue, and that it alone suffices for the fruit of the blessed life: nor is the blessed life afforded by external goods or goods of the body, but by virtue alone, through which eternal life is acquired. For the blessed life is the fruit of things present: but eternal life is the hope of things to come. 19. There are, however, those who think the blessed life impossible in this body, so weak, so fragile, in which one must needs be afflicted, grieve, weep, and sicken: as though indeed I should say that the blessed life consists in the exultation of the body, and not in the loftiness of wisdom, the sweetness of conscience, the sublimity of virtue. For it is blessed not to be in suffering, but to be the victor over suffering, and not to be broken by the movement of temporal pain.

20. Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, David, and Job in Suffering

Suppose these things happen which are reckoned grievous by the force of pain: blindness, exile, hunger, the violation of a daughter, the loss of children. Who would deny that Isaac was blessed, who did not see in his old age, and yet conferred blessings with his benedictions? Was not Jacob blessed, who as a fugitive from his father's house endured exile as a hired shepherd, who groaned over his daughter's chastity being violated, who endured hunger? Are they not blessed of whose faith God accepts testimony, when it is said: The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob? Slavery is wretched, but Joseph was not wretched; indeed he was plainly blessed, when, placed in slavery, he restrained the lusts of his mistress. What shall I say of holy David, who mourned the death of three sons, and, what is harder than this, the incest of his daughter? How is he not blessed, from whose line the author of blessedness arose, who made very many blessed?

For blessed are they who have not seen and have believed. They too were in the feeling of weakness, but they grew strong out of weakness. What was more laborious than for holy Job, either in the burning of his house, or the sudden death of his ten children, or bodily pains? Is he less blessed than if he had not endured those things, in which he was rather the more approved:

21. Grief Hidden Like Darnel Amid the Wheat

Grant, however, that there was some bitterness in these things, since strength of soul does not hide grief. For I would not deny that the sea is deep, because there are shallow shores; nor that the sky is bright, because it is sometimes covered with clouds; nor that the earth is fruitful, because in some places there is barren gravel; nor that the crops are joyful, because they usually have barren oats mixed in. In like manner, suppose that the harvest of a blessed conscience is interrupted by some bitter grief. Is it not the case that, in all the sheaves of a blessed life, if by chance something adverse and bitter occurs, it is hidden away like barren oats, or, like the bitterness of darnel, is covered over by the sweetness of the wheat? But let us now proceed to the matters proposed.

22. Recalling the Prior Division of Duties

In the previous book we made the division thus, that in the first place was what is honorable and becoming, from which duties are derived, in the second place what is useful. And just as we said in the first book that between the honorable and the becoming there is a certain distinction, which can be understood rather than explained: so also, when we treat of what is useful, it seems that what is more useful must be considered.

23. Usefulness Measured by Piety, Not Profit

We reckon usefulness, however, not by the estimate of pecuniary gain, but by the acquisition of piety; as the Apostle says: But piety is useful for all things, having promise of the present life and of that which is to come. And so in the divine Scriptures, if we inquire diligently, we often find that what is honorable is called useful: All things are lawful for me, but not all things are useful. Above he was speaking of vices.

He therefore says this: It is lawful to sin, but it is not becoming. Sins are within one's power, but they are not honorable. To live in luxury is easy, but it is not just. For food is gathered not for God but for the belly.

24. Judas' Betrayal Through Avarice

Therefore, because what is useful is also just: it is just that we should serve Christ who redeemed us; hence those are just who offered themselves to death for his name: unjust are those who turned away, of whom he says: What profit is there in my blood; that is, what advance for my righteousness? Whence also those others: Let us bind the just man, because he is useless to us, that is, the unjust man who accuses, condemns, corrects us. Although this can also be referred to the avarice of impious men, which is neighbor to perfidy; as we read in the case of Judas the betrayer, who through zeal for avarice and desire for money, ran into and fell into the snare of betrayal.

25. The Apostle's Definition of True Profit

We must therefore treat of that usefulness which is full of honorableness, as the Apostle himself defined it in these very words, saying: Now this I say for your profit, not to cast a snare upon you, but for that which is honorable. It is clear, therefore, that what is honorable is useful; and what is useful is honorable: and what is useful is just; and what is just is useful. For my speech is not directed to merchants greedy for gain through desire of profit, but to sons, and my discourse concerns duties, which I am eager to instill and pour into you whom I have chosen for the ministry of the Lord; so that those things which have become ingrained and impressed upon your minds and characters through practice and training, may also be made plain through speech and instruction.

26. Inclining the Heart Away From Avarice

And so, being about to speak of usefulness, I shall use that prophetic verse: Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to avarice: lest the very sound of "usefulness" should stir up a desire for money. Indeed, some have it: Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to profit: that is, not to that profit which hunts after the market of gains, that profit which by human custom has been bent and diverted toward the pursuits of money. For commonly men call only this useful, which brings gain: but we treat of that usefulness which is sought through losses; that we may gain Christ, whose gain is piety with sufficiency. Great indeed is the gain by which we acquire piety, which is rich before God, not with perishable resources, but with eternal gifts: in which there is no slippery temptation, but constant and perpetual grace.

27. Bodily Exercise Versus the Usefulness of Piety

There is, then, one usefulness that is bodily, another that belongs to piety, as the Apostle divided it: For bodily exercise, he says, is profitable for a little; but piety is useful for all things. But what is so honorable as integrity? What is so becoming as to keep the body unstained, and modesty inviolate and untainted? What too is so becoming as for a widow to keep faith with a deceased husband? What too is more useful than this, by which the heavenly kingdom is acquired? For there are those who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven.

And first let us know that nothing is so useful as to be loved: nothing so useless as not to be loved; for to be held in hatred I consider destructive and altogether fatal. Let us therefore act so that with all diligence we commend our reputation and the opinion held of us, and first let us flow into the affection of men by gentleness of mind and kindness of spirit. For goodness is popular and pleasing to all, and nothing so easily glides into human feelings. If this be aided by gentleness of manners and affability, then by moderation in precept and courteousness of speech, honor in words, patient forbearance also in exchange of words, and the grace of modesty, it is incredible how much it advances toward the increase of love. For we read not only among private persons but even among kings themselves, how much the ease of pleasant affability has profited, or how much the swelling of pride and words has harmed; so that it has shaken kingdoms themselves and dissolved power.

Now if anyone by counsel, experience, service, and duties wins popular favor: or if anyone offers his own danger on behalf of the whole people; there is no doubt that so much affection is poured back upon him from the people, that the people prefer his safety and welfare to their own.

31. Moses' Gentleness Toward an Ungrateful People

How many insults inflicted by the people did Moses absorb: and when the Lord wished to take vengeance on the insolent, he nevertheless repeatedly offered himself on behalf of the people, that he might withdraw the people from divine indignation! With how gentle a speech, after injuries, did he address the people, console them in their labors, soothe them with oracles, cherish them with works: and though he spoke constantly with God, yet he was accustomed to address men with a humble and pleasing address! Deservedly he was esteemed above men, so that they could not gaze upon his face, and they believed his burial place was never found; because he had so bound to himself the minds of the whole people, that they loved him more for his gentleness than they admired him for his deeds.

32. David's Gentleness as Shepherd and King

What of his imitator, holy David, chosen out of all to rule the people, how gentle and pleasant, humble in spirit, diligent in heart, easy in disposition! Before his reign he offered himself on behalf of all: as king he made his military service equal with all, and shared the labor: strong in battle, gentle in command, patient under reproach, more ready to bear injuries than to return them. Therefore he was so dear to all, that as a young man he was sought for the kingdom even against his will, and being resistant was compelled, and as an old man he was asked by his own men not to take part in battle: because all preferred to risk themselves for him, rather than that he should risk himself for all.

33. David's Justice Toward Abner, His Former Enemy

Thus he had first bound the people to himself by gracious services, so that in the discords of the people he preferred to be exiled in Hebron rather than to reign in Jerusalem; then, that he loved virtue even when found in an enemy: he thought that justice ought to be shown equally to those who had borne arms against him as to his own; finally he admired Abner, the bravest champion of the opposing party and the one who brought on battles, and did not spurn him when he begged the grace of peace, but honored him with a banquet: he grieved and wept when he was slain by treachery, accompanied his funeral and honored it, avenged his death, and rendered fidelity of conscience, which he transcribed to his son among the rights of inheritance, being more anxious lest he should leave the death of the innocent unavenged, than concerned to grieve his own death.

34. David Offers Himself for the People's Sin

This is no small thing, especially in a king, thus to discharge the duties of humility, so as to show himself common even to the lowest, not to seek food at another's peril, to refuse drink, to confess sin, and to offer himself to death on behalf of the people, that the divine indignation might be turned upon himself, when, offering himself to the smiting angel, he said: Behold, it, I have sinned, and I the shepherd have done wickedly, and this flock, what have they done? Let your hand be against me.

35. David's Patience Under Reproach and God's Favor

For what else shall I say, that he did not open his mouth against those who plotted deceit, and, as though not hearing, thought no word should be repeated: he did not answer revilings: when he was disparaged, he prayed: when he was cursed, he blessed! Walking in simplicity, and fleeing the proud, a follower of the undefiled, who mixed ashes with his food, when he bewailed his own sins, and tempered his drink with weeping. Deservedly he was so sought after by the whole people, that all the tribes of Israel came to him saying: Behold, we are your bone and your flesh: yesterday and the day before, when Saul was king and reigned over us, it was you who led Israel out and in. And the Lord said to you: You shall shepherd my people. And what more shall I say of him, of whom such a saying of God went forth, that he said of him: I have found David according to my own heart?

For who has walked in holiness of heart and justice as he did, so as to fulfill the will of God: for whose sake pardon was given even to his offending descendants, and a special privilege was reserved for his heirs.

36. David's Friendship and Saul's Jealousy of Jonathan

Who then would not love him whom he saw so dear to his friends; so that, because he himself loved his friends sincerely, he judged that he was equally loved by his friends in return? Indeed, parents preferred him to their own children, and children preferred him to their parents. Whence Saul, being gravely indignant, wished to strike his son Jonathan with a spear; because he judged that David's friendship counted for more with him than either filial devotion or paternal authority.

37. The Duty of Returning a Friend's Love

For indeed, it profits very much toward kindling common affection, if one returns the turn to those who love him, and shows himself no less loving in return than he is loved, and this proves itself by examples of faithful friendship. For what is so popular as favor? What is so implanted in nature as to love the one who loves you? What is so ingrained and impressed upon human affections as to bring yourself to love him by whom you wish to be loved? Rightly does the wise man say: Lose your money for the sake of a brother and a friend. And elsewhere: I will not be ashamed to greet a friend, nor will I hide myself from his face. Indeed the word of Ecclesiasticus testifies that in a friend there is a medicine of life and immortality: and no one would doubt that the highest defense is in love, since the Apostle says: It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things; love never fails.

38. David Chose to Be Loved Rather Than Feared

Therefore David did not fall, because he was dear to all, and preferred to be loved by his subjects rather than feared. For fear keeps a temporary guard of watchfulness, but knows no lasting keeping. And so, when fear departs, boldness creeps in; because fear does not compel fidelity, but affection provides it.

39. Charity as the Foundation of Trust

Therefore the first thing for our commendation is charity. It is good, then, to have testimony of the affection of very many. From this is born trust, so that even strangers do not fear to entrust themselves to your affection, when they perceive that you are dear to many. Likewise also through trust one arrives at charity; so that he who has kept faith with one or two, as it were flows into the minds of all, and acquires the favor of everyone.

And because the use of counsels especially wins over men, therefore prudence and justice are desired in each person, and these are expected from very many; so that in whomever they are found, trust is placed that he can give useful and faithful counsel to one who seeks it. For who would entrust himself to one whom he does not think wiser than himself who seeks the counsel? It is necessary, therefore, that he from whom counsel is sought be more excellent than he who seeks it. For why would you consult a man whom you would not judge able to discover something better than you yourself understand?

42. But if you find one who excels in liveliness of intellect, vigor of mind and authority, and to this is added that he is more ready by example and experience, that he resolves present dangers, foresees future ones, gives warning of what threatens, unfolds argument, brings remedy in time, is ready not only to advise but also to help; to such a one so much trust is given that he who seeks counsel may say: Even if evils should befall me through him, I will bear it.

43. To a man of this sort, therefore, we entrust our safety and reputation, one who is, as we said above, just and prudent. For justice brings it about that there is no fear of fraud; prudence also brings it about that there is no suspicion of error. Yet we entrust ourselves more readily to a just man than to a prudent one, to speak according to common usage. But by the definition of the wise, in whom one virtue is found, the others concur, nor can prudence exist without justice.

This too we find among our own; for David says: The just man shows mercy and lends. What the just man lends, he says elsewhere: A pleasant man is he who shows mercy and lends, he will order his words with judgment.

44. Two Mothers Bring Their Dispute Before Solomon

Is not that noble judgment of Solomon itself full of wisdom and justice? Let us look at it, then, if it is so. Two women, it says, stood in the presence of King Solomon, and one said to him: Hear me, my lord. I and this woman were dwelling in one chamber, and on the third day after our delivery we each brought forth a son, and we were together, no witness in the house, nor any other woman with us, but we alone: and her son died this night, as she slept upon him: and she arose at midnight, and took my son from my bosom, and laid him in her bosom, and laid her dead son in my bosom. And I rose in the morning to nurse the child, and found him dead. And I looked at him closely at dawn, and he was not my son. And the other answered: No, but my son is the one who lives; and your son is the one who is dead.

45. Solomon Orders the Child Divided by the Sword

And this was the dispute, since each claimed the surviving son for herself, and denied the dead one as her own. Then the king ordered a sword to be brought, and the infant to be divided, and each part given to each: half to one, and half to the other. The woman who was moved by true affection cried out: By no means, my lord, divide the infant: rather let it be given to her, and let it live, and do not kill it. But the other answered: Let it be neither mine nor hers, divide it. And the king decreed that the infant be given to the woman who had said: Do not kill it, but give it to that woman; for her bowels, he said, were moved for her son.

46. A Mother's Hidden Love Revealed to Solomon

And so not without reason it was judged that the understanding of God was in him: for what things are hidden from God? But what is more hidden than the testimony of inward feeling, into which the understanding of the wise man descends as a certain arbiter of piety, and draws forth as it were a certain voice of the maternal womb; for maternal affection was made manifest, which chose that her son should live even with a stranger, rather than be slain in the sight of his mother.

47. Wisdom and Justice Combined in Solomon's Judgment

It was, then, a matter of wisdom to distinguish hidden consciences, to draw forth truth from what is concealed; and, as it were by a certain sword, so with the sword of the spirit to pierce not only the recesses of the womb but also of the soul and mind: it was also a matter of justice, that she who had killed her own should not take another's; but that the true mother should recover her own. Finally Scripture itself has declared this: All Israel, it says, heard this judgment which the king had judged: and they feared before the face of the king, because the understanding of God was in him, to do justice. Finally Solomon himself asked for wisdom in this way, that a wise heart be given him to hear and to judge with justice.

There is, then, an inseparable fellowship of wisdom and justice: but by common usage a certain single form of the virtues is divided, so that temperance is placed in the disdaining of pleasures: fortitude is seen in labors and dangers: prudence in the choosing of good things, knowing how to distinguish advantages from adversities: justice, which is the good guardian of another's right, and the vindicator of ownership, preserving to each what is his own. Let this fourfold division, then, be made for us for the sake of common opinion, so that, withdrawing our foot from that subtle disputation of philosophical wisdom, which is drawn forth as it were from some inner shrine for the sake of refining truth, we may follow the usage of the forum and the popular sense. This division, then, being preserved, let us return to our proposal.

We entrust our cause to the most prudent man of all, and we ask counsel from him more readily than from others. Yet the faithful counsel of a just man is preferable, and it often outweighs the intelligence of the wisest man. For the wounds of a friend are more useful than the kisses of others. Then because it is the judgment of the just man, but the argument of the wise man: in the one there is the judgment of discernment, in the other the cleverness of invention.

51. But if you join both together, there will be a great soundness of counsels, which is regarded by all with admiration of wisdom and love of justice; so that all seek to hear the wisdom of that man in whom the union of both virtues exists: just as all the kings of the earth sought to see the face of Solomon, and to hear his wisdom; so that even the queen of Sheba came to him, and tried him with questions: And she came, and spoke all that was in her heart, and heard all the wisdom of Solomon, nor did any word escape her.

52. Learn, man, who this is whom nothing escapes, and to whom the true Solomon has not failed to announce anything, from these words which you hear her speaking: True, she says, is the report which I heard in my own land concerning your words and your wisdom, and I did not believe those who told me, until I came, and my eyes saw: and now not even half has been told me according to what they announced to me. You have added good things beyond all that I heard in my own land. Blessed are your women, and blessed are your servants who stand before you, who hear all your wisdom. Understand the banquet of the true Solomon, and understand wisely the things that are set forth at that banquet, and consider in what land the gathering of nations heard the fame of true wisdom and justice, and with what eyes she saw him, contemplating, of course, the things that are not seen.

For the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

53. Who are the blessed women, but those of whom it is said, that many hear the word of God and bring it forth? And elsewhere: For whoever does the word of God, he is my brother and sister and mother. Who also are the blessed servants who stand before him, but Paul, who said: To this day I stand testifying to small and great, Simeon who waited in the temple to see the consolation of Israel? For how would he ask to be dismissed, unless because, standing before the Lord, he could not have the power of departing, unless he had obtained the will of the Lord? Solomon is set before us as an example, from whom people vied with one another to hear his wisdom.

54. Joseph's Counsel Averts Famine in Egypt

Joseph too was not idle even in prison, so that he was not consulted on uncertain matters. His counsel profited all Egypt; so that it did not feel the sterility of seven years, and he relieved other peoples of wretched famine by fasting.

55. Daniel's Counsel to Kings in Captivity

Daniel, having become from among the captives, I judge, an arbiter of royal counsels, corrected present matters by his counsels, and announced future ones. For from those things which he had frequently shown by interpretation, that he was a true messenger, trust was given to him in all things.

56. Moses, Whose Counsel All Israel Awaited

But even a third place among those judged worthy of admiration seems to be run through by the example of Joseph, Solomon, and Daniel. For what shall I say of Moses, whose counsels all Israel awaited daily, whose life gave credence to his prudence, and increased admiration of him? Who would not entrust himself to the counsel of Moses, to whom the elders, if they judged anything to be beyond their own understanding and power, reserved for his judgment?

57. Daniel's God-Given Wisdom and Moses' Miracles

Who would shun the counsel of Daniel, of whom God himself said: Who is wiser than Daniel? Or how could men doubt the minds of those to whom God conferred so great a grace? By the counsel of Moses wars were brought to completion: by the merits of Moses food flowed from heaven, and drink from the rock.

58. Daniel's Purity and Contempt for Royal Gold

How pure was the soul of Daniel, that he soothed barbarous customs, and tamed lions! What temperance was in him! How great the continence of mind and body! Nor was he undeservedly made an object of wonder to all, since (a thing men greatly admire) supported by royal friendships, he sought not gold, nor valued the honor conferred upon him more than good faith. Indeed he preferred to be endangered for the law of the Lord, rather than to be swayed by favor toward man.

59. Joseph's Chastity, Courage, and Preference for Prison

For what shall I say of the chastity and justice of holy Joseph (whom I had almost passed over)? Of which the one rejected the mistress's enticements, refused rewards: the other despised death, drove away fear, preferred prison. Who would not judge him fit for counsel in a private matter, whose fertile mind and fruitful spirit made fruitful the sterility of the time by a certain abundance of counsels and heart?

60. No Counsel Drawn from a Muddied Spring

We observe, then, how much probity of life, the prerogative of virtues, the practice of benevolence, and the grace of affability contribute to the acquiring of counsels. For who would seek a spring in mud? Who would seek a drink from turbid water? And so where there is luxury, where intemperance, where confusion of vices; who would think that anything ought to be drawn from there? Who would not despise a defilement of morals? Who would judge one useful to another's cause, whom he sees useless to his own life? Who again would not flee the wicked, malevolent, insulting man, ready to do harm; who would not avoid him with all diligence?

61. Closing Off the Spring by Refusing Counsel

But who would court, even though instructed for the aid of counsel, one difficult of access; in whom that is found, as if someone should block up the spring of water? For what does it profit to have wisdom, if you refuse counsel? If you cut off the abundance of counsel, you have closed the spring; so that it flows to no others, nor benefits you.

62. Vice Defiles the Counselor's Own Prudence

And it is fittingly said also of him who, having prudence, defiles it with the filth of vices, in that he contaminates the outflow of the water. Life betrays degenerate souls. For how can you judge him superior in counsel, whom you see inferior in morals? He to whom I prepare to entrust myself ought to be above me. Or shall I think him fit to give me counsel, which he does not give to himself: and shall I believe that he has leisure for me, who has no leisure for himself: whose mind pleasures occupy, lust binds, avarice subjects, desire disturbs, fear shakes? How is there room here for counsel, where there is no room for peace?

63. The Counselor Given and Withdrawn by the Lord

Wonderful to me and worthy of reverence is the counselor, whom the Lord, gracious, gave to the fathers, and, offended, took away. He who can give counsel ought to be an imitator of this one, and to keep his prudence untouched by vices, since nothing defiled falls upon it.

64. Wisdom Compared to the Sun and Stars

Who then would, as it were, display in his face the semblance of beauty, and yet with beastly hindquarters and ferine claws dishonor the grace of the higher form: since the form of the virtues is so admirable and glorious, and especially the beauty of wisdom, as the sequence of Scripture indicates? For she is more beautiful than the sun, and is found to precede, in comparison with light, every arrangement of the stars. For night succeeds this light, but malice does not conquer wisdom.

65. Wisdom's Fellowship with the Other Virtues

We have spoken of its beauty, and confirmed it by the testimony of Scripture: it remains for us to show by the authority of Scripture that it has no fellowship with vices, but an inseparable union with the other virtues: whose spirit is eloquent, without defilement, sure, holy, loving the good, keen, which forbids nothing that does good, kindly, steadfast, secure, possessing every virtue, foreseeing all things. And below: It teaches sobriety, and justice, and virtue.

66. The Wise Man's Constancy and Contempt for Riches

Prudence therefore effects all things, since it has fellowship with all good things. For how can it give useful counsel, unless it has justice, so as to put on constancy, not to fear death, to be turned aside by no terror, recalled by no fear, to think that one must not deviate from the truth by any flattery: not to flee exile, since it knows that the world is the wise man's fatherland; not to fear want, since it knows that nothing is lacking to the wise man, for whom the whole world is a treasury of riches? For what is more excellent than that man who knows not how to be moved by gold, who holds money in contempt, and as if from some citadel looks down upon the greeds of men? Whoever has done this, men judge him to be above man: Who is this, it says, and we will praise him? For he has done wonderful things in his life.

For how could he not be admired, who spurns riches, which most men have preferred to their own welfare?

67. Frugality and Continence Befitting Men of Rank

The standard of frugality, then, and the authority of continence, befit all men, and especially him who excels in honor, lest treasures possess a man who is preeminent, and he who is set over the free serve money. This is more fitting, that he be above treasure in mind, and below a friend in service. For humility increases grace. This is full of praise and worthy of a man of the first rank, not to have in common with Tyrian traders and merchants of Gilead the desire for base gain, nor to place all good in money, and, as though by a mercenary office, to count daily gains, to calculate profits.

68. Liberality That Wins the Affection of the People

But if it is praiseworthy from these things to conduct a sober mind, how much more excellent is it if you acquire the affection of the multitude by liberality, neither excessive toward the importunate, nor restricted toward the needy!

69. Aid for the Needy Who Hide Their Poverty

Now there are very many kinds of liberality, not only to arrange and dispense sustenance for those in daily need, that they may be able to sustain their life; but also to take thought for and to come to the aid of those who are ashamed to be in want publicly, so that the common sustenance of the needy may not be exhausted. For I speak of him who presides over some office, as if he bears the duty of a priest or of a steward, that he suggest these things to the bishop, and not restrain himself if he learns that someone is placed in some necessity, or cast down from wealth and reduced to the necessity of poverty: especially if he has fallen into that misfortune not by the extravagance of youth, but by the plundering of someone and the loss of his patrimony, so that he cannot maintain his daily expense.

70. Redeeming Captives from Illyricum and Thrace

The highest liberality also is to redeem captives, to snatch them from the hands of enemies, to withdraw men from death, and especially women from shame, to restore children to parents, parents to children, citizens to their homeland. These things are too well known from the devastation of Illyricum and Thrace: how many captives everywhere throughout the whole world were for sale, whom, were you to call them back, would not fill the number of a single province! Yet there were those who wished to reduce back into servitude even those whom the Churches had redeemed—men more grievous than captivity itself, who begrudged another's mercy. If they themselves had come into captivity, being free men they would serve; if they had been sold, they would not refuse the service of servitude; and yet they wish to rescind another's liberty, they who could not rescind their own servitude, unless perhaps it pleased the buyer to accept a price: in which case, however, servitude is not rescinded, but redeemed.

71. Redeeming Captives, Assuming Debts, Aiding Orphans

The chief liberality, therefore, is to redeem captives, and especially from a barbarian enemy, who brings nothing of humanity to mercy, except what avarice has reserved for ransom: to take upon oneself another's debt, if the debtor is not able to pay, and is pressed for payment which is owed by law but is destitute through want: to nourish little children, to protect orphans.

72. Providing Marriages for Orphaned Maidens and Aid to Widows

There are also those who, for the sake of guarding chastity, arrange marriage for maidens bereft of parents, and help them not only with zeal but even with expense. There is also that kind of liberality which the Apostle teaches: If any believer has widows, let him support them, so that the Church may not be burdened with their maintenance, that it may suffice for those who are truly widows.

73. The Two Kinds of Liberality: Money and Labor

Useful, then, is liberality of this kind, but not common to all. For there are very many, even good men, who are of slender means, content indeed with little for their own use, but not capable of providing relief for another's poverty; yet there is another kind of beneficence available to them, by which they can help the one beneath them. For liberality is twofold: one which helps by material aid, that is, by the use of money; the other which is bestowed by the contribution of labors, and is frequently much more splendid and much more illustrious.

74. Abraham's Rescue and Joseph's Counsel to Pharaoh

How much more illustrious was it that Abraham recovered his captured nephew by victorious arms, than if he had ransomed him? How much more useful was it that holy Joseph helped king Pharaoh by the counsel of foresight, than if he had contributed money! For money does not redeem the fertility of a single city: foresight, over five years, drove back famine from the whole of Egypt.

75. Money Is Exhausted, but Counsel Increases with Use

Money, however, is easily consumed, but counsels do not know how to be exhausted. These are increased by use: money is diminished, and quickly fails, and even abandons kindness itself; so that the more people you wish to give to, the fewer you help, and often what you thought should be conferred on others is lacking to yourself. But the contribution of counsel and of labor, the more it is diffused among many, the more abundant it remains, and returns to its own source. For the abundance of prudence flows back into itself: and the more it has flowed to many, the more exercised becomes all that remains.

76. The Need for Measure and Discernment in Almsgiving

It is clear, then, that there ought to be a measure of liberality, lest generosity become useless. Sobriety must be maintained, especially by priests, so that they dispense not for ostentation, but for justice. For nowhere is there greater greediness in asking. Able-bodied men come, men come having no reason but to wander about, and they wish to empty out the subsidies of the poor, to exhaust the expenditure: and, not content with a little, they seek greater things, angling by the pretense of their clothing for the favorable vote of their petition, and bidding for increases of profit by a simulation of birth. If someone readily gives credence to these, he quickly drains away resources that would have profited the sustenance of the poor. Let there be a measure in giving, so that neither do they go away empty, nor is the life of the poor transferred over as spoil to fraudulent men. Let the measure, then, be such that humanity is neither abandoned, nor need left destitute.

77. Testing True Need and Aiding the Silently Suffering

Many feign debts. Let there be an examination of the truth. They bewail themselves as stripped by robberies: either let the wrong itself produce credence, or acquaintance with the person, so that they may be helped the more readily. Expenditure ought to be shared by the Church with those relegated to exile, if they lack the means of sustaining themselves. And so he who keeps the measure is stingy to no one, but generous to all: for we ought not only to lend our ears to hear the voices of those who beg, but also our eyes to consider their necessities. Weakness cries louder to the good worker than the voice of the poor man. And indeed it cannot be but that the importunity of those who cry aloud extorts more; but there should not always be room for shamelessness. He must be looked upon who does not see you: he must be sought out who is ashamed to be seen.

Let him also who is shut up in prison come before you; let him who is afflicted with sickness sound in your mind, who cannot sound in your ears.

78. Balancing Generosity with Restraint in Giving

The more the people see you at work, the more they will love you. I know that very many priests, the more they have conferred, have abounded the more; since whoever sees a good worker, gives to him what he may dispense in his office, secure that his mercy reaches the poor through him: for no one wishes his contribution to profit anyone but the poor. For if he sees a steward either immoderate or too tight-fisted, he will despise either fault: either that he dissipates by superfluous expenditures the fruit of another's labor, or hoards it in purses. Therefore, just as a measure of liberality is necessary, so too a spur must generally be applied. A measure, so that you may be able to do daily what good you do; lest it become necessary to withdraw what you had indulged in extravagance: a spur, moreover, so that money may work better in the food of the poor man than in the purse of the rich.

Beware lest you bury the welfare of the needy in your own money-boxes, and as though in tombs bury the life of the poor.

79. Joseph Sells Grain to Preserve Egypt's Land

Joseph could have given away all the wealth of Egypt, and poured out the royal treasures; yet he did not wish to seem lavish with what was another's: he preferred to sell grain rather than give it to the hungry; because if he had given to a few, it would have failed the many. He approved that liberality by which he preserved it for all. He opened the granaries, so that all might purchase a supply of grain, lest, by receiving it free, they abandon the cultivation of the land; since he who uses what belongs to another neglects his own.

80. Joseph Establishes a Tribute to Secure the People's Land

And so he preserved first of all the annual supplies, then the other resources, and at last secured for the king the rights over the lands, not that everything of theirs should perish, but be propped up: he established a public tribute, by which they might hold their own possessions more securely. This was so pleasing to all from whom he had taken the lands, that they thought it not a sale of their right, but a ransom of their welfare. At last they said: You have saved us, we have found grace in the sight of our lord. For those who had received back their right had indeed lost something of their own property: yet they had lost nothing of usefulness, since they had gained perpetuity.

81. Joseph's Fifth-Part Tribute Ends Egypt's Famines

O great man, who did not seek temporal glory by lavish giving, but by foresight established lasting benefit. For his purpose was that they should help themselves by their own tributes, so that in a time of necessity they might desire aid from another's resources. For it was better to contribute something from the fruits than to lose everything by right. He established a fifth part as the tribute, both more far-sighted in providing and more generous in the tribute. In the end, Egypt never afterward endured a famine of this kind.

82. Pharaoh's Dreams of the Fat and Lean Years

How splendidly he gathered together things to come! First, how shrewdly the royal interpreter expressed the truth of the dream! The king's first dream was this: Seven heifers came up out of the river, fair to look upon and fat of body, and fed at the bank of the river. Other calves too, ill-favored to look upon and lean of body, came up out of the river after those heifers, and grazed beside them on the very bank of the shores: and these lean and thin calves were seen to devour those that were superior in both form and grace. And the second dream was this: Seven ears of grain, plump, choice and good, sprang up from the earth: and after them seven ears, thin and blasted by the wind and withered, tried to force their way in: and it seemed that the barren and thin ears devoured the joyful and abundant ears.

83. Joseph Interprets the Dreams as Years of Plenty and Famine

Holy Joseph interpreted this dream in this way, that the seven heifers would be seven years, and the seven ears likewise would be seven years, interpreting the seasons from offspring and fruit. For the offspring of a heifer expresses a year, and the fruit of the crop completes a whole year. And they came up out of the river because days, years, and seasons pass in like manner as rivers, and glide by swiftly. He declared, then, that the first seven years of the fertile earth would be fruitful and abundant: but the other seven years following would be barren and unfruitful, the barrenness of which would consume the abundance of the earlier years. By this grace he warned that provision should be made, so that in the more fruitful years a supply of grain might be gathered, which could sustain the want of the future infertility.

84. Joseph's Wisdom, Justice, and Mercy Toward His Brothers

Which should I admire first? The genius by which truth itself descended into his very chamber: or the counsel by which he provided for so grave and long-lasting a necessity: or his vigilance and justice; of which the one, when so great a task was laid upon him, gathered together such manifold supplies, while the other preserved equality among all? For what shall I say of his magnanimity; that, sold by his brothers into servitude, he did not repay the injury, but drove away the famine? What of the sweetness with which, by a pious deception, he sought the presence of his beloved brother, whom, by a theft feigned with elegance, he made appear guilty of robbery, so that he might hold him as a hostage of favor?

85. Jacob's Blessing on Joseph

Whence he is rightly told by his father: My son Joseph is grown, my son is grown, my youngest son is a zealot. My God has helped you, and blessed you with the blessing of heaven above, and the blessing of the earth, of the earth having all things, on account of the blessings of your father and your mother. It has prevailed over the blessings of the enduring mountains, and the desires of the everlasting hills, and in Deuteronomy: You who were seen, it says, in the bush, that you might come upon the head of Joseph, and upon his crown. Honorable among his brothers, the firstborn of a bull is his glory, his horns are the horns of a unicorn. With them he shall push the nations together, even to the ends of the earth. These are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and these the thousands of Manasseh.

86. The Counselor as a Pattern of Good Works

Such, then, ought he to be who gives counsel to another, that he present himself as a pattern to others for the example of good works, in doctrine, in integrity, in gravity; that his speech be wholesome and irreprehensible, his counsel useful, his life honorable, his judgment seemly.

87. Paul and Joseph as Models of Humility

Such was Paul, who gave counsel to virgins, teaching to priests, so that he might first offer himself as a pattern for us to imitate. Therefore he also knew how to be humbled, just as Joseph knew, who, though sprung from the highest lineage of the patriarchs, did not disdain a degrading servitude, but showed it forth in obedience, and made it illustrious by virtues. He knew how to be humbled, who suffered both a seller and a buyer, and yet called him lord. Hear him humbling himself: "If my lord knows nothing because of me in his house, and has given all that he has into my hands, and has kept back nothing from me except thee, because thou art his wife; how then shall I do this evil thing, and sin before God?" A voice full of humility, full of honor, full of chastity: of humility, because he deferred to his lord; of honor, because he rendered gratitude; full also of chastity, because he considered it a grave sin to be defiled by a shameful crime.

88. Distinguishing the Untrustworthy from the Merely Slothful Counselor

Such then ought a counselor to be, having nothing clouded, nothing false, nothing feigned, which might refute his life and character; nothing base or malevolent, which might turn away those who seek counsel. For some things are shunned, others merely despised. We shun those things which can do harm, which can maliciously creep in to injury; as if he who is consulted be of doubtful trust, and greedy of money, so that he can be changed by a price: if he be prone to wrong, he is shunned and avoided. But he who is given to pleasure, intemperate—even though free from fraud—yet greedy and too desirous of base gain, he is despised. For what proof of diligence, what fruit of labor, can he produce who has given himself over to sloth and idleness?

89. Paul's Contentment in Learning to Have Enough

Therefore the man of good counsel says: "For I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, to be content" (Philipp. Iv, 11). For he knew that the root of all evils is avarice, and therefore he was content with his own, and did not seek what was another's. "It is enough for me," he says, "what I have; whether I have little or much, to me it is very much." Something more explicit seems worth saying. He used a marked word: "It is sufficient for me," he says, "in that state in which I am"; that is, neither is anything lacking, nor does anything overflow. Nothing is lacking, because I seek nothing further; nothing overflows, because I do not have for myself alone, but for many. This concerning money.

90. Paul's Humility Compared to the Pharisee and the Publican

Moreover, of all things it can be said that present things were sufficient for him. That is, he desired neither greater honor, nor richer services; he was not desirous of immoderate glory, nor did he seek favor beyond his due; but, patient of labor, secure of merit, he awaited the due end of the contest. "I know," he says, "also how to be abased" (Philipp. Iv, 12). It is not, then, an untaught humility, but one that has moderation and knowledge of itself, that is given praise. For there is a humility of fear, there is one of inexperience and ignorance; and therefore Scripture says: "And he will save the humble in spirit". Excellently, then, he said: "I know also how to be abased," that is, in what place, with what moderation, to what end, in what office, in what duty. The Pharisee did not know how to be abased, therefore he was cast down; the publican knew, therefore he was justified.

91. Paul's Knowledge of How to Abound

Paul also knew how to abound, who had a mind that was rich, even though he did not have the treasure of the rich. He knew how to abound, who sought not what was given in money, but sought the fruit in grace. We can also understand it thus, that he knew how to abound who could say: "Our mouth is open to you, O Corinthians, our heart is enlarged".

92. Spiritual Hunger and Fullness in Christ

In all things he was instructed, both to be filled and to hunger. Blessed is he who knew how to be filled in Christ. It is not, then, that bodily satiety, but a spiritual one, which knowledge works. And rightly is knowledge required; because man does not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. Therefore he who thus knew how to be filled and thus to hunger, knew always to seek new things, to hunger for God, to thirst for the Lord. He knew how to hunger, who knew that "they who hunger shall be filled"; he knew and was able to abound, who had nothing, and possessed all things.

93. Rehoboam Rejects the Counsel of the Elders

Excellently, then, does justice commend men who preside over any office; on the contrary, iniquity abandons and assails them. Scripture is an example to us, which says that when the people of Israel, after the death of Solomon, had asked his son Rehoboam to relieve their necks from harsh servitude, and to temper the severity of his father's rule, he, spurning the counsel of the elders, at the suggestion of the young men gave a reply of this sort, that he would add a burden upon his father's yoke, and would exchange lighter punishments for heavier ones.

94. The People Reject Rehoboam and Divide the Kingdom

By which answer the people, exasperated, replied: "We have no portion with David, nor inheritance in the sons of Jesse. Return every man to your tents, O Israel"; for this man shall be neither prince nor leader to us. And so, deserted and abandoned by the people, he could scarcely, on account of the merit of David, have the fellowship of two tribes.

95. Equity Confirms Authority, Injustice Dissolves It

It is clear, then, that equity confirms authority, and injustice dissolves it. For how can malice possess a kingdom, when it cannot even govern a single private household? There is need, therefore, of the greatest kindness, that we may guard not only public governance, but also private rights. Benevolence is of the greatest help, which strives to embrace all with benefits, to bind them by services, to pledge them by favor.

96. Sincere Speech Without Flattery

We have said also that affability of speech avails greatly to gain favor. But we wish this to be sincere and sober, without any flattery, lest flattery of speech disgrace the simplicity and plainness of one's conversation; for we ought to be a pattern to others not only in work, but also in speech, in chastity and in faith. What we wish to be considered, that let us be; and whatever affection we hold, that let us openly reveal. And let us not speak an unjust word in our heart, thinking it can be hidden by silence; for He hears what is spoken in secret, who made secret things, and knows the hidden things of the inmost parts, who poured feeling into the inmost parts. Therefore let us think, as if set beneath the eyes of a judge, that whatever we do is placed in the light, so that it may be made manifest to all.

97. Learning Virtue Through Companionship with the Wise

It is, then, of the greatest advantage for anyone to be joined to good men. It is useful also for young men to follow illustrious and wise men; for he who associates with the wise becomes wise; but he who cleaves to the imprudent is recognized as imprudent. And this is of very great profit both for instruction and for the testimony of uprightness. For young men show themselves to be imitators of those to whom they cling; and this opinion grows stronger, that they have received from these a likeness of life, from those with whom they have imbibed a desire of intercourse.

98. Joshua's Companionship with Moses in the Tabernacle

Hence so great was Joshua the son of Nun, because association with Moses not only instructed him in knowledge of the Law, but also sanctified him unto grace. Indeed, when the majesty of the Lord seemed to shine forth with divine presence in his tabernacle, Joshua the son of Nun alone was in the tabernacle. Moses spoke with God, and Joshua likewise was covered with the sacred cloud. The elders and the people stood below; Joshua went up with Moses to receive the Law. All the people were within the camp, Joshua outside the camp in the tabernacle of testimony. When the pillar of cloud descended, and God spoke with Moses, he stood by as a faithful minister; nor did the young man go out of the tabernacle, while the elders, standing far off, trembled at the divine miracles.

99. Joshua's Triumphs and the Pairing of Elders and Youths

Everywhere, then, amid marvelous works and reverend secrets, he clung inseparably to holy Moses. Whence it came about that he who had been the companion of his life became the successor of his authority. Rightly did such a man come to that point, that he stayed the courses of rivers, and said, "Let the sun stand still," and the sun stood still, as if a spectator of his victory, that he might defer the night and prolong the day: and—what was denied to Moses—he alone was chosen to lead the people into the land of promise. Great was the man in the miracles of faith, great in triumphs. The former's works were more august, the latter's more prosperous. Each, then, supported by divine grace, went beyond human condition: the one commanded the sea, the other the sky. 100. Fair, then, is the pairing of elders and youths. Some are for testimony, others for solace; some for instruction, others for delight.

I pass over the fact that Lot, still quite young, cleaved to Abraham even in setting out on his journey, lest perhaps this be thought rather a matter of kinship, and of necessary rather than voluntary attachment. What shall we say of Elijah and Elisha? Although Scripture has not expressly stated that Elisha was young, yet we notice and gather that he was the younger. In the Acts of the Apostles, Barnabas took Mark, Paul took Silas, Paul took Timothy, Paul took. But in those earlier instances we see the duties divided, so that the elders prevailed in counsel, the younger in ministry. Often too, being equal in virtues though unequal in age, men delight in each other's company, as Peter and John delighted in each other. For we read in the Gospel that John was young, and by his own testimony, though he was second to none of the elders in merits and wisdom; for in him there was a venerable old age of character and a hoary prudence.

For an unstained life is the reward of a good old age.

This too helps toward the advancement of a good reputation, if you rescue a poor man from the hands of the powerful, if you snatch from death one condemned, as far as can be done without disturbance; lest we seem to act more for the sake of boasting than of mercy, and inflict graver wounds while we desire to heal lighter ones. Now if you free one oppressed by the wealth of the powerful, and burdened more by faction than by the price of his own crime, it grows into a testimony of excellent reputation.

103. Hospitality also commends very many. For it is a public form of humanity, that a stranger should not lack lodging, that he should be received with attentive service, that the door should stand open to one arriving. It is greatly seemly, in the estimation of the whole world, that strangers be received with honor, that the grace of hospitality not be lacking at table, that the services of liberality go to meet them, that the arrivals of guests be watched for.

104. This is given as praise to Abraham, who kept watch before his door, lest perhaps some stranger should pass by; and diligently kept guard, that he might run to meet, that he might anticipate, that he might beg the guest not to pass on, saying: "Lord, if I have found favor before thee, do not pass by thy servant". And therefore, as the reward of hospitality, he received the fruit of posterity.

105. Lot too, his nephew, near to him not only in lineage but also in virtue, on account of his devotion to hospitality turned away from himself and his own the punishments of the Sodomites.

106. It befits one, then, to be hospitable, kind, just, not covetous of another's goods; rather yielding something of his own right, if he be provoked, than pressing another's rights, fleeing lawsuits, shrinking from quarrels, redeeming concord and the grace of tranquility. For indeed, for a good man to relax something of his own right is not only a matter of liberality, but often also of advantage.

First, to be free from the expense of a lawsuit is no small gain; then there is added to the profit the growth of friendship, from which arise very many advantages, which, though despised at some time, will afterward be fruitful.

107. In the duties of hospitality, indeed, humanity is to be shown to all; but to the just a richer honor is to be paid: "For whosoever shall receive a just man in the name of a just man, shall receive the reward of a just man", as the Lord declared. So great, moreover, is the grace of hospitality before God, that not even a drink of cold water is without reward of recompense. Do you see that Abraham received God in hospitality, while he sought guests? Do you see that Lot received angels? How do you know that you too, when you receive a man, do not receive Christ?

For Christ may be in the guest; because Christ is in the poor man, as He Himself says: "I was in prison, and you came to me; I was naked, and you clothed me".

108. It is sweet, then, to strive not for money, but for grace. But this evil has long since flowed into human minds, that money should be held in honor, and that men's minds should be captivated by admiration of riches. Thence avarice has plunged in, like a certain drought of good works, so that men think it a loss whatever is spent beyond custom. But even against this, lest avarice bring any hindrance, venerable Scripture has taken precaution, saying: "Better is hospitality with herbs". And below: "Better is bread eaten in sweetness with peace". For Scripture does not teach us to be prodigal, but liberal.

109. For there are two kinds of largess: one of liberality, the other of prodigal squandering.

It is liberal to receive in hospitality, to clothe the naked, to redeem captives, to help those lacking means; it is prodigal to be lavish with sumptuous banquets and abundant wine—whence you have read: "Wine is a luxurious thing, and drunkenness full of riotous insult". It is prodigal, for the sake of popular favor, to drain one's own wealth—as those do who squander their patrimony on circus games, or even theatrical shows, and gladiatorial spectacles, or even huntings, so as to outdo the celebrated shows of their predecessors; since all that they do is empty. For it is not fitting to be immoderate even in the expenditures of good works.

110. It is a beautiful liberality even toward the poor themselves to keep a measure, so that you may have abundance for more of them: not to overflow beyond measure for the sake of winning favor. Whatever is brought forth from a pure and sincere affection, this is fitting: not to undertake superfluous buildings, nor to neglect necessary ones.

111. And this especially befits a priest, to adorn the temple of God with fitting beauty, so that the hall of the Lord may also shine with this splendor: to frequently make the expenditures suitable to mercy; to give as much as is fitting to strangers; not superfluous things, but suitable ones; not overflowing things, but things fitting to humanity; lest at the expense of the poor he seek favor for himself among strangers, nor show himself either too strict or too indulgent toward the clergy. For the one is inhuman, the other prodigal; if either expense is lacking for the necessity of those whom you ought to draw back from the sordid pursuits of trading, or if it overflows into pleasure.

Indeed it is fitting that there be a measure even of words themselves and of precepts, lest there seem to be either too much remissness or too much severity. For many prefer to be more lenient, so that they may seem to be good: but it is certain that nothing feigned and fictitious belongs to true virtue; indeed it is not wont to last long. In the beginning it flourishes, in the course of time it is scattered and dissolved like a little flower: but that which is true and sincere is founded on a deep root.

113. And that we may prove our assertions by examples, since things that are feigned cannot be lasting, but like things green only for a season quickly fall away, let us bring forward from that family from which we have drawn very many examples for the advancement of virtue, one testimony of pretense and fraud.

114. Absalom was the son of King David, distinguished in beauty, outstanding in form, excelling in youth; so that such a man was not to be found in Israel, unblemished from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. He made for himself chariots and horses, and fifty men to run before him. He would rise at daybreak and stand before the gate in the way, and if he noticed anyone seeking the king's judgments he would approach him, saying: From what city are you? He would answer: I am of one of the tribes of Israel, your servant. Absalom would reply: Your words are good and right, but you have no one appointed by the king to hear you. Who will make me judge, and whoever comes to me, whatever judgment he needs, I will do him justice? With such words he would win over each one. And when they came to bow before him, he would stretch out his hands, and take hold of them and kiss them.

Thus he turned to himself the hearts of all, since flatteries of this kind touch the innermost feeling of the heart.

115. But those delicate and ambitious ones chose things honorable and pleasing for the moment and delightful: when a small delay arose, which the prophet, wise in all things, thought should be inserted by yielding for a little while, they could not tolerate or endure it. Finally, not doubting of David's victory, he commended his son to those who were to fight, that they should spare him. And therefore he preferred not even to be present at the battle; lest he seem to bear arms, even though a parricide, yet still against his own son.

116. It is clear, therefore, that those things are lasting and solid which are true, and which are gathered sincerely rather than by deceit; but those things which are prepared by pretense and flattery cannot long endure.

Who then would consider faithful to himself either those who are bought into obedience with money, or those who are drawn in by flattery? For the former frequently wish to sell themselves, and the latter cannot bear harsh commands. They are easily caught by a slight flattery; if you rebuke them with a word, they murmur, desert, go away hostile, leave in indignation, prefer to command rather than obey, thinking that those to whom they ought to be subject owe subjection to them instead, as if obliged by a favor. 118. Who then would think faithful to himself those whom he has believed must be bound to himself either by money or by flattery? For does not even he who has received money judge himself cheap and despised, unless he is often bought again? And so he frequently awaits his price, and he who seems to be courted by entreaty always wants to be asked.

That a bishop ought not to be envious toward the clergy, but just in all things, and especially in judging.

119. Therefore I think one must strive for honor by good deeds and a sincere purpose, and especially for ecclesiastical honor; so that there be neither a supine arrogance, nor a slack negligence, nor a base ambition, nor an unseemly striving. A straightforward simplicity of mind suffices abundantly for all things, and sufficiently commends itself.

120. In the very office itself it is fitting that there be neither harsh severity nor too much remissness, lest we seem either to be exercising power, or to be in no way fulfilling the office we have undertaken.

121. We must also strive to bind many to us by benefits and services, and to preserve the favor we have conferred; lest those who grieve at being gravely injured become forgetful of the right of the benefit.

For it often happens that those whom you have favored with grace, or raised to some higher rank, you turn away, if you judge that someone unworthy is to be set above them. But it is fitting also that a priest should show favor by his benefits or his judgments in such a way as to preserve equity, and to show deference to a presbyter or a minister, as to a parent.

122. Nor ought these, because they have once been approved, to become arrogant; but rather, as mindful of the favor, to hold to humility, nor should a priest be offended if a presbyter, or a minister, or anyone of the clergy, increases his own reputation either by mercy, or by fasting, or by integrity, or by teaching and reading. For the grace of the Church is the praise of the teacher. It is good that someone's work be proclaimed, provided it be done with no eagerness for boasting.

For let the lips of one's neighbors praise each person, and not his own mouth, and let them commend his works, not his own eagerness.

123. But if anyone does not obey the bishop, and desires to exalt and raise himself up, to overshadow the merits of the bishop by a feigned show of teaching, or of humility, or of mercy, he, straying from the truth, is proud; since this is the rule of truth, that you do nothing for the sake of commending yourself, whereby another becomes lesser, nor, if you have any good, employ it toward the disparagement and blame of another.

124. Do not defend a wicked man, nor think that holy things should be entrusted to one unworthy, nor again press and attack one whose crime you have not detected. For while injustice quickly gives offense in all things, it does so most of all in the Church, where equity ought to be, where equality ought to be maintained; so that the more powerful claims nothing more for himself, the richer usurps nothing more.

For whether poor or rich, in Christ they are one. Let no one holier claim more for himself; rather it is fitting that he be more humble.

125. But let us not, in judgment, seize upon the person of another; let favor be absent, let the merits of the case decide. Nothing so weighs down opinion, indeed faith, as if in judging you grant the case to the more powerful, or accuse an innocent poor man, or excuse a rich man guilty of a fault. Indeed it is a natural inclination of mankind to favor the more honored, lest they think themselves injured, lest, being defeated, they grieve. But first, if you fear giving offense, do not take up the judgment; if you are a priest, or anyone else, do not provoke it. You are permitted to be silent in a matter merely of money; although it belongs to constancy to stand by equity. But in a cause of God, where there is danger to communion, even to dissemble is no light sin.

But what does it profit you to favor the rich man? Is it because he more quickly repays his benefactor? For we favor most often those from whom we hope to receive a return of favor. But it is fitting that we should be all the more attentive to the weak and needy; because on behalf of him who has nothing, we hope for reward from the Lord Jesus, who under the figure of a banquet set forth a general pattern of virtues, that we should rather bestow our benefits on those who cannot repay them to us, teaching that to a banquet and feast not the rich but the poor should be invited. For the rich seem to be invited so that they too may return the banquet to us; the poor, because they have nothing to restore when they have received, make the Lord our rewarder, who offered himself to be obligated on behalf of the poor man.

127. Even for the use of this age itself, a benefit conferred on the poor helps more than one conferred on the wealthy; because the rich man disdains the benefit, and is ashamed to be a debtor of gratitude. Indeed he even attributes what has been conferred on him to his own merits, as though he had received it as a debt, or as though it were given for the reason that he who gave it thought it would be repaid to him more abundantly by the rich man. Thus in receiving a benefit, by the very fact that they have received it, the rich think they have given rather than received; but the poor man, even though he has nothing with which to repay the money, returns gratitude. In this it is certain that he gives back more than he received; for money is paid off with coin, but gratitude is never exhausted. By being repaid, money is emptied; but gratitude both is paid by being kept, and is retained by being paid.

Then too, what the rich man refuses, the poor man confesses—that he is bound by a debt, and thinks that help has been given to him, not honor conferred upon himself; he considers his children given back to him, his life restored, his family preserved. How much better then to place a benefit among the good rather than among the ungrateful?

128. Whence the Lord said to his disciples: Do not possess gold, nor silver, nor money (Matthew 10:9); because, like a stake, it cuts down avarice sprouting in human hearts. Peter also said to the lame man, who was carried from his mother's womb: Silver and gold I have none: but what I have, I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise and walk. And so he did not give money, he gave health. How much better it is to have health without money, than money without health! The lame man rose, which he had not hoped for: he did not receive the money which he had hoped for.

But these things are scarcely found among the saints of the Lord, that riches should be held in contempt.

But the customs of men have so leaned toward admiration of riches, that no one is thought worthy of honor unless he is rich. Nor is this a recent practice; but long ago, what is worse, this vice grew inveterate in human minds. For when Jericho, a great city, had fallen at the sound of the priestly trumpets, and Joshua, son of Nun, had gained the victory, he learned that the strength of the people had been weakened through avarice and the desire for gold. For when Achan had taken from the spoils of the burned city a golden garment, and two hundred didrachms of silver, and a tongue of gold, being brought before the Lord he could not deny it, but confessed the theft (Joshua 7:19ff).

130. Avarice, then, is old and ancient, which began even with the oracles of the divine law itself, indeed the law was given precisely to restrain it.

Because of avarice Balak thought that Balaam could be tempted by rewards to curse the people of the fathers: and avarice would have prevailed, had not the Lord commanded him to abstain from cursing (Numbers 22:16,17). Because of avarice Achan was cast down headlong, and had led the whole people of the fathers into ruin. And so Joshua, son of Nun, who was able to make the sun stand still, that it should not proceed (Joshua 10:12,13), could not make the avarice of men stand still, that it should not creep forward. At his voice the sun stood still, avarice did not stand still. So while the sun stood still, Joshua completed his triumph: but while avarice proceeded, he almost lost the victory.

131. What of Samson, strongest of all—did not the avarice of the woman Delilah deceive him?

So he who tore apart a roaring lion with his own hands, who, bound and delivered to foreigners, without any helper alone, having loosed his bonds, slew a thousand of them; who broke ropes twisted with sinews as if they were soft threads of flax—he, with head bent low upon the woman's knees, shorn, lost the adornment of his unconquered hair, the privilege of his own strength. Money flowed into the woman's lap, and grace departed from the man (Judges 16:5,20).

132. Deadly, then, is avarice, alluring money, which contaminates those who have it, and does not help those who do not have it. Yet grant that money sometimes helps—still only the one who is inferior and desires it. What is it to him who does not desire it, who does not seek it, who does not need its help, who is not swayed by eagerness for it? What is it to others, if he who has it is more abundantly supplied?

Is he therefore more honorable, because he has that by which honor is most often lost, because he has that which he must guard rather than possess? For we possess that which we use: but what is beyond use does not indeed have the fruit of possession, but the danger of guarding it.

If we wish to commend ourselves to God, let us have charity, let us be of one mind, let us follow humility, esteeming one another superior to ourselves. For this is humility, if a man arrogate nothing to himself, and think himself inferior. Let the bishop, that he may use his members the clergy, and especially the ministers who are truly sons, appoint to each the office for which he sees him fit. 135. With sorrow is even a rotted part of the body cut off, and it is long treated, if it can be healed with medicines: if it cannot, then it is cut off by a good physician. So it is the disposition of a good bishop, that he should wish to heal the sick, to remove creeping sores, to cauterize some things, not to cut them off: and finally, what cannot be healed, to cut off with sorrow. Whence that most beautiful precept stands out the more, that we should think not of the things that are our own, but of the things of others.

For in this way there will be nothing which we either indulge to our angry disposition, or, being partial, attribute more than is just to our own will.

Which cause, although we conducted it not without some reason, yet we pursued it before the people in such a way that we confessed, and asserted that it was much more fitting, that we should preserve souls for the Lord rather than gold. For he who sent the apostles without gold, gathered the churches without gold. The Church has gold, not to keep it, but to give it away and to help in necessities. What need is there to guard what does nothing to help? Or are we ignorant of how much gold and silver the Assyrians carried off from the temple of the Lord? Is it not better that the priests melt it down for the sustenance of the poor, if other resources are lacking, than that a sacrilegious enemy carry it off defiled? Will not the Lord say: Why did you allow so many needy to die of hunger? And surely you had gold, you should have ministered sustenance. Why were so many captives led away into trade, and not redeemed, killed by the enemy?

It had been better that you preserve the vessels of the living, than of the metals.

138. To these no answer could be given. For what would you say? I feared lest the temple of God should lack ornament? He would answer: The sacraments do not seek gold; neither are they pleased by things of gold, which are not bought with gold. The ornament of the sacraments is the redemption of captives. Truly those are precious vessels which redeem souls from death. That is the true treasure of the Lord, which does what His blood has done. Then is a vessel of the Lord's blood recognized, when in each one sees redemption; that the cup may redeem from the enemy those whom the blood redeems from sin. How beautiful, that when troops of captives are redeemed by the Church, it may be said: These has Christ redeemed! Behold gold that can be tested, behold useful gold, behold the gold of Christ which frees from death, behold gold by which chastity is redeemed, purity is preserved.

139. These therefore I preferred to hand over to you as free, rather than to keep the gold. This number of captives, this order, is more excellent than the shape of cups. To this office the gold of the Redeemer ought to have contributed, that it might redeem those in peril. I recognize that the blood of Christ, poured into the gold, has not only made it glow red, but has also impressed upon it the power of divine working by the gift of redemption.

140. Such gold did the holy martyr Laurence reserve for the Lord, who, when the treasures of the Church were sought from him, promised that he would show them. The next day he brought the poor. When asked where were the treasures he had promised, he showed the poor, saying: These are the treasures of the Church. And truly treasures, in whom Christ is, in whom faith is. Finally the Apostle says: We have this treasure in earthen vessels. What better treasures does Christ have, than those in whom He said He is?

For thus it is written: I was hungry, and you gave me to eat: I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink: I was a stranger, and you took me in. And below: For what you have done to one of these, you have done to me. What better treasures does Jesus have, than those in whom He loves to be seen?

141. These treasures Laurence showed, and he conquered, in that not even the persecutor could take them away. Thus Joachim, who kept gold in the siege, and did not dispense it for procuring sustenance; both saw his gold seized, and himself led into captivity. Laurence, who preferred to give away the gold of the Church to the poor rather than to reserve it for the persecutor, for the singular vivacity of his interpretation received the sacred crown of martyrdom. Was it ever said to holy Laurence: You ought not to have given away the treasures of the Church, to sell the vessels of the sacraments?

142. It is necessary that someone fulfill this office with sincere faith and clear-sighted foresight. Indeed if someone diverts it to his own profit, it is a crime: but if he gives it to the poor, redeems a captive, it is mercy. For no one can say: Why does a poor man live? No one can complain, because captives have been redeemed: no one can accuse, because a temple of God has been built; no one can be indignant, because spaces have been opened up for the human remains of the faithful: no one can grieve, because in the burials of Christians there is rest for the dead. In these three kinds it is lawful to break, melt down, and sell even the consecrated vessels of the Church.

143. It is necessary that the form of the mystic cup not depart from the Church, lest the ministry of the sacred chalice be transferred to nefarious uses.

Therefore within the Church, first those vessels were placed which were not consecrated: then they were broken up, finally melted down, and dispensed piecemeal in distribution to the needy, and they also profited toward the ransoms of captives. But if new ones are lacking, and there appear to be none at all unconsecrated, I think that all may be piously converted to such uses as we have mentioned above.

Finally, by this name of widows alone, as we read in the books of the Maccabees, everything deposited and kept in the temple was preserved. For when information had been given about the moneys, which the wicked Simon reported to Antiochus the king could be found in very great amount in the temple at Jerusalem, Heliodorus, sent about the matter, came to the temple and disclosed to the high priest the odious nature of the information, and the reason for his coming.

146. Then the priest said that the sustenance of widows and orphans had been deposited there; and also certain things belonging to Hircanus son of Tobias, a holy man, and he pointed these out. There were forty talents of silver, and two hundred of gold. When Heliodorus wished to seize these and claim them for the benefit of the king, the priests cast themselves before the altar, clad in their priestly stoles: and, weeping, called upon the living God who had given the law concerning deposits, that He would show Himself the guardian of His own precepts.

But the countenance and color of the high priest, changed, declared the grief of his soul, and the anxious concern of his intent mind. All wept, because the place was about to come into contempt, if not even in the temple of God the safekeeping of trust were kept: and women girded about the breast, and cloistered virgins beat upon the door: some ran to the walls, others looked out through the windows, all stretched their hands toward heaven, praying that the Lord would stand by His own laws.

147. But Heliodorus, not terrified even by these things, pressed on with what he had intended, and had surrounded the treasury with his attendants; when suddenly there appeared to him a terrible horseman, shining with golden armor: and his horse was adorned with a splendid covering. Two other young men also appeared, of renowned strength, of pleasing beauty, with the splendor of glory, comely in dress, who stood around him, and on both sides scourged the sacrilegious man, without any intermission of continued blows. What more?

Surrounded with darkness he fell to the ground, and, by clear evidence of divine working, lay lifeless, nor did any hope of safety remain in him. Joy arose among those who feared, fear among the proud: and some, cast down among the friends of Heliodorus, begged Onias, asking life for him, since he was breathing his last.

148. And so, at the request of the high priest, the same young men again appeared to Heliodorus, clothed in the same garments, and said to him: Give thanks to Onias the high priest, on whose account life has been restored to you. But you, having experienced the scourges of God, go, and announce to all your people how great is the religion of the temple, and the power of God. Having said these things, they disappeared.

Heliodorus therefore, having recovered his breath, offered a sacrifice to the Lord, gave thanks to Onias the priest, and returned to the king with his army, saying: If you have any enemy, or any one who plots against your interests, send him there, and you will receive him scourged.

149. Faith to deposits, therefore, sons, must be kept, diligence must be applied. Excellently from this shines forth your ministry, if the pressure of a powerful man, which neither widow nor orphans could bear, be restrained by the aid of the Church: if you show that the command of the Lord avails more with you than the favor of a rich man.

150. You yourselves remember how often, against royal assaults, we have undergone struggle on behalf of the deposits of widows, indeed of all. This is common between me and you. I will bring forward a recent example of the Church of Ticinum, which was in danger of losing a widow's deposit, which it had received.

For when he who wished to claim it for himself by an imperial rescript pressed the matter, the clergy did not hold to their authority: the honorable men too, and the intercessors given, said that the emperor's commands could not be resisted. There was being read a more direct form of rescript, the ordinances of the master of offices, an agent of affairs was pressing. What more? It had been handed over.

151. Nevertheless, having taken counsel with me, the holy bishop besieged those chambers, to which he knew the widow's deposit had been transferred. When it could not be taken away, it was received back under a written pledge. Afterward it was demanded again on the basis of the pledge; the emperor had repeated the command, that he himself in person should meet with us. This was refused; and, the authority of the divine law having been set forth, and the course of the reading, and the peril of Heliodorus, at last the emperor scarcely accepted the reasoning.

Afterward also an underhand attempt had been tried, but the holy bishop forestalled it, so that he restored to the widow what he had received. Meanwhile faith is preserved: pressure is not a thing to fear; because now it is the property, not the faith, that is in peril.

Sons, flee the wicked, beware of the envious. Between the wicked and the envious there is this difference: the wicked man delights in his own good, the envious man is tormented by another's; the former loves evil things, the latter hates good things; so that he who wishes well for himself is almost more tolerable, than he who wishes ill to all.

153. Sons, think before the deed: and when you have thought for a long while, then do what you approve. When occasion is given for a praiseworthy death, it must be seized at once. Delayed glory flees, nor is it easily grasped.

154. Love faith, since through faith and devotion Josiah won for himself great love from his adversaries: since he celebrated the Passover of the Lord, when he was eighteen years old, as no one had done before him.

By zeal, then, as he surpassed those before him, so also you, sons, take up the zeal of God. Let the zeal of God seek you out and consume you; that each of you may say: The zeal of Thy house has consumed me. The Apostle is called a zealot of Christ. Why do I speak of the Apostle? The Lord Himself says: The zeal of Thy house has consumed me. Let it therefore be the zeal of God, not that human zeal which envy begets.

155. Let there be among you peace, which surpasses all understanding. Love one another. Nothing is sweeter than charity, nothing more pleasing than peace; as you yourselves know that above all others I have always loved you and love you: as sons of one father you have grown together into the affection of brotherhood.

156. Hold fast what is good, and the God of peace and love will be with you in the Lord Jesus: to whom is honor, glory, magnificence, power, with the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen.

David the prophet taught us to walk, as it were, in a spacious house within our own heart, and to converse with it as with a good companion; that he might speak to himself, and talk with himself, as is that saying: I said, I will guard my ways. Solomon too, his son, says: Drink water from your own vessels, and from the springs of your own wells; that is, use your own counsel. For deep water is counsel in the heart of a man. Let no stranger, he says, be a partaker with you. Let the fountain of your water be your own: and take delight with the wife of your youth. Let the loving hind and pleasant fawn converse with you.

2. Moses on the Mountain, Never Less Alone Than Alone

Not, then, was Scipio the first to know that he was not alone when he was alone; nor less occupied when he was at leisure: Moses knew this before him, who, when he was silent, cried out: when he stood idle, he was fighting; nor was he fighting only, but was even triumphing over enemies he had not touched. So idle was he, that others held up his hands: and no less busy than the rest, he who with idle hands overcame the enemy, whom those who fought could not conquer. Therefore Moses both spoke in silence, and worked in leisure. Whose affairs, indeed, were greater than the leisure of this man, who, set on the mountain for forty days, embraced the whole law, and in that solitude did not lack one who spoke with him? Whence David also says: I will hear what the Lord God speaks in me. And how much more is it, if God speaks with someone, than that he himself should speak with himself!

3. Healing Through the Apostles' Shadow and Garments

The apostles passed by, and their shadow healed the sick. Their garments were touched and health was conveyed.

4. Elijah's Word Withholds Rain and Sustains the Widow's Meal

Elijah spoke a word, and rain did not fall upon the earth for three years and six months. Again he spoke, and the jar of meal did not fail, and the vessel of oil was not emptied throughout the whole time of the famine.

5. Elisha Confounds the King of Syria's Army

And since warlike matters delight most people; which is more excellent, to have finished a battle by the sinews of a great army, or by merits alone? Elisha was sitting in one place, and the king of Syria was bringing a great weight of war upon the people of the fathers, and was heaping up various frauds of counsel, and was striving to encompass him with ambushes; but the prophet detected all his preparations, and being present everywhere through the vigor of his mind by the grace of God, announced to his own people the thoughts of the enemies, and warned them of what places to beware. When this was made known to the king of Syria, he sent an army and shut in the prophet. Elisha prayed, and caused all of them to be struck with blindness, and made those who had come to besiege him enter as captives into Samaria.

6. Elisha's Wonders at the Jordan and Carmel

Let us compare this leisure with the leisure of others. For others, for the sake of resting, are wont to withdraw the mind from business, and to remove themselves from the gathering and assembly of men; and either to seek the retreat of the countryside, to court the solitudes of the fields, or, remaining within the city, to give leisure to the mind, indulging in rest and tranquillity: but Elisha, either in the wilderness, divides the Jordan by his crossing so that the lower part flows away, while the upper part runs back to its source; or on Carmel, having loosed the difficulty of bearing, makes a barren woman fruitful by unexpected conception; or raises the dead; or tempers the bitterness of foods, and makes them sweet by the mixture of meal; or, ten loaves being distributed, gathers up the remnants after the people have been satisfied; or makes the iron of an axe, shaken loose and sunk in the depth of the river Jordan, float on the surface by casting a piece of wood into the waters; or changes leprosy by cleansing, or drought by rains, or famine by fruitfulness.

7. The Just Man Is Never Truly Alone

When, then, is the just man alone, who is always with God? When is he solitary, who is never separated from Christ? Who, he says, shall separate us from the love of Christ? I am confident that neither death, nor life, nor angel. When indeed is he free from business, who is never free from the merit by which business is accomplished? By what places is he circumscribed, for whom the whole world is a possession of riches? By what estimation is he defined, who is never comprehended by opinion? For he is as one unknown, and yet known; as one dying, and behold he lives; as one sorrowful, yet always more joyful; as one needy, yet generous; as one having nothing, yet possessing all things. For the just man regards nothing except what is steadfast and honorable. And therefore, even if he seems poor to another, he is rich to himself; for he is judged not by the estimation of things that are fleeting, but of things that are eternal.

8. Whether Honorable and Useful Must Be Weighed Against Each Other

And since we have spoken of the two former topics, in which we treated of that which is honorable and that which is useful, it follows to ask whether we ought to compare the honorable and the useful with one another, and to inquire which is to be followed. For just as we treated above whether that thing was honorable or base; and in the second place, whether it was useful or useless: so likewise in this place, some think it must be asked whether it is the honorable or the useful.

9. Honorable and Useful Are Never in Conflict

We, however, are moved by the fear that we should seem to bring these into conflict with one another, as though contending, which we have already shown above to be one: for nothing can be honorable except what is useful, nor useful except what is honorable; because we do not follow the wisdom of the flesh, according to which the usefulness of that pecuniary advantage is valued more highly, but the wisdom which is from God, according to which those things which are esteemed great in this world are counted as loss.

10. Perfect Duty and Common Duty Distinguished

For this κατόρθωμα, which is a perfect and absolute duty, proceeds from the true fountain of virtue. Second to it is common duty, which by the very term is signified not to be of arduous and singular virtue, since it can be common to very many. For to seek gains of money is familiar to many; to be delighted with a more elegant banquet and sweeter dishes is usual; but to fast and to be continent belongs to few: and not to covet another's goods is rare; but on the contrary, to wish to take away from another, and not to be content with one's own—in this there is fellowship with very many. Some duties, therefore, are first, others intermediate. The first are shared with few, the intermediate with more.

11. Two Measures of Perfection, Divine and Human

Finally, in the same words there is frequently a distinction. For we call God good in one sense, man in another; we call God just in one sense, man in another. Likewise we call God wise in one sense, man in another. This we teach also in the Gospel: Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect. I read that Paul himself is both perfect and not perfect. For when he had said: Not that I have already received, or am already perfect: but I follow after, if I may attain, he immediately added: As many, therefore, as are perfect. For there is a twofold form of perfection: one having middling measures, another full measures; one here, another there; one according to human possibility, another according to the perfection of the future. But God is just in all things, wise above all things, perfect in all things.

12. Common Wisdom Versus Wisdom Perfected in Selflessness

Among men themselves also there is a difference. Daniel is wise in one way, of whom it is said: Who is wiser than Daniel? Other wise men are wise in another way, Solomon in another, who was filled with wisdom above all the wisdom of the ancients, and above all the wise men of Egypt. For it is one thing to be wise in a common way, another to be wise perfectly. He who is wise in a common way, is wise for temporal things, is wise for himself: so that he may take something away from another and add it to himself. He who is wise perfectly, does not know how to regard his own advantages: but with his whole affection strives toward that which is eternal, which is seemly and honorable, seeking not what is useful to himself, but what is useful to all.

13. The Rule Against Seeking One's Own Advantage

Let this, then, be the rule, so that between those two, the honorable and the useful, we cannot err, in that the just man thinks nothing ought to be taken from another, nor wishes his own advantage to be increased by another's disadvantage. This rule the Apostle prescribes to you, saying: All things are lawful, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful, but all things do not edify. Let no man seek his own, but that which is another's; that is, let no one seek his own advantage, but another's. Whence also elsewhere he says: Each esteeming the other better than himself, not each considering the things that are his own, but the things that are of others.

14. Proverbs on Seeking the Good of Others

Let no one also seek his own favor, no one his own praise, but another's. This we can clearly observe declared also in Proverbs, when the Holy Spirit says through Solomon: Son, if you are wise, you shall be wise for yourself and for your neighbors; but if you turn out evil, you alone shall draw down evils. For the wise man takes counsel for others, just as does the just man; since indeed each is a partaker of the other, both being a form of virtue.

15. Conformity to Christ in Seeking the Common Good

If, then, anyone wishes to please all, let him in all things seek not what is useful to himself, but what is useful to many, as Paul also sought. For this is to be conformed to Christ, not to seek what is another's, to take nothing away from another in order to acquire it for oneself. For Christ the Lord, though he was in the form of God, emptied himself, that he might take on the form of man, which he might enrich with the virtues of his own works. Do you, then, strip him whom Christ has clothed? Do you unclothe him whom Christ has clothed? For this is what you do, when you seek to increase your own advantages by another's loss.

16. The Word Humanity Comes from the Earth

Consider, O man, whence you have taken your name, namely from the earth (humus), which snatches nothing from anyone, but bestows all things on all, and ministers diverse fruits for the use of all living creatures. From this is named humanity, the special and domestic virtue of man, which helps its fellow.

17. The Body's Members Keep to Their Own Office

Let the very form of your body and the use of its members teach you this. Does your one member claim for itself the offices of another member, or does the eye claim the office of the mouth, or the mouth the office of the eye, or the hand the ministry of the feet, or the foot that of the hands? What also of the right and left hands themselves, which have distinct offices for the most part, so that if you were to interchange the use of each, it would be against nature, and you would sooner strip off the whole man than convert the ministries of your members: as if you were to offer food with the left hand, or perform with the right the ministry of the left, of washing away the remnants of food, unless perhaps necessity should demand it.

18. One Body, Many Necessary Members

Imagine this and give to the eye the power to be able to take away sensation from the head, hearing from the ears, thoughts from the mind, smell from the nostrils, taste from the mouth, and confer them upon itself: would it not dissolve the whole condition of nature? Whence the Apostle beautifully says: If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? We are all, therefore, one body, and diverse members, but all necessary to the body: for a member cannot say of a member, I have no need of you. Nay rather, those very members which seem to be weaker are much more necessary, and generally require greater care for their protection. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it.

19. Injuring One Member Wounds the Whole Body

Whence how grave a thing it is that we should take something away from him with whom we ought to suffer together: and that we should be a fraud and an injury to him with whom we owe fellowship of ministry! This assuredly is the law of nature, which binds us to all humanity, so that we should each render service to the other, as though we were parts of one body, one to another. Nor should we think anything ought to be taken away, since it is against the law of nature not to help. For thus we are born, that member should agree with member, and one cling to another, and mutually render service to each other. But if one should fail in its office, the rest are hindered: as if the hand should pluck out the eye, has it not denied to itself the use of its own work? If it should wound the foot, how great a progress of activities has it envied itself?

And how much more grave is it that a whole man rather than one member be injured? For if in one member the whole body is violated, certainly in one man the fellowship of the whole of humanity is dissolved; the nature of the human race is violated, and the congregation of the holy Church, which rises up into one connected and compacted body by the unity of faith and charity: and Christ the Lord too, who died for all, will grieve that the price of his blood has been made void.

20. The Law Forbids Moving Boundary Stones and Extorting the Poor

What further! That even the very law of the Lord teaches that this rule is to be kept, that you take nothing away from another for the sake of preserving your own advantage, when it says: You shall not remove the boundaries which your fathers have set; when it commands your brother's straying calf to be brought back; when it orders a thief to die; when it forbids the hired servant to be defrauded of his due wage; when it decreed that money should be returned without usury. For to come to the aid of one who has not is a mark of humanity; but it is a mark of harshness to extort more than you have given. For if he will be in need of your help precisely because he had not the means to repay from his own resources, is it not impious that, under the pretense of humanity, you should demand more from him who had not the means to pay even less?

You release the debtor to another, then, in order to condemn him to yourself: and do you call this humanity, where there is an auction of iniquity?

21. Man Alone Is Bound to Give to All

This we have as an advantage over the other living creatures, that other kinds of creatures do not know how to confer anything: wild beasts snatch, men bestow. Whence the Psalmist also says: The just man shows mercy and gives. Yet there are creatures which also confer something. If indeed by gathering they nourish their offspring, and birds satisfy their young with their own food: but to man alone is it given as a due, that he should feed all as though they were his own.

He owes this by the very right of nature. But if it is not lawful not to give, how is it lawful to take away? Do not the laws themselves teach us this? They order that things which have been taken from someone, along with injury to the person, or to the sum of the thing itself, be restored; so that they may deter the thief from taking away, either by penalties or by fines, may call him back.

22. The Servile Vice of Theft, Hidden and Public

Suppose, however, that someone could either not fear the penalty, or mock the fine: is it fitting that any should take something from another? This is a servile vice, and familiar to the lowest condition; so much against nature, that it seems to be extorted rather by want than persuaded by nature. Yet the thefts of slaves are hidden, but the plunderings of the rich are public.

23. It Is Against Nature to Harm Another for Gain

What indeed is so much against nature as to injure another for the sake of your own advantage; when natural affection persuades that watch should be kept for all, that troubles should be undergone, that labor should be undertaken; and it is reckoned glorious for each one if by his own perils he seeks the tranquillity of all: each should think it much more pleasing to himself to have repelled the destruction of his country than his own perils; and should esteem it more excellent that he has devoted his labor to his country, than if, placed in leisure, he had passed a tranquil life amply supplied with pleasures.

24. Conscience as the Heaviest Penalty, and the Common Good

From this, then, it is gathered that man, who has been formed according to the direction of nature, so as to obey it, cannot harm another; but if he should harm anyone, he violates nature; nor is there as much advantage which he thinks he will gain, as there is disadvantage which will befall him from it. For what penalty is heavier than the wound of an inward conscience? What judgment more severe than the domestic one, whereby each is guilty to himself, and accuses himself because he has unworthily done injury to a brother? This Scripture commends not slightly, saying: "Out of the mouth of fools comes a rod of insolence". Folly, therefore, is condemned, because it commits insolence. Is not this more to be shunned than death, than loss, than poverty, than exile, than the pain of infirmity?

For who would not reckon a bodily defect, or loss of patrimony, lighter than a defect of soul, and loss of reputation? 25. It is clear, therefore, that this is to be regarded and held by all, that the advantage of each individual is the same as that of all together; and nothing is to be judged useful except what benefits the common good. For how can that which is useless to all profit one? It harms. It seems to me certainly that he who is useless to all cannot be useful to himself. For indeed if there is one law of nature for all, then there is assuredly one advantage for all together, and by the law of nature we are bound to have regard for all. It is not, therefore, the part of him who wishes good for another according to nature, to harm him against the law of nature.

26. Winning Life's Race Without Fraud

For indeed if those who run in the stadium are borne along, instructed and trained by precepts, so that each contends by speed, not by fraud, and hastens toward victory in his course as much as he can, but does not dare to trip up another or throw him down with his hand: how much more in this race of this life ought our victory to be won without fraud and deception of another?

27. The Shipwrecked Man's Plank and the Robber's Sword

Some ask, if a wise man in shipwreck should be able to wrest a plank from a foolish shipwrecked man, whether he ought to do so? To me indeed, although it seems more advantageous for common use that the wise man rather than the fool should escape from the shipwreck; nevertheless it does not seem that a Christian man, both just and wise, ought to seek life for himself by another's death: seeing that even if he should encounter an armed robber, he could not strike back at the one striking him, lest, while he defends his safety, he stain his piety. Concerning which there is an open and clear judgment in the books of the Gospel: "Put up thy sword again; for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword". What robber is more detestable than the persecutor who had come to kill Christ? But Christ did not wish to be defended by the wounding of his persecutors, he who wished to heal all by his own wound.

28. Preferring Another's Good to Your Own Advantage

For why should you judge yourself better than another, when it belongs to a Christian man to prefer another to himself, to claim nothing for himself, to assume no honor for himself, not to vindicate the price of his own merit? Then why should you not rather be accustomed to endure your own disadvantage than to seize another's advantage? What is so contrary to nature as not to be content with what you have, to seek after another's goods, to canvass shamefully? For if honesty is according to nature—for God made all things very good—baseness is assuredly its contrary. Honesty, therefore, cannot agree with baseness, since these are distinguished from one another by the law of nature.

29. Only the Honorable Should Be Sought

But now, that we may also set in this book a summit, at which as at the end of our discussion we may direct our judgment: nothing is to be sought except what is honorable. The wise man does nothing except what is done with sincerity, without fraud; nor does he do anything by which he might bind himself to any crime, even if he could remain hidden. For he is guilty in his own eyes before he is guilty in others'; nor is the public disclosure of the shameful deed so shameful to him as the conscience of it. This we can teach, not by feigned fables, as the philosophers used to argue, but by the truest examples of righteous men.

30. The Fable of Gyges' Ring of Invisibility

I will not, therefore, feign a gaping of the earth, which was split open by great rainstorms, into which Gyges is said by Plato to have descended, and there to have come upon that fabled bronze horse, which had doors in its sides; and when he opened them, he noticed a golden ring on the finger of a dead man whose lifeless body lay there, and, greedy for gold, took away the ring. But when he had returned to the king's shepherds, of whose number he himself was, by some chance, because he had turned the bezel of the ring toward his palm, he himself saw everyone, and was seen by no one; then, when he had turned the ring back to its place, he was seen by all. Made skillful by this marvel, through the opportunity afforded by the ring he obtained the queen's adultery, brought death upon the king, and, having destroyed the rest whom he thought needed to be killed lest they be an impediment to him, obtained the kingdom of Lydia.

31. The Just Man Needs No Hiding Place

Give, he says, this ring to the wise man, that by its benefit he may be able to hide when he has sinned: for he will no less flee the contagion of sins than if he could not hide. For it is not a hiding place that gives the wise man hope of impunity, but innocence. Indeed, the law is laid down not for the just man, but for the unjust; because the just man has the law of his own mind, and the norm of his own equity and justice; and therefore he is called back from guilt not by the terror of punishment, but by the rule of honor.

32. True Examples Instead of Invented Fables

Therefore, to return to our subject, I will bring forth not fabulous examples in place of true ones, but true ones in place of fabulous. For what need have I to invent a gaping of the earth, a bronze horse, and a golden ring found on the finger of a dead man; a ring of such power that whoever is wearing it can appear at his own will, when he wishes, but when he does not wish, can withdraw himself from the sight of those present, so that, present, he cannot be seen? Surely this tends to the question whether the wise man, even if he should use this ring, by which he could hide his own crimes and gain a kingdom, would refuse to sin, and reckon the contagion of crime more grave than the pains of punishment; or whether he would use the hope of impunity for perpetrating crime.

What need, I say, have I of the fiction of the ring, when I can teach from actual deeds that a wise man, when he saw that not only could he hide in sin, but even reign, if he committed the sin—while on the other hand he perceived danger to his safety if he declined the crime—nevertheless chose rather the danger to his safety, that he might be free of crime, than the crime by which he might secure a kingdom for himself?

33. David Spares Saul Asleep in His Camp

Finally, when David was fleeing from the face of King Saul, because the king with three thousand chosen men was seeking him in the desert to inflict death, having entered the king's camp, when he found him sleeping, not only did he not strike him, but even protected him, lest he be slain by anyone else who had entered along with him. For when Abishai said to him: "The Lord has this day shut up your enemy into your hands, and now shall I kill him?" he answered: "Do not destroy him, for who shall put forth his hand against the Lord's anointed, and be guiltless?" And he added: "As the Lord lives, unless the Lord shall smite him, or his day come to die, or he shall go down into battle and perish there, the Lord forbid that I should put forth my hand against the Lord's anointed".

34. David Returns the Spear and Flees to Exile

And so he did not permit him to be killed, but took only the spear which was at his head, and the cruse of water. Thus, while all slept, he went out of the camp, crossed over to the top of the mountain, and began to reprove the king's guards, and especially Abner, the commander of the army, because he had by no means kept faithful watch over his king and lord: then he showed where the king's spear was, and the cruse that was at his head. And when the king called to him, he returned the spear, saying: "And may the Lord render to every man his righteousness and his faithfulness, as the Lord delivered you into my hands, and I would not stretch out my hand against the Lord's anointed." And while he said this, he nevertheless feared his treachery, and fled, changing his dwelling to exile.

Nor yet did he prefer safety to innocence, when now for the second time, having been given the opportunity to kill the king, he refused to use the benefit of the occasion—an occasion which offered both security of safety to him fearing, and a kingdom to him an exile.

35. John the Baptist Needed No Ring to Hide

Where was there need of Gyges' ring for John, who, if he had kept silent, would not have been killed by Herod? His own silence could have availed him, so that he might both be seen and not be killed: but because he did not allow himself to sin even for the defense of his safety, nor even could he bear and endure another's sin, he therefore stirred up against himself the cause of his death. Certainly they cannot deny that it was possible for him to keep silent, who deny that it was possible for that Gyges to be hidden by the benefit of the ring.

36. Hiding One's Life in Christ, Not Boasting

But the fable, even though it does not have the force of truth, nevertheless has this rationale: that even if a just man could hide himself, yet he should shun sin just as if he could not hide; and, having put on Christ, he should hide not his own person by wearing a ring, but his life, as the Apostle says: "For your life is hidden with Christ in God". Let no one, therefore, seek to shine here, let no one claim anything for himself, let no one boast of himself. Christ did not wish to be known here, he did not wish his name to be proclaimed in the Gospel, when he came to be present on earth, that he might be hidden from this world. Let us also, then, in like manner hide our life, by the example of Christ, let us flee boastfulness, let us not look to be proclaimed. It is better to be here in humility, there in glory. "When Christ," he says, "shall appear, then you also shall appear with him in glory".

The judgment is defined, leaving nothing to dispute, of the kind that a controversial case of speaking usually is, when one alleges that agriculture is held praiseworthy by all, that the fruits of the earth are simple, that whoever has sown more will be the more approved, that fuller returns are not defrauded from industry, that negligence and lack of care are rather what is usually blamed in an uncultivated field. 39. I have ploughed, he says, with more diligence, sown more abundantly, cultivated more carefully, gathered good crops, stored them more anxiously, kept them faithfully, guarded them providently. Now in a time of famine I sell, I relieve the hungry: I sell grain that is not another's, but mine; not at a higher price than others, indeed even at a lesser price. What fraud is there in this, when many might be in peril if they did not have what to buy? Is industry called into blame? Is diligence reproved? Is forethought censured?

Perhaps someone will say: Joseph too gathered grain in abundance, sold it in a time of famine. Is anyone compelled to buy at a higher price? Is force applied to the buyer? To all is offered the opportunity of buying; to none is injury done.

40. Good Husbandry Yields Without Guile or Fraud

These things, therefore, having been discussed as far as each one's ability allows, another rises up, saying: Agriculture indeed is good, which supplies fruits to all, which by simple industry increases the fertility of the lands, mixing in nothing of guile, nothing of fraud. Indeed, if there be any defect, it means more loss; because if one has sown well, he will reap the better: if he has sown a pure grain of wheat, he gathers a purer and unmixed harvest. Fruitful earth returns manifold what it has received; a faithful field is wont to restore its produce as if with interest.

41. Grain Hoarding Condemned as Robbery and Usury

From the returns, then, of a rich soil you ought to expect the wage of your labor, from the fertility of a fat land to hope for just gains. Why do you turn the industry of nature to fraud? Why do you envy mankind the public increase? Why do you diminish abundance for the peoples? Why do you covet scarcity? Why do you make the poor wish for barrenness? For since they do not feel the benefits of fruitfulness, while you set the price at auction, while you store up the grain, they wish rather that nothing be born, than that you traffic on the public hunger. You crave a want of grain, a scarcity of food; you groan at the rich yield of the soil, you weep at the public fruitfulness, you lament the barns full of crops, you watch for when the harvest may be scantier, when the yield thinner. You rejoice that your wishes have smiled upon a curse, that nothing might be born to anyone.

Then you are glad your harvest has come, then you are compelled to gather wealth for yourself out of everyone's misery: and this you call industry, this you name diligence, which is the cunning of craftiness, the artifice of fraud; and this you call a remedy, which is a contrivance of wickedness. Shall I call this robbery, or usury? Times are seized upon as if for robbery, in which you creep, a hard schemer, into the very vitals of men. The price is increased as if heaped up by a lot of usury, whereby the peril to life is piled up. For you the interest on the stored grain is multiplied: you hide away the grain like a moneylender, you put it up at auction like a seller. Why do you curse all men, wishing there will be a greater famine, as if no crops remained, as if a more barren year would follow? Your gain is the public loss.

42. Joseph's Granaries Opened Freely to All

Holy Joseph opened the granaries to all, he did not close them; nor did he seize upon the price of grain, but established a lasting relief, acquired nothing for himself, but arranged by provident ordering how famine might be overcome even in time to come.

43. The Rich Fool Who Built Bigger Barns

You have read how the Lord Jesus, in the Gospel, describes this grain-dealer, a hunter after price, whose estate brought forth abundant fruits, and yet he, as though in want, said: What shall I do? I have no room where to gather my fruits; I will pull down my barns and build greater; when he could not know whether his soul would be demanded of him on the following night. He did not know what to do, as though food were lacking to him; he was caught in doubt. His barns could not hold the crop, and yet he believed himself to be in want.

44. Solomon on Withholding and Selling Grain

Rightly, therefore, does Solomon say: He that withholds grain shall leave it to the nations, not to his heirs, since the profit of avarice does not descend to the rights of successors. What is not lawfully acquired is scattered, as though by certain winds, by strangers plundering it. And he added: He that hoards up grain is cursed among the people; but blessing is upon the head of him that sells it. You see, then, that it is fitting to be a distributor of grain, not a hunter after its price. That, therefore, is not true advantage in which more is taken away from honor than is added to advantage.

45. Wild Beasts Do Not Exclude Their Own Kind

But those also who forbid strangers the city are by no means to be approved; to drive out at the very time when they ought to help, to separate men from the commerce of our common parent, to deny the fruits poured out for all, to thrust away those already joined in the fellowship of life; to be unwilling, with those with whom one has shared common rights, to share subsidies in time of need. Wild beasts do not drive out wild beasts, yet man excludes man. Wild creatures and beasts consider the sustenance which the earth provides common to all. They even help their own kind; man attacks man, who ought to believe nothing that is human to be foreign to himself.

46. A Prefect's Appeal Against Expelling Strangers in Famine

How much more rightly did he act who, when he had advanced in years, and the city was enduring famine, and (as is usual in such cases) the people at large demanded that strangers be barred from the city, bearing, as holder of the urban prefecture, a greater care than the rest, called together men of rank and the wealthier citizens, and asked that they take counsel together, saying how monstrous it would be to cast out strangers, how monstrous for man to be stripped of his humanity by man, who would deny food to one dying.

We do not suffer dogs to go unfed before our table, and yet we exclude men: how useless too that so many peoples should perish from the world, whom a dire wasting sickness was consuming: how many were perishing from his own city, who were accustomed to be of help, either in contributing subsidies or in carrying on trade: that no one helps another’s hunger by driving them out—one may at most prolong a day, not repel want; nay rather, with so many tillers destroyed, so many farmers perishing, the supplies of grain would fail forever. Shall we, then, exclude these who have been accustomed to bring us our food? Shall we be unwilling to feed, in time of need, those who have fed us throughout our whole lives? How much is ministered to us by these very people, even at this very time! Man does not live by bread alone. Our own household is there; many indeed are even our own kinsfolk. Let us render back what we have received.

47. Redeeming the Grain Supply by Contribution of Gold

But we fear lest we heap up scarcity. First of all, mercy is never left destitute, but rather assisted. Then let us redeem, by contribution, the supplies of grain which must be shared with these, and restore them with gold. Surely, if these fail, do not others seem to us worth redeeming as cultivators? How much cheaper is it to feed a farmer than to buy one! Where indeed would you find one to replace him, whom you might restore? Add too that, if you should find one, being ignorant and unaccustomed to the labor, you could put him in the place merely as a number, not as a skilled tiller.

48. The Prefect Praised for Saving the Provinces

Why say more? Gold was contributed, and grain was gathered in. Thus he neither diminished the abundance of the city, nor failed to supply the strangers with sustenance. How great was the commendation this brought that most holy old man before God, how great the glory before men! This man was truly great, truly proved, who was able truly to say to the emperor, pointing out the peoples of the whole province: All these I have preserved for you; these live by the kindness of your senate; these your council has snatched from death.

49. The Recent Expulsion of Foreigners from Rome

How much more useful was this than what was done recently at Rome, when those who had already spent very many years there were cast out of that most ample city, and departed weeping with their children, mourning an exile that had to be borne away as though from citizens, the ties of kinship of very many broken, connections by marriage severed! And indeed the fruitfulness of the year had smiled upon them; only the imported city lacked grain: it could have been helped, had grain been sought from the Italians, whose sons were being expelled. Nothing is more shameful than this, to exclude one as a stranger, and yet to exact from him as one's own. Why do you cast out him who is fed from his own resources? Why do you cast out him who feeds you? You keep the slave, yet you thrust out the parent? You accept the grain, yet you show no affection? You extort the food, yet render no gratitude?

50. Rome's Loss of Trade Through the Expulsion

How disgraceful this is, how useless! For how can that be useful which is not fitting? How great were the resources of the guilds of which Rome was thereby defrauded! It could both have kept those men, and escaped the famine, by waiting for the favorable blowing of the winds and the coming of the hoped-for ships. How honorable and how useful, on the other hand, was that earlier action! For what is so becoming and honorable as that the needy should be helped by the contribution of the wealthy, that food should be ministered to the hungry, that none should lack sustenance? What so useful as that tillers be preserved for the field, that the common folk of the countryside not perish?

52. The Honorable and the Useful Are One

What therefore is honorable is also useful, and what is useful is honorable. And conversely, what is useless is unbecoming; and what is unbecoming is also useless.

53. The Shame and Futility of Egyptian Servitude

When could our forefathers have gone forth from servitude, unless they had believed that to serve the king of the Egyptians was not only shameful but also useless?

54. The Spies' Report and the People's Fear

Jesus also, and Caleb, sent to spy out the land, reported that the land indeed was fertile, but was inhabited by the fiercest nations. The people, broken by terror of war, refused to take possession of that land. The spies Jesus and Caleb urged that the land was useful; they considered it unbecoming to yield to the nations; they chose rather to be stoned, as the people threatened, than to depart from honor. The others dissuaded; the crowd cried out, saying that there would be war against dire and fierce nations, that they would fall in battle, that their wives and children would be given over to plunder.

55. God's Judgment on the Unbelieving Generation

The indignation of the Lord blazed up, so that He wished to destroy them all; but at Moses’ entreaty He tempered His sentence, deferred vengeance, judging it sufficient punishment for the unfaithful—even if He spared them for the time and did not strike the unbelieving—that they should not, on account of the price of their unbelief, come to that land which they had refused; but the children and the women, who had not murmured, being excusable either by sex or by age, should receive the promised inheritance of that land. In the end, whoever was twenty years old and above in the wilderness, their bodies fell; but the punishment of the others was deferred. But those who went up with Jesus, and thought it right to dissuade, died at once by a great plague; while Jesus and Caleb, along with the innocent by age or sex, entered into the land of promise.

56. The Verdict: Honor Preferred to Safety

The better part, therefore, preferred glory to safety; the worse part preferred safety to honor. But the divine judgment approved those who thought honor should be preferred to advantage, and condemned those with whom that which seemed conducive to safety rather than to honor outweighed the rest.

57. The Shame of Coveting Another's Inheritance

There is nothing, therefore, more disgraceful than to have no love of honor, and, by a kind of habit of degenerate trafficking, to be stirred by ignoble gain, to seethe in heart with avarice, to gape day and night after the loss of another’s patrimony, not to raise the mind toward the splendor of honor, not to consider the beauty of true praise.

58. Improper Ambition for Inheritances Among the Clergy

From this arise inheritances sought by bird-catching art, hunted down under a pretense of continence and gravity: which is far removed from the purpose of a Christian man; for whatever is drawn out by artifice, and put together by fraud, lacks the merit of simplicity. Even in those who have received no office of the ecclesiastical order, an ambition affecting an inheritance is judged unbecoming. Those placed at the very end of life have their own judgment, so that they may freely testify what they think, since afterward they will have no chance to amend it: since it is not honorable to divert to others gains that are owed or due elsewhere; since it belongs to a priest or a minister to profit all, if it can be done, and to harm no one.

59. A Priest Should Harm No One in Money Matters

Finally, if one cannot be helped except another be injured, it is more fitting that neither be helped than that the other be burdened. And therefore it is not for a priest to intervene in matters of money, in which it cannot but happen that the one who loses is frequently injured, since he considers himself defeated by the favor shown to his intercessor. It belongs to a priest, then, to harm no one, to wish to profit all: but to be able to do so belongs to God alone. For in a capital matter, to harm one whom you ought to help when in peril is not without grave sin; but in a matter of money, to seek enmities is folly, since for the sake of a man's safety grave troubles frequently arise, in which it is even glorious to be endangered. Let the form set forth, then, be kept in the office of a priest, so that he harm no one, not even when provoked and stung by some injury.

For he is a good man who said: If I have rendered evil to those who repaid me evil. For what glory is it if we do not harm one who has not harmed us? But it is virtue if, having been harmed, you forgive.

60. David Spares the Life of King Saul

How honorable it was that, when he could have harmed a hostile king, he chose rather to spare him! How useful too, since it profited his successor, that all might learn to keep faith with their own king, and not to usurp rule, but to revere it! Thus honor was preferred to advantage, and advantage followed upon honor.

61. David's Lament for Saul and Jonathan

It is little that he spared him; he added also that he grieved even in war when he was slain, and mourned him tearfully, saying: Mountains of Gilboa, let neither dew nor rain fall upon you. Mountains of death, since there the protection of the mighty was taken away, the protection of Saul. He was not anointed with oil, and with the blood of the wounded and the fat of the warriors. The arrow of Jonathan did not turn back, nor did the sword of Saul return empty. Saul and Jonathan, lovely and dearest, inseparable in their life, in death also were not divided. Swifter than eagles, stronger than lions. Daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet garments with your ornaments, who put gold upon your garments. How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle! Jonathan is slain upon your high places. I grieve for you, my brother Jonathan; you were very lovely to me. Your love to me was wonderful, surpassing the love of women.

How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished!

62. The Depth of David's Mourning for Saul

What mother would so weep for an only son as this man wept for his enemy? Who would follow the author of favor with such praises as this man bestowed upon the one who lay in wait for his own life? How piously he grieved, with what feeling he groaned! The mountains withered at the prophetic curse, and divine power fulfilled the sentence of the one who cursed. So, in place of a spectacle of a king's death, the elements paid the penalty.

63. Naboth's Refusal to Sell His Ancestral Vineyard

What indeed was the cause of death to holy Naboth, except regard for honor? For when the king demanded the vineyard of him, promising to give money, he refused an unbecoming price for his paternal inheritance, and chose rather to avoid such disgrace by death. May the Lord not permit me, he said, to give you the inheritance of my fathers; that is, let not so great a reproach fall upon me, let not God permit so great a wickedness to be extorted from me. He does not speak, surely, of cheap things, for God has no care for vines, nor for a plot of earth, but he speaks of the right of the fathers.

He could indeed have received another vineyard from among the king’s vineyards, and been his friend; a thing which, in this world, is usually reckoned no small advantage: but he judged that what was shameful could not be seen as useful, and chose rather to face danger with honor than advantage with reproach: I speak of common advantage, not that in which there is also the grace of honor.

64. The King's Regret and the Queen's Punishment

Finally, the king himself could have extorted the vineyard, but he judged it shameless, and grieved when Naboth was slain. The Lord also declared that the savagery of the woman, who, forgetful of honor, preferred shameful gain, would be punished with fitting retribution.

65. Fraudulent Weights and Measures Condemned by Solomon

Every fraud, therefore, is shameful. In fact, even in cheap matters, deceit in the balance and a fraudulent measure are execrable. If, in the marketplace of things for sale, in the practice of commerce, fraud is punished, can it seem irreprehensible among the offices of the virtues? Solomon cried out: A great weight and a small, and double measures, are unclean before the Lord. Above also he says: A deceitful balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is acceptable to him.

But this ancient formula concerning deceit—not of jurisconsults, but the judgment of the patriarchs—divine Scripture has clearly expressed in the book of the Old Testament which is entitled Joshua the son of Nun.

For when the report had gone forth among the peoples that the sea had been dried up at the crossing of the Hebrews, that water had flowed from the rock, that daily food had been supplied from heaven, sufficient for so many thousands of the people; that the walls of Jericho had fallen, battered by the sacred sound of trumpets and the shout of the people; that the king of the Hittites also had been conquered, and hanged upon a tree until evening: the Gibeonites, fearing that mighty hand, came with cunning, pretending that they were from a far country, and that after a long journey their shoes had been worn out, their garments' coverings worn thin, showing signs of long wear; and that the reason for such great labor was the desire to obtain peace and to enter into friendship with the Hebrews; and they began to ask of Joshua the son of Nun that he confirm alliance with them.

And because he was as yet ignorant of the places, and unacquainted with the inhabitants, he did not recognize their deceits, nor did he inquire of God: but quickly believed.

68. The Innocence That Trusts Rather Than Suspects

So holy in those times was their good faith, that it was not believed that anyone could deceive. Who would blame this in holy men, who judge others by their own disposition; and because truth is a friend to themselves, they think that no one lies, they do not know what it is to deceive: they gladly believe that others are what they themselves are, nor can they hold suspect what they themselves are not. Hence Solomon says: The innocent believes every word. Not credulity to be blamed, but goodness to be praised. This is what it means to be innocent—not to know what may harm; and even if one is deceived by another, yet he judges well of all who supposes good faith to be in all.

69. Joshua Honors His Oath Despite the Gibeonites' Deceit

Moved therefore by this devotion of mind to believe, he arranged a covenant, gave peace, confirmed the alliance. But when they came into their lands, the deceit was discovered—that though they were neighbors, they had pretended to be strangers—the people of the fathers began to be indignant at having been deceived. Joshua, however, judged that the peace he had given should not be recalled: because it had been confirmed by the sanctity of an oath: lest, while he charged another's perfidy, he should dissolve his own good faith. He punished them, nevertheless, by the service of a meaner ministry. A more merciful sentence, but a more lasting one: for the penalty of that ancient cunning remains attached to their office, assigned by hereditary service down to this day.

70. Notorious Tricks of Legacy Hunters

I will not note, in the matter of obtaining inheritances, the snapping of fingers, and the dances of the naked heir; for these things are notorious even among the common people: nor the contrived abundance of a feigned fishing, arranged to entice the affection of the buyer. For why was he found so devoted to luxury and delights, that he suffered a deceit of this kind?

71. A Staged Fishing Display to Inflate a Garden's Price

What need have I to treat of that pleasant and secluded retreat at Syracuse, and of the cunning of the Sicilian man: who, when he had found a certain stranger, and had learned that he was desirous of gardens for sale, invited him to dinner in the gardens: the invited guest promised, and came the next day: there he found a great multitude of fishermen, a banquet adorned with choice abundance, and, in view of the diners, fishermen arranged before the little gardens, where they never before had cast their nets: each one vied to offer what he had caught to those feasting: fish were heaped upon the table, leaping up so as to strike the eyes of those reclining. The guest marveled at so great an abundance of fish, and so great a number of boats. When he asked, the answer given was that there was a watering-place there, and that because of the sweetness of the water innumerable fish gathered there. What more?

He so enticed the guest that he wrung the gardens from him: the owner, though unwilling to sell, is compelled; reluctantly he accepts the price.

72. The Deception Exposed the Following Day

The following day the buyer came to the gardens with friends, and found no boat there. When he inquired whether there was some festival day for the fishermen that day, the answer was that there was none, nor had they ever been accustomed to fish there except on that one previous day. What authority would this man have to accuse another of deceit, who had himself contrived so shameful a hunt after delights? For he who accuses another of sin ought himself to be free from sin. I will not therefore summon trifles of this kind before this authority of ecclesiastical censure, which condemns generally every pursuit of base gain, and in a brief compass of speech excludes levity and craftiness.

73. Claiming Gain from Another's Fraudulent Will

For what shall I say of him who, knowing that a will made by others, although valid, is nevertheless false, claims for himself an inheritance or a legacy, and seeks gain from another's crime? Since even the public laws bind as guilty of a crime him who knowingly makes use of a falsehood. But the rule of justice is manifest, that it is not fitting for a good man to depart from the truth, nor to inflict unjust loss on anyone, nor to attach any deceit or contrive any fraud.

74. Ananias Deceives the Apostles About the Price

What is more evident than the case of Ananias, who defrauded concerning the price of his field, which he himself had sold, and laid a portion of the price before the feet of the apostles as though it were the whole sum, and perished as guilty of fraud? He might indeed have offered nothing, and this he could have done without fraud. But because he mingled fraud with it, he did not carry away the grace of liberality, but paid the penalty of deceit.

75. The Betrayal and Death of Ahimelech the Priest

And the Lord in the Gospel repudiated those who approached with guile, saying: The foxes have holes: since he bids us live in simplicity of heart and innocence. David also says: Thou hast wrought deceit like a sharpened razor: rebuking the traitor of wickedness, because an instrument of this kind is applied to the adorning of man, and yet more often wounds. If therefore anyone pretends favor and weaves deceit after the example of the betrayer, so as to betray to death him whom he ought to protect, he is reckoned by comparison to that instrument, which through the fault of a drunken and unsteady mind is wont to wound the hand. As that man, drunk with the wine of malice, through the sign of a deadly betrayal brought death upon Ahimelech the priest, because he had received into hospitality the prophet whom the king, inflamed by the goads of envy, was persecuting.

76. Sincerity of Speech and the Limits of a Promise

It is fitting, therefore, that one's disposition be pure and sincere, so that each one may utter simple speech, possess his own vessel in holiness, and not induce his brother by circumvention of words, promise nothing dishonorable, and if he should have promised, it is more tolerable not to fulfill the promise than to do what is shameful.

77. Herod's Oath to the Dancing Girl

Often many bind themselves by the sacrament of an oath; and although they themselves have come to know that the promise ought not to have been made, yet out of regard for the sacrament they do what they had pledged: as we wrote above concerning Herod, who shamefully promised a reward to a dancing girl, and cruelly fulfilled it. It is shameful that a kingdom is promised for a dance: it is cruel that the death of a prophet is granted for the sake of an oath's obligation. How much more tolerable would perjury have been in such an oath? If indeed it could be called perjury, what a man drunk amid wine had sworn, what an emasculated man amid the dances of dancers had promised. The head of the prophet is brought in on a platter: and this was reckoned to be a matter of good faith, which was really a matter of madness.

78. Jephthah's Vow and His Daughter's Fate

Nor will I ever be brought to believe that Jephthah promised without incaution, that he would sacrifice to God whatever met him at the threshold of his house upon his return; since he himself repented of his vow, after his daughter came to meet him. At last he tore his garments and said: Alas, my daughter, thou hast hindered me, thou hast become a goad of grief to me. Though he, out of pious fear and dread, fulfilled the bitterness of a hard fulfillment, yet he established and left behind an annual mourning to be lamented even by posterity. A hard promise, a bitterer fulfillment, which even he who made it was compelled to mourn. And so it became a precept and a decree in Israel from day to day: "The daughters of the people of Israel," it says, "went yearly to mourn the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite, four days in the year". I cannot accuse the man who was obliged to fulfill what he had vowed: but yet it is a pitiable necessity that is discharged by parricide.

79. Not All Vows Should Be Fulfilled

It is better not to vow, than to vow that which he to whom it is promised would not wish to be paid. Thus we have the example in Isaac, in whose place the Lord appointed a ram to be sacrificed to him. Not all promises, therefore, are always to be fulfilled. Indeed, the Lord himself frequently changes his own sentence, as Scripture shows. For in that book which is entitled Numbers, he had proposed to strike down the people with death and destroy them: but afterward, being entreated by Moses, he was reconciled to his people. And again he said to Moses and Aaron: Separate yourselves from the midst of this assembly, and I will consume them at once. When they had withdrawn from the assembly, the earth suddenly opened its gaping chasm and swallowed up the impious Dathan and Abiram.

80. The Pledge of the Two Pythagorean Friends

More excellent and more ancient is this example of the daughter of Jephthah, than that which is held memorable among the philosophers, concerning the two Pythagoreans, one of whom, having been condemned to death by the tyrant Dionysius, when the day of death had been appointed, asked that he be granted the opportunity of going home, in order to commend his family; and lest his good faith of returning should waver, he offered a pledge for his death, on this condition, that if he himself were absent on the appointed day, the tyrant should recognize his pledge as bound to die in his place. Nor did the one who was offered refuse the terms of the pledge, but with steadfast mind awaited the day of his death. And so the one did not withdraw himself, and the other returned on the day. This was so marvelous that the tyrant admitted them into his friendship, whose peril he had been pressing.

81. Jephthah's Daughter Accepts Her Father's Vow

That which, then, is full of wonder in men proved and learned, is found far more magnificent, and far more illustrious, in a virgin, who said to her groaning father: Do to me as it has gone forth from thy mouth. But she asked for a space of two months, that she might hold a gathering with her companions in the mountains, who with pious affection might accompany her virginity, foredoomed to death. Neither did the weeping of her companions move the girl, nor did grief bend her, nor did lamentation delay her, nor did the day pass by, nor did the hour fail. She returned to her father as though returning to fulfill a vow, and by her own will urged on him who hesitated, and brought it about, by her own spontaneous decision, that what had been an accident of impiety became a sacrifice of piety.

82. Judith's Triumph Over Holofernes

Behold, Judith offers herself, a woman of wonder, who approaches Holofernes, the man dreaded by the peoples, surrounded by the triumphal host of the Assyrians. Whom first she struck with the grace of her form and the beauty of her countenance, then ensnared with the elegance of her speech (Judith, 11-16). Her first triumph was, that she brought back her chastity intact from the tent of the enemy (Judith xii, 20): her second, that a woman won victory over a man, and put the peoples to flight by her own counsel (Judith xiii, 10).

83. The Boldness of Judith Amid the Armies

The Persians shuddered at her boldness. Indeed, that which is admired in those two Pythagoreans—she did not fear the peril of death, nor even, what is more grave for good women, the peril of modesty: she trembled neither at the stroke of a single executioner, nor even at the weapons of a whole army. A woman stood amid the ranks of warriors, amid victorious arms, secure of death. As far as concerns the weight of the danger, she went forth as one about to die: as far as concerns her good faith, as one about to fight.

84. Judith's Honor Brings Public Deliverance

Judith, therefore, followed what was honorable, and while she followed it, she found what was useful. For it was a matter of honor to prevent the people of God from giving themselves over to profane things, from betraying their ancestral rites and sacraments; to prevent sacred virgins, dignified widows, and chaste matrons from being subjected to barbaric impurity; to prevent the siege from being resolved by surrender: it was a matter of honor that she preferred to endanger herself for all, that she might free all from danger (Judith viii, 31).

85. The Authority and Grace of Judith's Honor

How great the authority of honor, that a woman should claim for herself counsel in matters of the highest importance, and not entrust it to the leaders of the people! How great the authority of honor, that she should presume God as her helper: how great the grace, that she found him so!

86. Elisha Spares the Captured Syrian Army

And what did Elisha do but follow what was honorable, when he led captive into Samaria the army of Syria which had come to besiege him, whose eyes he had covered with blindness, and said: Lord, open their eyes, that they may see, and they saw? So when the king of Israel wished to strike those who had entered, and sought from the prophet permission for this, he answered that they should not be struck, since their captivity had not been wrought by his own hand, or by weapons of war, but that they should rather be helped with the relief of food. Then, refreshed with the abundance of feasting, the raiders of Syria never afterward thought of returning into the land of Israel.

87. The Greeks Refuse to Burn the Enemy's Fleet

How much more sublime this is than that deed of the Greeks, when two peoples were contending against each other for glory and dominion, and one of them had the means to burn secretly the ships of the other people, but judged it disgraceful: and preferred to be able to do less honorably than more shamefully. And indeed those men could not do this without disgrace, deceiving by this fraud those who had come together in alliance for the sake of finishing the Persian war; which, though they might deny it, they could not but blush at; but Elisha preferred to save, rather than destroy, those who, though deceived by no fraud, had been struck by the power of the Lord; because it was becoming to spare an enemy, and to grant life to an adversary, which he could have taken away had he not spared it.

88. Honor Proven Useful in Judith and Elisha

It is clear, then, that what is honorable is always useful. For both holy Judith, by honorable contempt of her own safety, dissolved the peril of the siege, and by her own honor acquired public advantage; and glorious Elisha forgave those whom he had struck, and more usefully preserved as prisoners the enemies whom he had taken.

89. John the Baptist Rebukes Herod's Marriage

What else indeed did John consider but honesty? So that he could not endure even in a king a dishonorable marriage, saying: It is not lawful for thee to have her as wife. He could have kept silent, unless he had judged it unbecoming to himself, out of fear of death, not to speak the truth, to bend prophetic authority to the king, to weave in flattery. He surely knew that he was going to die, because he was opposing the king: but he preferred honesty to safety. And yet what was more useful than that which brought glory of martyrdom to a holy man?

90. Susanna Chooses Honorable Death Over Disgrace

Holy Susanna too, when the terror of false testimony had been announced against her, seeing herself pressed on the one side by danger, on the other by disgrace, preferred to avoid disgrace by an honorable death, rather than to undergo and endure a shameful life for the sake of safety. And so, while she attended to honesty, she also preserved her life: whereas if she had preferred what seemed to her useful for life, she would not have won so great a glory: indeed that which would have been not only useless but even dangerous, she would perhaps not have escaped the penalty of the crime. We observe therefore that what is base cannot be useful; nor again can what is honorable be useless; because usefulness is always the companion of honesty, and honesty of usefulness.

91. A Roman General Rejects a Poisoner's Offer

The rhetoricians relate a memorable thing, that when a physician of the enemy of the king had come to a Roman general, promising that he would give poison to the king, the general sent him back bound to the enemy. And truly it is a splendid thing, that one who had undertaken a contest of valor was unwilling to conquer by fraud. For he did not place honor in victory, but pronounced the very victory, unless sought by honor, to be shameful.

92. Moses Brings the Plagues of Blood, Boils, and Hail

Let us return to our Moses, and go back to earlier matters; that we may set forth things the more excellent, the more ancient they are. The king of Egypt was unwilling to let go the people of the fathers. Moses told the priest Aaron to stretch out his rod over all the waters of Egypt. Aaron stretched it out, and the water of the river was turned into blood, and no one could drink the water, and all the Egyptians were perishing of thirst: but pure streams abounded for the fathers. They threw ashes toward heaven, and there arose boils and burning blisters upon men and beasts. They brought down hail in flaming fire, all things upon the earth were shattered. Moses prayed, and all things returned to their proper state: the hail subsided, the boils were healed, the rivers furnished their accustomed drink.

93. Darkness and the Death of Egypt's Firstborn

Again the earth was covered with gloomy darkness for three days, from the time when Moses had lifted up his hand, and had poured in darkness. Every firstborn of Egypt was dying, while the whole offspring of the Hebrews was unharmed. Moses, being asked to put an end to these destructions too, prayed and obtained it. In the former matter this is to be praised, that he abstained from partnership in fraud: in the latter it is wondrous, that he turned aside by his own power, even for the enemy's sake, punishments divinely intended, truly exceedingly, as it is written, meek and mild. He knew that the king would not keep faith with his promises; yet he thought it honorable that, being asked, he should pray, that being wronged he should bless, that being provoked he should relent.

94. The Serpent Rod as a Figure of Christ

He cast down his rod, and it became a serpent, which devoured the serpents of the Egyptians: signifying that the Word would be made flesh, which would empty out the venoms of the dire serpent through remission and forgiveness of sins. For the rod is the Word, upright, royal, full of power, the mark of dominion. The rod was made a serpent, since He who was the Son of God, born of God the Father, was made the Son of man, born of a Virgin: who, as a serpent lifted up on the cross, poured medicine into human wounds. Whence the Lord Himself says: As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up.

95. Moses' Hand as a Sign of the Incarnation

Then also another sign which Moses did pertains to the Lord Jesus: He put his hand into his bosom, and drew it out, and his hand became as snow. Again he put it in, and drew it out, and it was as the appearance of human flesh; signifying, first, the brightness of the Divinity of the Lord Jesus, afterward the taking on of flesh, in which faith all nations and peoples ought to believe. Fittingly he put in his hand, because Christ is the right hand of God, in whose divinity and incarnation if anyone does not believe, he is scourged as one condemned: just as this king, who because he did not believe the evident signs, was afterward scourged and prayed that he might deserve pardon. How great, therefore, ought to be the ardor of honesty is proved from these things, and especially from this, that he offered himself for the people, saying that God should forgive the people, or else blot him out of the book of the living.

96. Raguel Discloses His Daughter's Past Marriages

Tobias too expressed the form of honesty more evidently, when, having left a banquet, he buried the dead, and invited the needy to the food of a poor man's table (Tobias ii, 2-4). Raguel especially, who, out of regard for honesty, when he was asked to give his daughter in marriage, did not keep silent even about his daughter's faults; lest he should seem to deceive the suitor by silence. And so when Tobias son of Tobias sought that the girl be given to him, he answered that indeed by law she was owed to him as a kinsman, but that he had already given her to six husbands, and that all of them were dead. So the just man feared more for others, and preferred that his daughter remain unmarried to himself, rather than that strangers should be endangered on account of her marriage.

97. Raguel Surpasses the Philosophers on Disclosure

How briefly he resolves all the questions of the philosophers! They discuss the faults of houses, whether they seem to be concealed or disclosed by the seller: our man here did not think even his daughter's faults should be hidden. And certainly he himself was not seeking to give her away, but was being asked. How much more honorable he is than those, we cannot doubt, if we compare how much more excellent a daughter's cause is than the money of a thing for sale.

98. Honesty Preserved Amid the Trials of Captivity

Let us consider another thing which, done in captivity, held the highest beauty of honesty. For honesty is hindered by no adversities, but rather stands out in them, and is more excellent than in prosperity. Amid chains therefore, amid arms, flames, servitude—which is heavier for the free-born than any torture—amid the punishments of the dying, the destruction of the fatherland, the terror of the living, the blood of the slain, care for honesty nevertheless did not fall away among our forefathers: but amid the ashes and embers of the overthrown fatherland it shone and gleamed forth in pious hearts.

99. The Sacred Fire Hidden in Persia and Recovered by Nehemiah

For when our fathers, who at that time were worshippers of God Almighty, were being led into Persia, the priests of the Lord secretly hid, in a valley, fire taken from the altar. There was there, as it were, an open well, seldom visited because of a recess of water, not open to popular use, in a place unknown and removed from onlookers: there they sealed up, both by sacred sign and by silence alike, the hidden-away fire. It was not their zeal to bury gold, to hide silver, to keep for their posterity: but amid their utmost extremities, having care for honesty, they thought the sacred fire should be preserved; lest either impure men should contaminate it, or the blood of the dead should extinguish it, or a heap of shapeless ruins should destroy it.

100. And so they went off into Persia, free only in religion; since that alone could not be wrested from them through captivity.

But afterward, after a very long time, when it pleased God, He put this mind into the king of the Persians, that he should order the temple to be restored in Judea, and the lawful rites to be renewed at Jerusalem. For the grace of this gift the king of the Persians sent the priest Nehemiah. But he brought with him the grandsons of those priests, who, about to depart from their native soil, had hidden away the sacred fire lest it perish. But when they came, as is handed down in the account of the fathers, they did not find fire, but water. And since fire was lacking with which to kindle the altars, the priest Nehemiah ordered them to draw the water, and bring it to him, and sprinkle it upon the wood. Then—a wondrous sight!—although the sky was overspread with clouds, the sun suddenly shone forth, a great fire was kindled; so that all, astonished at a deed done by so evident a grace of the Lord, were filled with joy.

Nehemiah prayed, the priests sang a hymn to God. And when the sacrifice was consumed, Nehemiah ordered again that the remaining water be poured upon larger stones: which being done, a flame was kindled, and a shining light from the altar was at once consumed.

101. This sign having been made known, the king of the Persians ordered a temple to be built in that place where the fire had been hidden, and where afterward water was found, to which very many gifts were brought. Those who were with holy Nehemiah called it "ephthar," which has the meaning of purification: by most it is called "nephthai." It is found also in the writings of the prophet Jeremiah that he ordered those who were to come afterward to take of the fire. This is the fire which fell upon the sacrifice of Moses and consumed it, as it is written: For fire went forth from the Lord and consumed all the burnt offerings that were upon the altar.

By this fire the sacrifice had to be sanctified; and therefore also upon the sons of Aaron who wished to bring in strange fire, fire again went forth from the Lord and consumed them, so that, having died, they were cast forth outside the camp. But Jeremiah, coming to the place, found a house in the manner of a cave, and he brought thither the tabernacle and the ark and the altar of incense, and blocked up the doorway: which, when those who had come together with him searched more curiously, that they might mark the place for themselves, they were by no means able to grasp or find. But when Jeremiah learned what they had attempted, he said: The place shall be unknown, until God gather together the congregation of the people, and become merciful. Then God will show these things, and the majesty of the Lord will appear.

We hold the congregation of the people, we acknowledge the propitiation of the Lord our God, which the Propitiator wrought in His own passion. I think we cannot be ignorant of this fire either, when we have read that the Lord Jesus baptizes in the Holy Spirit and fire, as John said in the Gospel. Rightly was the sacrifice consumed, since it was for sin. But that fire was a type of the Holy Spirit, who was to descend after the ascension of the Lord, and to remit the sins of all, who, as it were fire, inflames the faithful soul and mind. Whence Jeremiah, having received the Spirit, says: And it came to pass in my heart as a burning fire, flaming in my bones: and I am dissolved on every side, and I cannot bear it. But also in the Acts of the Apostles, when the Spirit had descended upon the apostles, and upon most of those who were awaiting the promises of the Lord, we read that tongues, as it were of fire, were distributed.

Then indeed the mind of each was so aflame, that they who had received the diversity of tongues were thought to be filled with new wine.

103. What then does it mean that the fire was made water, and the water stirred up fire; except that spiritual grace burns away, and through water cleanses, our sins? For sin is both washed away and burned away. Whence the Apostle also says: The work of each, of whatever sort it is, fire shall prove; and below: If any man's work shall burn, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire.

104. This we have set down in order to prove that sins are burned away by fire. It is known, then, that this is truly a sacred fire, which then, in a type of the future forgiveness of sins, descended upon the sacrifice.

105. This fire, then, is hidden away in the time of captivity, when guilt reigns: but in the time of freedom it is brought forth.

And although changed into the appearance of water, it nevertheless keeps the nature of fire, so as to consume the sacrifice. Nor should you marvel, when you have read that God the Father said: I am a consuming fire; and elsewhere: They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water. The Lord Jesus Himself too, like fire, inflamed the hearts of His hearers, like a spring He refreshed them; for He Himself says in His Gospel that He came for this purpose, that He might send fire upon the earth, and might minister a drink of living water to those who thirst.

106. Fire also descended in the time of Elijah, when he provoked the prophets of the nations to kindle the altar without fire. And when they could not do it, he himself poured water three times over his sacrifice, and water flowed round about the altar, and he cried out, and fire fell from the Lord out of heaven, and consumed the burnt offering.

107. That sacrifice is you. Consider each point in silence.

Into you descends the vapor of the Holy Spirit, it seems to burn you, when it consumes your sins. Then, that which was consumed as the sacrifice in the time of Moses was a sacrifice for sin. Whence Moses says, as it is written in the book of Maccabees, because that which was for sin was not eaten, it was consumed. Does it not seem to you to be consumed, when in the sacrament of baptism the whole outward man perishes? Our old man has been fastened to the cross, the Apostle cries out. There, as the examples of the Fathers teach you, the Egyptian is drowned, the Hebrew rises again, renewed by the Holy Spirit, who also crossed the Red Sea with unhindered step, where the fathers were baptized under the cloud, and in the sea.

108. In the flood also, in the time of Noah, all flesh died, yet the just man with his offspring was preserved. Is not man consumed, when this mortal part is released from life?

Finally the outer man is corrupted, but the inner man is renewed. And not only in baptism, but also in penance there occurs a death of the flesh for the profit of the spirit; as we are taught by apostolic authority, when St. Paul says: I have judged, as though present, that he who has so done should be delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

109. This somewhat lengthy digression seems to have been made for the sake of admiring the mystery, while we strive to unfold more fully a revealed sacrament, which is so full of honor that it is full of religion.

How great, moreover, was the care for honor among the ancients, that for the injury of rape inflicted upon one woman they pursued the outrage with war, and, the people having been defeated, swore that they would not give their own daughters in marriage to the tribe of Benjamin! The tribe would have remained without any support of posterity, had it not received leave for a necessary deception. Yet this indulgence does not seem to be free from a punishment fitting the outrage, since this alone was permitted to them, that they might enter into marriages by seizure, not by the sacrament of wedlock. And indeed it was fitting that those who had dissolved another's household should themselves lose the solemnity of nuptials.

111. How full of pity is the history!

A man, it says (Judges xix, 1-30), a Levite, had taken to himself a wife (whom I think was called a concubine from the word for lying together), who, some time after, having been offended, as usually happens, in certain matters, betook herself to her father, and was there four months. And her husband arose, and went to the house of his father-in-law, to restore favor with his wife, and to call her back and bring her home; the woman met him, and brought her husband into her father's house.

112. The father of the young woman rejoiced: he came to meet him, and sat with him three days; and they feasted, and rested. And on the following day the Levite arose at dawn, and was detained by his father-in-law, that he should not so soon abandon the pleasantness of the feast.

And on the second and third day the father of the young woman did not allow his son-in-law to depart, until all the joy and favor between them should be consummated. But on the seventh day, when the day was now inclining toward evening, after the tables and joyful feasts, when he pleaded the nearness of the approaching night, thinking it better to rest among his own people rather than among strangers, he could not be held back, and was let go together with his daughter.

113. But when some progress had been made, as the evening now pressed nearer, and they had drawn near to the city of the Jebusites, the servant saying that his master should turn aside there, his master would not agree; because that city was not of the children of Israel: but he intended to arrive as far as Gibeah, which was inhabited by the people of the tribe of Benjamin. And there was no one to receive the newcomers into hospitality, except a stranger of advanced age.

When he had looked upon them, and asked the Levite: Where are you going, or where do you come from? He answering that he was a traveler, and was returning to Mount Ephraim, and there was no one to take him in, offered him hospitality, and prepared a feast.

114. But when the satisfaction of feasting had been reached, and the tables removed, pestilent men rushed in, and surrounded the house. Then the old man offered his own virgin daughter, and her companion with whom she was accustomed to lie, to the men of iniquity, only so that no violence be done to his guest. But when reason availed little, and force prevailed, the Levite gave up his wife: and they knew her, and abused her the whole night.

Overcome by this atrocity, or by the pain of the outrage, before the door of the host with whom her husband was lodging, she threw herself down and breathed out her spirit, though granted the very last office of life, keeping the duty of a good wife, that she might at least reserve for her husband the funeral rites of her own burial.

115. When this became known (not to delay over many details) nearly the whole people of Israel blazed up for war, and though the battle remained in doubtful outcome, yet at the third turn of fighting, the people of Benjamin were delivered up to the people of Israel, and, judged by divine sentence, paid the penalty for their intemperance. It was also decreed that none of the fathers should give his daughter to him in marriage: and this was confirmed by the sacrament of an oath.

But being pricked with remorse that they had passed so harsh a sentence upon their brothers, they so tempered its severity, that they allowed them to take to themselves in marriage virgins bereft of their parents, whose fathers had been slain for the crime, or to join in union by seizure; because, for the commission of so shameful a deed, those who had violated the right of another's marriage showed themselves unworthy to obtain marriage. But lest one tribe of the people should perish, connivance at the deception was granted.

116. How great, then, was the care for honor among the ancients is shown by this, that forty thousand men drew the sword against their brothers of the tribe of Benjamin, wishing to avenge the injury to chastity; because the violators of chastity were not to be endured. And so in that war sixty-five thousand warriors were slain on both sides, and cities were burned.

And though the people of Israel had at first been the weaker, yet, not deterred by fear of the adverse war, they set aside grief for the sake of avenging chastity. They rushed into battle, prepared even with their own blood to wash away the stain of the crime committed.

And what wonder is it if that comeliness and honor were a care to the people of God, when even for lepers, as we read in the Books of Kings, consideration for honor was not lacking?

118. There was a great famine in Samaria, because the army of the Syrians had besieged it. The king, anxious, was going over the military watches upon the wall: a woman called out to him, saying: This woman persuaded me to bring my son, and I brought him, and we cooked him, and ate him: and she promised that she also would afterward bring her son, and that we would eat his flesh together: but now she has hidden her son, and will not bring him.

The king, moved because women appeared to have been fed not only on human corpses, but even on the corpses of their own children, stirred by the example of so terrible a calamity, pronounced a sentence of death against the prophet Elisha, believing it to be in his power to lift the siege and drive away the famine: or because he had not permitted the king to strike the Syrians, whom he had covered with blindness.

119. Elisha was sitting with the elders in Bethel, and before the king's messenger entered to him, he said to the elder men: Have you seen that the son of that murderer has sent to take away my head? And the messenger entered, and delivered the king's command, announcing present danger to his head. To whom the prophet answered: At this hour tomorrow a measure of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.

And when the messenger sent by the king had not believed, saying: Even if the Lord should rain down abundance of grain from heaven, not even so could this be brought about; Elisha said to him: Because you have not believed, you shall see it with your eyes, and shall not eat of it.

120. And suddenly there arose in the camp of the Syrians a sound as of chariots, and the voice of many horsemen, and the voice of a great host, and a huge tumult of war, and the Syrians thought that the king of Israel had called into alliance for the battle the king of Egypt and the king of the Amorites, and they fled at dawn, leaving their tents; for they feared lest they should be overwhelmed by the unforeseen arrival of new enemies, and be unable to resist the combined forces of kings. This was unknown to Samaria, since, overcome by fear and wasted with hunger, they did not dare even to look out.

121. Now there were four lepers at the gate of the city, for whom life was a punishment, and death a gain, and they said to one another: Behold, we sit here, and we die. If we enter the city, we shall die of famine: if we remain here, no means of living is left to us: let us go to the camp of the Syrians; either it will be a shortcut to death, or a remedy of safety. So they went, and entered the camp, and behold, everything of the enemy lay bare. Having entered the tents, first, finding provisions, they drove away their hunger, then they carried off as much gold and silver as they could. And though they alone were dwelling upon the plunder, they nevertheless resolved to announce to the king that the Syrians had fled, and they judged this to be honorable, rather than to suppress the news and foster the plunder by deceit.

122. By this report the people went out, and plundered the camp of the Syrians, and made abundance of provisions from the enemy's supplies, and brought down the price of grain according to the prophetic word, so that a measure of fine flour and two measures of barley sold for the same price, a shekel. In this rejoicing of the people, that messenger on whom the king was leaning, was crushed amid the haste of those going out and the rejoicing of those returning, trampled by the crowd, and died

Did not Queen Esther, in order to free her people from danger, which was a fitting and honorable thing, offer herself to death, and not tremble at the fury of a merciless king (Esther iv, 19)? The king of the Persians himself also, fierce and swollen of heart, yet judged it fitting to show gratitude to the one who had disclosed the plots that had been prepared against him (Esther vi, 31), and to snatch the free people from slavery, to rescue them from death, and not to spare him who had counseled so unfitting a thing. Finally, him whom he held as second to himself, and foremost among all his friends, he handed over to the cross, because he perceived that he had been dishonored by his deceitful counsels (Esther vii, 9). 124. For that friendship is praiseworthy which guards honor, to be preferred indeed to wealth, honors, powers: but it is not usually preferred to honor itself, but rather follows honor.

Such was the friendship of Jonathan, who in his devotion shrank neither from the offense of his father nor from the danger to his own safety. Such was that of Abimelech, who, for the duties of hospitable favor, thought that death for himself should rather be undergone than the betrayal of a fleeing friend.

Nothing, then, is to be preferred to honor; yet lest it be passed over out of zeal for friendship, Scripture also admonishes us of this concerning friendship. For there are many questions among the philosophers: whether for a friend's sake one ought or ought not to hold an opinion against one's country, in order to obey a friend? Whether it is proper to abandon one's good faith, while indulging and attending to a friend's advantages.

126. And Scripture indeed says: A club, and a sword, and a barbed arrow, so is a man who bears false witness against his neighbor. But consider what it asserts. It does not condemn testimony given against a friend, but false testimony. For what if for God's sake, what if for the country's sake, someone is compelled to give testimony? Should friendship outweigh religion, should it outweigh the love owed to citizens?

Yet in these very matters the truth of the testimony must be sought, lest a friend be attacked through a friend's treachery, by whose good faith he ought rather to be acquitted. A friend, therefore, ought neither to gratify the guilty nor to plot against the innocent.

127. Indeed if it be necessary to give testimony, if one has recognized some fault in a friend, let him rebuke him privately; if he does not listen, let him rebuke him publicly. For rebukes are good, and often better than a silent friendship. And even if the friend thinks himself injured, do you nevertheless rebuke him; and even if the bitterness of correction wounds his mind, do you nevertheless rebuke him, and do not be afraid: for the wounds of a friend are more tolerable than the kisses of flatterers. Rebuke, then, a friend who errs; do not abandon an innocent friend.

For friendship ought to be constant, and to persevere in affection: we ought not, in childish fashion, to change friends according to some fickle inclination.

128. Open your heart to your friend, that he may be faithful to you, and that you may derive from him the delight of your life. For a faithful friend is the medicine of life, and a grace of immortality. Show deference to your friend as to an equal, and be not ashamed to be first in doing him service: for friendship knows no pride. Wherefore the Wise Man says: Be not ashamed to greet a friend. Nor should you forsake a friend in necessity, nor abandon him, nor leave him destitute; since friendship is the support of life. Therefore let us bear one another's burdens, as the Apostle taught; for he speaks to those whom charity has embraced within one body. And indeed if in prosperity friends help friends, why should not the help of friends be at hand also for friends in adversity?

Let us assist with counsel, let us join our efforts, let us share affection in compassion.

129. If it is necessary, let us endure even harsh things for a friend's sake. Often enmities must be undergone for the sake of a friend's innocence; often reproaches, if you resist or answer back, when a friend is accused and blamed. Nor should you regret an offense of this kind; for it is the voice of the just man: And if evils befall me for my friend's sake, I endure them. For in adversity a friend is proved; for in prosperity all seem friends. But as in adversity the friend's patience and endurance are necessary, so in prosperity a fitting authority is needed, that it may restrain and rebuke the insolence of a friend who exalts himself.

130. How beautifully does Job, set in adversity, say: Have pity on me, my friends, have pity on me. This is not a word of abjectness, but rather one of censure.

For when he was unjustly accused by his friends, he answered: Have pity on me, my friends; that is, you ought to show mercy; but instead you oppress and assail a man whose afflictions, out of friendship, you ought rather to share.

131. Preserve, therefore, my sons, the friendship begun with your brethren, than which nothing is more beautiful among human affairs. It is indeed the solace of this life to have someone to whom you may open your heart, with whom you may share secrets, to whom you may entrust the hidden things of your breast; that you may secure for yourself a faithful man, who rejoices with you in prosperity, sympathizes with you in sorrow, exhorts you in persecutions. How good friends were the Hebrew children, whom not even the flame of the burning furnace could part from their mutual love! Of whom we spoke above. Well does holy David say: Saul and Jonathan, lovely and dearest, inseparable in their life, and in death they were not divided.

132. This is the fruit of friendship, that faith be not destroyed for friendship's sake. For he cannot be a friend to man who has been unfaithful to God. Friendship is the guardian of piety, and the teacher of equality; so that the superior shows himself equal to the inferior, and the inferior to the superior. For between differing characters there can be no friendship; and therefore the disposition of both ought to be in accord. Let not authority be lacking to the inferior, if the matter requires it, nor humility to the superior. Let him listen as to an equal, as to one of the same rank: and let the other, as a friend, admonish and reprove, not from a desire for boasting, but from the affection of charity.

133. Let neither the admonition be harsh, nor the reproof insulting; for as friendship ought to shun flattery, so also it ought to shun the insolence proper to another.

For what is a friend, but a partner in love, to whom you join and attach your soul, and mingle it so that you wish two to become one, to whom you entrust yourself as to another self, from whom you fear nothing, and from whom you yourself seek nothing dishonorable for your own advantage? For friendship is not a matter of tribute, but is full of grace, full of beauty. For friendship is a virtue, not a means of gain: because it is not begotten by money, but by grace; not by bidding a price, but by a contest of goodwill.

134. In short, the friendships of the poor are generally better than those of the rich; and often the rich are without friends, with whom the poor abound. For there is no true friendship where there is deceitful flattery. Most people gratify the rich with flattery! Toward the poor man no one plays the hypocrite. Whatever is shown to a poor man is genuine; the friendship of such a one is free from envy.

135. What is more precious than friendship, which is shared by angels and by men? Whence also the Lord Jesus says: Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of iniquity, who may receive you into everlasting habitations. God himself makes us friends out of servants, as he himself says: Now you are my friends, if you do what I command you. He has given the pattern of friendship which we should follow, that we may do the will of a friend, that we may open to a friend whatever secrets we have in our breast, and that we may not be ignorant of his own. Let us show him our heart, and let him open his to us. Therefore, he says, I have called you friends, because all things whatsoever I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you. A friend, then, if he is true, hides nothing: he pours out his soul, just as the Lord Jesus poured out the mysteries of the Father.

136. Therefore he who does the commandments of God is a friend; and is honored with this name. He who is of one mind is himself a friend: because unity of souls is the mark of friends: nor is anyone more detestable than one who has broken friendship. Whence in the traitor the Lord found this to be gravest, in condemning his perfidy, that he did not return the favor shown him, but mixed the poison of malice with the feasts of friendship. Thus he says: But you, O man of one mind with me, my leader and my acquaintance, who did always take sweet meats with me! That is, this cannot be endured, that you, being of one mind, should have assailed him who had bestowed grace upon you: For if my enemy had reviled me, I would indeed have borne it; and I would have hidden myself from him who hated me. An enemy can be avoided, a friend cannot, if he wishes to lay a trap.

We guard against him to whom we do not entrust our counsels; we cannot guard against him to whom we have entrusted them. Therefore, to heap up the odium of the sin, he did not say: You, my servant, my apostle; but, My man of one mind; that is, you are not mine, but even your own betrayer, who have betrayed one of one mind with you.

137. The Lord himself, when he had been offended by three kings who had not spoken rightly of holy Job, chose rather to forgive them through a friend, so that the intercession of friendship became the remission of sins. Thus Job prayed, and the Lord forgave. Friendship profited those to whom insolence had been harmful.

These things, my sons, I have laid up with you, that you may keep them in your minds: whether they contain any profit, you yourselves shall judge; meanwhile they offer a great abundance of examples: for nearly all the examples of our forefathers, and very many sayings besides, are contained within these three books; so that even if the discourse conveys no grace of style, yet the succession of antiquity, expressed as it were in a compendium, may contribute very much of instruction.