He exhorts both priests and laity to their respective duties and recommends to all humility and watchfulness.
He exhorteth Priests to feede their flockes, onely for Gods sake and revvard of heauen, vvithout al lordlines. 5 the laie to obey: al to be humble one towards an other. 8 to be constant in the Catho. faith, considering it is not man, but that lion the Diuel that persecuteth them, 9 as he doth the vvhole Church also, & that God vvil after a vvhile make them secure in heauen.
1The ancients therefore that are among you, I beseech who am myself also an ancient and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as also a partaker of that glory which is to be revealed in time to come:I sacerdoti adunque, che sono tra di voi, gli scongiuro, io consacerdote, e testimone de' patimenti di Cristo: e chiamato a parte di quella gloria, che sarà un giorno manifestata:THE seniors therfore that are among you, I beseche, my self a fellovv senior vvith them and a vvitnesse of the passions of Christ, vvho am also partaker of that glorie vvhich is to be reuealed in time to come:Seniores ergo, qui in vobis sunt, obsecro, consenior et testis Christi passionum: qui et ejus, quæ in futuro revelanda est, gloriæ communicator: 2Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking care of it, not by constraint but willingly, according to God: not for filthy lucre’s sake but voluntarily:Pascete il gregge di Dio, che da voi dipende, governandolo non forzatamente, ma di buona voglia secondo Dio: non per amore di vil guadagno, ma con animo volenteroso:feede the flocke of God vvhich is among you prouiding not by constrainte, but vvillingly according to God: neither for filthie lucre sake, but voluntarily:pascite qui in vobis est gregem Dei, providentes non coacte, sed spontanee secundum Deum: neque turpis lucri gratia, sed voluntarie: 3Neither as lording it over the clergy but being made a pattern of the flock from the heart.Né come per dominare sopra l'eredità (del Signore) ma fatti sinceramente esemplare del gregge:neither as • ouerruling • the Clergie, but made examples of the flocke from the hart.neque ut dominantes in cleris, sed forma facti gregis ex animo. 4And when the prince of pastors shall appear, you shall receive a never fading crown of glory.E quando apparirà il principe de' pastori, riceverete corona immarcessibile di gloria.And vvhen the prince of pastors shal appeare, you shal receiue the incorruptible crovvne of glorie.Et cum apparuerit princeps pastorum, percipietis immarcescibilem gloriæ coronam. 5In like manner, ye young men, be subject to the ancients. And do you all insinuate humility one to another: for God resisteth the proud, but to the humble he giveth grace.Parimente voi, o giovani, siate soggetti a' sacerdoti. E tutti rivestitevi di umiltà gli uni verso degli altri, perché Dio resiste ai superbi, e agli umili da la grazia.In like maner ye yong men be subiect to the seniors. And do ye al insinuate humilitie one to an other, because God resisteth the proude: and to the humble he giueth grace.Similiter adolescentes subditi estote senioribus. Omnes autem invicem humilitatem insinuate, quia Deus superbis resistit, humilibus autem dat gratiam.
6Be you humbled therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in the time of visitation:Umiliatevi adunque sotto la potente mano di Dio, affinchè vi esalti nel tempo della visita:Be ye humbled therfore vnder the mightie hand of God, that he may exalt you in the time of visitation:Humiliamini igitur sub potenti manu Dei, ut vos exaltet in tempore visitationis: 7Casting all your care upon him, for he hath care of you.Ogni vostra sollecitudine gittando in lui, imperocché egli ha cura di voi.casting al your carefulnes vpon him, because he hath care of you.omnem sollicitudinem vestram projicientes in eum, quoniam ipsi cura est de vobis. 8Be sober and watch: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour.Siate temperanti, e vegliate: perché il diavolo vostro avversario come lione, che rugge, va in volta cercando chi divorare:Be sober and vvatch: because your aduersarie the Deuil as a roaring lion goeth about, seeking vvhom he may deuoure.Sobrii estote, et vigilate: quia adversarius vester diabolus tamquam leo rugiens circuit, quærens quem devoret: 9Whom resist ye, strong in faith: knowing that the same affliction befalls, your brethren who are in the world.A cui resistete forti nella fede: sappiate, come le stesse cose patiscono i vostri fratelli, che sono pel mondo.vvhom resist ye, strong in faith: knovving that the self same affliction is made to that your fraternitie vvhich is in the vvorld.cui resistite fortes in fide: scientes eamdem passionem ei quæ in mundo est vestræ fraternitati fieri. 10But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little, will himself perfect you and confirm you and establish you.Ma il Dio di ogni grazia, il quale ci ha chiamati alla eterna gloria sia in Cristo Gesù, con un po' di patire vi perfezionerà, vi conforterà, e assoderà.But the God of al grace, vvhich hath called vs vnto his eternal glorie in Christ IESVS, he vvil perfite you hauing suffered a litle, and confirme, and stablish you.Deus autem omnis gratiæ, qui vocavit nos in æternam suam gloriam in Christo Jesu, modicum passos ipse perficiet, confirmabit, solidabitque. 11To him be glory and empire, for ever and ever. Amen.A lui la gloria, e l'impero pe' secoli de' secoli. Così sia.To him be glorie and empire for euer and euer. Amen.Ipsi gloria, et imperium in sæcula sæculorum. Amen. 12By Sylvanus, a faithful brother unto you, as I think, I have written briefly: beseeching and testifying that this is the true grace of God, wherein you stand.Per mezzo di Silvano fratello fedele vi ho scritto, parmi, brevemente: per esortarvi, e attestando, che la vera grazia di Dio è questa, nella quale state costanti.By Syluanus a faithful brother to you, as I thinke, I haue breefely vvritten: beseching and testifying that this is the true grace of God, vvherein you stand.Per Silvanum fidelem fratrem vobis, ut arbitror, breviter scripsi: obsecrans et contestans, hanc esse veram gratiam Dei, in qua statis.
13The church that is in Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you. And so doth my son, Mark.Vi saluta la Chiesa, che è in Babilonia, con voi eletta, e Marco mio figlio.The Church saluteth you, • that is in Babylon, coëlect: and Marke my sonne.Salutat vos ecclesia quæ est in Babylone coëlecta, et Marcus filius meus. 14Salute one another with a holy kiss. Grace be to all you who are in Christ Jesus. Amen.Salutatevi gli uni, gli altri col bacio santo. La grazia a tutti voi, che siete in Cristo Gesù. Così sia.Salute one an other in a holy kisse. Grace be to al you vvhich are in Christ IESVS. Amen.Salutate invicem in osculo sancto. Gratia vobis omnibus qui estis in Christo Jesu. Amen.
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The ancients, therefore, that are among you, I beseech, who am myself also an ancient,[Ver. 1. Seniores, presbuterous; consenior, sumpresbuteros. It is certain that in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and in other languages, such as have a superiority and command over others, in the Church or in the commonwealth, have been called by words that by their derivation express men advanced in age and years; because men chosen to such offices were commonly, though not always, advanced in age. Yet whether old or young, we give them the names which use and custom hath affixed to their dignities; for example, in English, the chief magistrate of a town we call the mayor or major, not the greater of such a town; those who rule with him, we call the aldermen, not the elderly men according to the derivation. The like might be said of senate, senators, and many other names of offices and dignities; and, as the authors of the annotations on the Rheims Testament observed, it would be ridiculous to translate such words according to their etymologies. We must not translate pontifex, a bridge-maker; lapis, a hurt foot, etc. Apostolos, by its derivation, signifieth only one sent, or a messenger; episkopos, an overseer, or inspector; diakonos, a servant, or waiter; yet Protestants as well as Catholics translate, apostles, bishops, deacons; and where presbuteroi, or seniors, signify men now known by these words, priests or bishops, why may we not in translating give them these names? It is true a particular difficulty occurs, because (as St. Jerome, St. Chrysostom, and others have taken notice) the Greek word, o presbuteros, is used in the New Testament sometimes for those who by their dignity were priests only, sometimes for bishops, and many times in the gospels for those who were governors among the Jews, or members of their great council or sanhedrim and sometimes only for those who by their age were elder or more advanced in years. This makes it impossible, in translating, to represent the signification of this Greek word always in Latin or in English by the same Latin or English word, which a translator should endeavour to do as much as possible. The Protestant translators have indeed always rendered the Greek presbuteros by the English word elder; they adhere to the derivation of the word without regard to the different offices signified by that one word, and for which we have different words in English. I take notice that the Latin interpreter of the old Vulgate, though generally very exact, has not followed this rule of translating presbuteros by the same Latin word: for example, Acts xv. 2. he puts presbyteros, and yet in the same chapter (ver. 4, 6, 22, and 23) he puts seniores. Acts xx. 17. for presbuterous he puts majores natu; and these same persons, by the 28th verse, are called episcopi, episkopoi. In the epistle to Timothy and Titus, as also in those of Sts. James, Peter, and John, for the same Greek word we sometimes find presbyteri, and sometimes seniores. A late English translation from the Latin, (in the year 1719. by C. N.) for seniores and presbyteri sometimes puts elders, sometimes priests, whether it be seniores or presbyteri in the Latin; and when mention is made of the ministers of the gospel, (as Acts xv. 4.) for seniores he translates elders, and yet in the same chapter (ver. 6, 22, and 23) for the same word he puts priests, etc. The translators of the Rheims Testament were more exact, for generally speaking of seniores they put the ancients, when mention was made of those who were presbuteroi among the Jews; when seniores were applied to the ministers of the gospel, they put seniors; and for presbyteri, they translate priests. Yet they have gone from this in one or two places; for in Acts 11:30., where we read mittentes ad seniores, they put to the ancients; and also, in Acts xvi. 4., for senioribus we again find ancients. For my part I judged it best, for distinction sake, to put elders in the gospels for seniores, or presbuteroi of the Jews. I had put in the Acts of the Apostles seniors where I found seniores, speaking of the ministers of the new law; and where I have found the Latin, presbyteri, I have translated priests; and Acts xx. 17. I have translated the seniors. I have also been in a doubt here in this place of St. Peter, and also in the 2nd and 3rd of St. John, whether to put seniors or priests: I have put ancient priests, not doubting but that St. Peter and St. John speak of themselves as priests of the first order, or as they were bishops.] etc. According to the letter, the senior, I, a fellow senior; or, the elder, I, a fellow elder. Mr. Nary, and also the French translators, commonly put, the priest, I, your fellow priest. Or even it might be, the bishops, I, your fellow bishop. The Latin word, senior, and the Greek word presbyteros, which here are in the text, if we should follow their derivation only, signify elderly men, or men advanced in years; but since by a received use, they signify and represent to us offices and dignities, either ecclesiastical or civil, either belonging to the Church or state, which in other languages are now generally known by other words, we may however be permitted to use, even in translating the holy Scriptures, those words and names by which now are represented to us those offices and dignities. It cannot be doubted but the Greek and Latin words, which we find in this verse, were applied, after the establishment of the new law of Christ, to signify such ministers of God and the Church which are now called priests and bishops: and it is for this reason that I judged it better to put the word priest, and fellow priest, (meaning priests of the higher order, commonly known by the name of bishops) than to use the words seniors, elders, or presbyters. I should not blame the Protestant translators for translating always the Greek word, presbyter, by the English word elder, nor the Rhemes translators for putting it here senior, if these words were sufficiently authorised by an ecclesiastical use and custom to signify priests or bishops; which I think can scarce be said, to say nothing that the word elders hath been used by fanatical men, who admit of no ordination of bishops or priests by divine institution, and who have affixed it to their lay elders, who are appointed and degraded as it seemeth good to their congregations. Though the Protestants of the Church of England always translate elders for presbyters in the New Testament, yet I do not find this word once used in their liturgy or common prayer book, when any directions are given to those that perform the church office, who are called priests, bishops, curates, or ministers.
And a witness of the sufferings of Christ. St. Peter being called and made the first or chief of the apostles soon after Christ began to preach, he was witness of what Christ suffered, both during the time of his preaching and of his passion.
Witham
Glory. Some think that St. Peter only means, that he was present at his transfiguration, where was shewn some resemblance of the glory which is to come in heaven. Others think, that he expresseth the firm hopes he had of enjoying the glory of heaven. (Witham)
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Feed the flock. This shews he speaks of bishops and priests, and not of elders in years only.
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Witham
Neither as domineering over the clergy.[Ver. 3. In cleris, ton kleron. Though I have followed the Rheims Testament, and translated over the clergy, I believe kleroi, in the plural number, is scarce used for clerici, or men, but rather for shares and parts of Christ's flock, to signify that every bishop or priest should not domineer over those under him, whether inferior ministers or lay persons.] This may not only signify over the inferior ministers, who were subject to the bishops or priests, but also over the particular flocks which fell to their share, or to their lot to take care of. See the Greek. (Witham)
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Witham
Ye young men, not only younger in age, but employed in offices inferior to those of the bishops and priests, be subject to the ancients. But even all of you by your carriage insinuate, practise, and give examples of humility one to another: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. St. James (Chap. 4:6.) repeats the same doctrine and the same words. See also James 2:12. (Witham)
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Witham
I have written briefly, considering the importance of such mysteries, and necessary instructions. (Witham)
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The church, which is in Babylon, (at Rome, say Eusebius, St. Jerome, etc.) so called not only on account of the extent of its empire, but also for its idolatry and vices.
Witham
Mark, my son: generally thought to have been St. Mark, the evangelist. (Witham)
See the unjust prepossession of certain seceders. In this text, where all the lights of antiquity understand Rome by Babylon, they deny it; and in the book of Revelation, where all evil spoken of Babylon, there they will have it signify nothing else but Rome: yes, and the Church of Rome, not (as the holy Fathers interpret it) the temporal state of the heathen empire.
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In this Epistle St. Peter says (chap. 3.), Behold this second Epistle I write to you: and before (chap. 1. 14), Being assured that the laying away of this my tabernacle is at hand. This shews, that it was written a very short time before his martyrdom, which was about thirty-five years after our Lord’s Ascension. In this Epistle he admonishes the faithful to be mindful of the great gifts they received from God and to join all other virtues with their faith. He warns them against false teachers, by describing their practices and foretelling their punishments. He describes the dissolution of this world by fire and the day of judgment.
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1. Seniors.] Senior in the vulgar translation is often Priest or Bishop. See Act. •5. Though the Latin, Senior, be not appropriated to holy order by vse of speache, neither in the Latin nor in our language: yet it is plaine that the Greeke vvord Presbyter, vvhich the Apostle here vseth, is here also (as commonly in other places of the new Testament) a vvord of Ecclesiastical office, and not of age, and is as much to say as Priest or Bishop. For the Apostle him self being of that order, speaketh (as by his vvordes it is plaine) to such as had charge of soules, saying, Feede the flocke of God vvhich is among you. Because vve folow the vulgar latin translation, vve say Seniors and Senior: vvhereas othervvise vve might and should say according to the Greeke, The Priests therfore I beseech, my self a follovv-priest vvith them. So doth S. Hierom read (Presbyteros compresbyter) and expound ep. 85. So translateth Erasmus, and Beza him self.
In the liturgy The Epistle for S. Apollinaris Iul. 23.
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〈Greek〉
Desire of Iucre, or to exercise holy functions for gaine, is a filthy fault in the Clergie, and therfore much to be auoided.
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3. Ouerruling.] Not superiority, Not Superioritie but tyrannie and lordlines is forbidden in the Clergie. preeminence, souerainty, or rule on the one side, not obedience, subiection, and inferiority on the other side, be forebidden in the Clergie: but tyrannie, pride, and ambitious domination be forbidden, and humility, meekenes, moderation are commended in Ecclesiastical Officers. the Greeke vvord here of ruling or ouerruling, being the same that our Sauiour vseth in the Gospel of the tyrannical rule of secular Heathen Princes, 〈Greek〉. saying to his Apostles, that it shal not be so among them: according as here the prince of the Apostles teacheth his brethren the Ecclesiastical rulers. Mat. 20. v. 25.
3. The Clergie.] Some of the English nevv translations turne it corruptly, Heret. translation. Parishes: others heritages: both, to auoid the most knovven, true, and common vvord in al Christian languages, to vvit, Clergie, a vvord, by vse of al antiquity, & agreably to the holy Scriptures, made proper to the Spiritualty or Clergie, though in an other more vulgar acception it may agree to al Christs chosen heritage, as vvel of lay people as Priests. vvhich the Protestants had rather folovv, The name of Clergie and Clerke. because they vvill haue no difference betvvene the laity & the Clergie. But the holy fathers far othervvise euen from the beginning. Vvhereof see S. Cyprian ep. 4. 5. 6. &c. And S. Hierom ep. 2 to Nepotianus •. 5. vvhere he interpreteth this vvord. Therfore (saith he) Clericus, that is, a Clergie man, vvhich serueth the Church of Christ, let him first interprete his name, and the signification of the name being declared, let him endeuour to be that vvhich he is called. If 〈Greek〉(Cle•us) in Greeke, be called in Latin, Sors, therfore are they called Clerici, that is, Clergie men, because they are of the lot of our Lord, or because our Lord him self is the lot or portion of Clergie men &c.
Vvhich calling no doubt vvas taken out of the holy Scriptures, Numer. 18. and Deutero, 18. vvhere God is called the inheritance. 〈Greek〉. lot, and portion of the Priests and Leuites: and novv vvhen men be made of the Clergie, they say, Dominus pars haereditatis meae that is, Our Lord is the portion of mine inheritance. but specially out of the nevv Testament, Act. 1, 17. 25. and 8, 21. Vvhere the lot or office of the Ecclesiastical ministerie is called by this vvord 〈Greek〉, 〈Greek〉. Cle•us. Priests crownes. See in Venerable Bede the causes vvhy this holy state being seuered by name from the Laity, doth vveare also a crovvne on their head for distinction. Lib. 5. hist. Angl. c. 22.
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4. Crovvne of glorie.] A• life euerlasting shal be the revvard of al the iust, The heauenly crowne of Doctors and preachers. so the preachers & Pastors that doe vvel, for their doing shal haue that revvard in a more excellēt degree, expressed here by these vvordes, Crovvne of glorie. according to the saying of Daniel c. 12. They that sleepe in the dust of the earth, shal avvake, one sort to life euerlasting, others to euerlasting rebuke. but such as he learned, shal shine as the brightnes of the firmament: and such as instruct many to iustice, shal be as starres, during al eternitie.
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In the liturgy The Epistle vpon the 3 Sū day after Pentecost.
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Concordance Prou 3.
Concordance Iac. 4.
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Concordance Iac. 4.
Concordance Psa. 54, Mt. 6, 25
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Concordance Ro. 16, 16. 1 Cor. 16, 20. 2 Cor. 1•, 12.
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31. That is in Babylon.] S. Peter vvriteth from Babylon, that is, Rome. The Protestants shevv them selues here (as in al places vvhere any controuersie is, or that maketh against them) to be most vnhonest and partial handlers of Gods vvord. The aūcient fathers, namely S. Hierom in Catalogo de scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis verbo Marcus:, Eusebius li. 2 c. 14 hist. Oecumenius vpon this place: and many moe agree, that Rome is meant by the vvord Babylon, Vvhy Rome vvas called Babylon. here also as in the 16 and 17 of the Apocalypse: saying plainely, that S. Peter vvrote this Epistle at Rome, vvhich is called Babylon for the resemblance it had to Babylon that great citie in Chaldaea (vvhere the Ievves vvere captiues) for magnificence, Monarchie, resort and confusion of al peoples and tongues, and for that it vvas before Christ and long after, the seate of al Ethnike superstition & idolatrie, & the slaughter house of the Apostles & other Christian men, the Heathen Emperours thē keeping their cheefe residēce there. See S. Leo Ser. 1. in Nati. Petri & Pauli.
This being most plaine, The Protestāts vvil haue Babylon to signifie Rome in other places but not here. and cōsonant to that vvhich folovveth of S. Marke vvhom al the Ecclesiastical histories agree to haue been Peters scholer at Rome, and that he there vvrote his Gospel: yet our Aduersaries fearing hereby the sequele of Peters or the Popes supremacie at Rome, deny that euer he vvas there, or that this Epistle vvas vvritten there, or that Babylon doth here signifie Rome: but they say that Peter vvrote this Epistle at Babylon in (haldaea, though they neuer reade either in Scriptures or other holy or profane historie, that this Apostle vvas euer in that tovvne. but see their shameles partiality. here Babylon (say they) is not taken for Rome, because it vvould folovv that Peter vvas at Rome &c. but in the Apocalypse vvhere al euil is spoken of Babylon, there they vvill haue it signifie nothing els but Rome, and the Romane Church also, not (as the fathers interprete it) the temporal state of the Heathen Empire there. So do they folovv in euery. vvord no other thing but the aduantage of their ovvne heresie. See the Annotation vpon the last of the Romans v. 16. and vpon the 17 of the Apocalypse. v. 5.
And as for their vvrangling vpon the supputation of the time of his going thither, The Protestants vvrāgle about the time of Peters being at Rome. and the number of yeres that he vvas there, & the diuersitie that seemeth to be in the Ecclesiastical vvriters concerning the same, read B. Fisher and other that substantially ansvver al such cauils. And if such contentious reasoning might, take place, vve should hardly beleeue the principal things recorded either in Ecclesiastical histories, or in the Scriptures them selues. Concerning the time of Christs fleing into Aegypt, of the comming of the Sages to adore him, yea of the yeres of his age, & time of his death, al aūcient vvriters do not agree. and concerning the day of his last supper and institution of the holy Sacrament, there is diuersitie of opinions. Shal vve therfore inferre that he neuer died, Many things most true (euen in the Scriptures) are not agreed vpon concerning the time. and that the other things neuer vvere? Can the Heretikes accord al the histories that seeme euen in holy Scripture to haue contradiction? Can they tel vs certainely, vvhen Dauid first came to Saul, and the like? doubt they vvhether the vvorld vvas euer created, because the count of the yeres is diuers? Do they not beleeue that Paradise euer vvas, because no man knovveth vvhere it is? and such other like things infinite to rehearse? Vvhich vvhen they vvere done, vvere plaine and knovven things in the vvorld: and novv for vs to call them to an account, after so many yeres, ages, and vvorldes, is but sophistication and plaine infidelitie. And this sect of the Protestants standing onely vpon destruction. and negatiues, & dealing vvith our religion euen as Iulian, Porphyrie, and Lucian did, it is an easie thing for them to bestovv their time in picking of quarels.
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Tertullian † AD 220 On Modesty 21
… Exhibit therefore even now to me, apostolic sir, prophetic evidences, that I may recognise your divine virtue, and vindicate to yourself the power of remitting such sins! If, however, you have had the functions of discipline alone allotted you, and (the duty) of presiding not imperially, but ministerially;
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 The Epistles of Cyprian 35
… I request that you will diligently take care of the widows, and of the sick, and of all the poor. Moreover, you may supply the expenses for strangers, if any should be indigent, from my own portion, which I have left with Rogatianus, our fellow-presbyter;
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 51.7
… And let no one be deceived by that passage in the epistle of John, which some readers fail to understand, where he says: “Now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.” For this refers to the glory which is then to be revealed
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 146
… “The presbyters which are among you I exhort, who am your fellow-presbyter and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: feed the flock of Christ …taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly, according unto God.”
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 The Book of Pastoral Rule 2.7
… Whence also the first pastor anxiously admonishes, saying, The elders which are among you I beseech, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed, feed the flock of God which is among you (
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St Ignatius of Antioch † AD 108 Epistle to the Antiochians 8
Ye presbyters, “feed the flock which is among you,”
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 2.15
… And so our law and our lawgiver enjoin upon us most strictly that we should “tend the flock not by constraint but willingly.”
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Mathetes † fl. AD 130 Epistle to Diognetus 12
… nor is Eve then corrupted, but is trusted as a virgin; and salvation is manifested, and the Apostles are filled with understanding, and the Passover of the Lord advances, and the choirs
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 209.9
… Do not permit these things to be done, I implore you, by the blood of Christ, by the memory of the Apostle Peter, who has warned those placed over Chistian people against violently “lording it over their brethren.”
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 The Book of Pastoral Rule 2.6
… For, lest the heart of a ruler should be betrayed into elation by delight in personal power, it is rightly said by a certain wise man They have made thee a leader: lift not up thyself, but be among them as one of them ( Ecclus. xxxii. 1 ). Hence also Peter says, Not as being lords over God’s heritage, but being made ensamples to the flock (
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St Methodius † AD 311 Oration on the Palms 1
VI. But let us, beloved, return in our discourse to that point whence we digressed, exclaiming, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord: that good and kind Shepherd, voluntarily to lay down His life for His sheep. That just as hunters take by a sheep the wolves that devour sheep, even so the Chief Shepherd,
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 5.4
… for it affirms that without faith it is impossible to please Him . For when will a man resolve to serve God, unless he believes that He is a giver of reward? When will a young woman choose a virgin life, or a young man live soberly, if they believe not that for chastity there is a crown that fadeth not away
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 2.116
116. What further need is there of words. Here am I, my pastors and fellow-pastors, here am I, thou holy flock, worthy of Christ, the Chief Shepherd,
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 52.7
… not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God’s heritage but being ensamples to the flock,” and that gladly; that “when the chief-shepherd shall appear ye may receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.”
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Pope St Clement I † AD 99 The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians 2
Moreover, ye were all distinguished by humility, and were in no respect puffed up with pride, but yielded obedience rather than extorted it,
Pope St Clement I † AD 99 The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians 30
… “For God,” saith [the Scripture], “resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.”
St Ignatius of Antioch † AD 108 Epistle to the Ephesians: Shorter and Longer Versions 5
… if any one be not within the altar, he is deprived of the bread of God. For if the prayer of one or two possesses such power, how much more that of the bishop and the whole Church! He, therefore, that does not assemble with the Church, has even by this manifested his pride, and condemned himself. For it is written, “God resisteth the proud.”
St Ignatius of Antioch † AD 108 Epistle to Hero, a Deacon of Antioch 5
Flee from haughtiness, “for the Lord resisteth the proud.”
St Polycarp † AD 155 Epistle to the Philippians 10
… When you can do good, defer it not, because “alms delivers from death.” Be all of you subject one to another
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 The Epistles of Cyprian 14.3
… I judged it well to stand by your judgment, lest our proceedings, which ought to be united and to agree in all things, should in any respect be different.
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 The Epistles of Cyprian 19
… and they replied that they also agree with me in the same opinion according to the Catholic faith; which very thing do you also communicate to as many of our colleagues as you can, that among all these, may be observed one mode of action and one agreement, according to the Lord’s precepts.
St Dionysius of Alexandria † AD 265 Containing Various Sections of the Works 1.2
… Neither did we evade objections alleged by others; but we endeavoured as far as possible to keep by the subject in hand, and to establish the positions pertinent to it. Nor, again, were we ashamed to change our opinions, if reason convinced us, and to acknowledge the fact; but rather with a good conscience, and in all sincerity, and with open hearts
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on 2 Thessalonians 1
… For pride anoints him unto arrogance. For tell me, whence is it that they who make war upon the Church say that they know God? Is it not from arrogance? See into what a precipice it plunges them, not to know the Lord! For if God loveth a contrite spirit ( Ps. li. 17 , etc.), He on the other hand “resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.” (
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 12
… As the Scripture says: “God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble.”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 130.12
… For you are destined to produce perfect fruit if only you will humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, always remembering that it is written: “God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Confessions 4.15
26. But I pressed towards Thee, and was repelled by Thee that I might taste of death, for Thou “resistest the proud.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Confessions 7.9
13. And Thou, willing first to show me how Thou “resistest the proud, but givest grace unto the humble”
Socrates Scholasticus † AD 440 The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus 6.16
… But Severian preaching in the church, and thinking it a suitable occasion to declaim against John, said: ‘If John had been condemned for nothing else, yet the haughtiness of his demeanor was a crime sufficient to justify his deposition. Men indeed are forgiven all other sins: but “God resisteth the proud,”
Pseudo-Clement The First Epistle of the Blessed Clement, the Disciple of Peter the Apostle 8
… quarrelsomeness, injustice, eagerness for victory; hatred, anger, envy, perfidy, retaliation; debauchery, gluttony, “overreaching (which is idolatry),” “the love of money (which is the root of all evils);” love of display, vainglory, love of rule, assumption, pride (which is called death, and which “God fights against”).
5:6
Origen † AD 254 Origen Against Celsus 3.63
After this, not understanding how it has been said that “every one who exalted himself shall be abased;” nor (although taught even by Plato) that “the good and virtuous man walketh humbly and orderly;” and ignorant, moreover, that we give the injunction, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time;”
Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on Matthew 12.43
… to the details in the passage, that the disciples, having understood that the Son of God had been holding conference with Moses, and that it was He who said, “A man shall not see My face and live,” and taking further the testimony of God about Him, as not being able to endure the radiance of the Word, humbled themselves under the mighty hand of God;
Eusebius of Caesarea † AD 339 The Church History of Eusebius 5.2.5
5. A little further on they say: “They humbled themselves under the mighty hand, by which they are now greatly exalted.
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 2.115
… Therefore I was not rebellious, neither turned away back, saith my Lord, when, instead of being called to rule, He was led, as a sheep to the slaughter; but I fell down and humbled myself under the mighty hand of God,
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 16.5
… What is our calamity, and what its cause? Is it a test of virtue, or a touchstone of wickedness? And is it better to bow beneath it as a chastisement, even though it be not so, and humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God,
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 130.12
… But do not regard what is your own as absolutely your own. Remember that part of it belongs to those who have communicated their chastity to you and from whose honourable marriages and beds undefiled you have sprung up like a choice flower. For you are destined to produce perfect fruit if only you will humble yourself under the mighty hand of God,
Pseudo-Irenaeus Pseud-Irenæus 1
… Then they pleaded for all, but accused none; they absolved all, they bound none; and they prayed for those who inflicted the tortures, even as Stephen the perfect Witness, ‘Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.’ But if he prayed for those who stoned him, how much more for the brethren!”
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St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 7.14
… for if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him . Wherefore, my beloved children, let us by our works offer glory to our Father which is in heaven, that they may see our good works, and glorify our Father which is in heaven . Let us cast all our care upon Him, for our Father knoweth what things we have need of
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 26
… “And when Herod,” etc. ( v. 6 .) See Peter sleeping, and not in distress or fear! That same night, after which he was to be brought forth, he slept, having cast all upon God. “Between two soldiers, bound with two chains.” (comp.
5:8
Origen † AD 254 Origen De Principiis 3.3.5
… as the Apostle Peter says, “that our adversary the devil goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 On Jealousy and Envy 1
… because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking any one to devour.”
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 First Arian Persecution under Constantius 1
… But this was not the true cause of their delay, but the fears of their own consciences. For what have Bishops to do with war? Or if they were unable on account of the Persians to come to Rome, although it is at a distance and beyond sea, why did they like lions
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Persecution in Egypt 1
… I would only say, that as I write and wish to enumerate all their deeds of iniquity, the thought enters my mind, whether this heresy be not the fourth daughter of the horse-leach in the Proverbs, since after so many acts of injustice, so many murders, it hath not yet said, ‘It is enough.’ No; it still rages, and goes about
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Festal and Personal Letters of Athanasius 60
… ‘The fool shall utter foolishness, and his heart shall imagine vain things .’ But since, like their leader, they too go about like lions seeking whom among the simple they shall devour
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril procatechesis-or-prologue-to-t.16
… a new-birth of the soul; a garment of light; a holy indissoluble seal; a chariot to heaven; the delight of Paradise; a welcome into the kingdom; the gift of adoption! But there is a serpent by the wayside watching those who pass by: beware lest he bite thee with unbelief. He sees so many receiving salvation, and is seeking whom he may devour
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 4.1
… for, as the Scripture saith, he goeth about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 10.3
… the Saviour says to the Apostles, Behold, I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves . Again, He is called a Lion , not as a devourer of men, but indicating as it were by the title His kingly, and stedfast, and confident nature: a Lion He is also called in opposition to the lion our adver sary, who roars and devours those who have been deceived
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 28
… For to those who are like wild beasts true and sound discourses are stones. If he be a leopard let him die with his spots. If a ravening and roaring lion, seeking what he may devour
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Duties of the Clergy 1.49
250. Let not the adversary find his image in thee, let him not find fury nor rage; for in these exists the likeness of wickedness. “Our adversary the devil as a roaring lion seeketh whom he may kill, whom he may devour.”
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose sermon-against-auxentius-on-th.4
… For I have learnt by now not to be afraid, but I do begin to have more fear for you. Allow, I beg you, your bishop to meet his foes. We have an adversary who assails us, for our adversary “the devil goeth about, as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour,”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 32
… while those others, though without bodies, could not remain in heaven. Let no one then grieve or be vexed with his nature as if it were a hindrance to him, but with his will. He (the Devil) from being incorporeal became a lion: for lo! it saith, “Our adversary, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 54
… “But in a greater degree,” you will say, “when there is the devil’s power working along with him.” True, but he is the less punished, when he has sinned through the devil’s working with him; for the punishments are not the same for all sins. Let us not deceive ourselves: the devil is not the cause of our taking harm, if we be watchful:
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Ephesians 17
… for from idle words we fall also into foul words. The present is no season of loose merriment, but of mourning, of tribulation, and lamentation: and dost thou play the jester? What wrestler on entering the ring neglects the struggle with his adversary, and utters witticisms? The devil stands hard at hand, “he is going about roaring” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Philippians 6
… lxxx. 12, 13 .) In the former place He speaks of the Mede and the Babylonian, here nought is said of them, but “the boar,” and “the solitary beast” is the Devil and all his host, because of the ferocity and impurity of his disposition. For when it would show us his rapacity, it saith, “As a roaring lion he walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on First Thessalonians 3
… So that on this account first I arm you. But then also the whole time of our life is the season of war. How and in what respect? The devil is ever at hand. Hear what it says, “As a roaring lion, he walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John 59
… xviii. 8, 9 ), that not one of them was lost. Here also we may suspect a spiritual wolf to be intended; for neither did Christ allow him to go and seize the sheep. But he is not a wolf only, but a lion also. “Because our adversary the devil,” It saith, “walketh about as a roaring lion.” (
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 14.4
4. But all this, you argue, only touches the case of martyrs. Ah! my brother, you are mistaken, you are mistaken, if you suppose that there is ever a time when the Christian does not suffer persecution. Then are you most hardly beset when you know not that you are beset at all. “Our adversary as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour,”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 22.4
4. So long as we are held down by this frail body, so long as we have our treasure in earthen vessels; so long as the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, there can be no sure victory. “Our adversary the devil goeth about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 38.4
… It is intended to keep her clothes right, and not to cut her waist in two. Therefore, if the scorpion looks askance upon her purpose, and with alluring words tempts her once more to eat of the forbidden tree, she must crush him beneath her feet with a curse, and say, as he lies dying in his allotted dust: “Get thee behind me, Satan.” Satan means adversary,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Confessions 7.21
… for “Thou hast hid those things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.” For it is one thing, from the mountain’s wooded summit to see the land of peace, and not to find the way thither,—in vain to attempt impassable ways, opposed and waylaid by fugitives and deserters, under their captain the “lion”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 78.5
5. Wherefore, my brethren who fear God, remember what the Apostle Peter says: Your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Christian Doctrine 3.25
… Another example of the same is that a lion stands for Christ in the place where it is said, “The lion of the tribe of Judah hath prevailed;” and again, stands for the devil where it is written, “Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Against Lying 24
… without doubt the waves, the gems, the bloom, the snow, for that we find them not in those objects to which we have from other transferred these words, shall by these persons be accounted lies. And Christ a Rock, and the stony heart of the Jews; also, Christ a Lion, and the devil a lion, and innumerable such like, shall be said to be lies.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 23.2
… For what is so different as Christ and the devil? yet both Christ and the devil are called “a lion.” Christ is called “a lion:” “The Lion hath prevailed of the tribe of Judah;” and the devil is called a lion: “Know ye not that your adversary the Devil walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour?”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 7.6
… Thou shall arise,” says he, “and have mercy upon Zion: for the time is come that Thou wilt have mercy upon her.” When the time came for God to have mercy, the Lamb came. What sort of a Lamb whom wolves fear? What sort of a Lamb is it who, when slain, slew a lion? For the devil is called a lion, going about and roaring, seeking whom he may devour.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 10.1
… But what is said to Christ? “Thou shall tread on the lion and the dragon.” Lion, for open rage; dragon, for hidden treachery. The dragon cast Adam out of Paradise; as a lion, the same persecuted the Church, as Peter says: “For your adversary, the devil, goeth about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 10.8
… they sell sheep too; that is, the common people themselves. And to whom do they sell them, but to the devil? For if the Church be Christ’s sole and only one, who is it that carries off whatever is cut away from it, but that lion that roars and goes about, “seeking whom he may devour?”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 7.2
… 2 ): lest at any time he tear my soul as a lion.” The Apostle says, “Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 17.11
11. “As a lion ready for prey, have they taken Me” ( ver. 12 ). They have taken Me, like that adversary who “walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 50.29
… Like a brave one, like a mighty one, like him whom none can withstand. To this he made reference when he said, “Lion.” For it is used for praise, it is used also for showing evil. The devil hath been called lion: “Your adversary,” He saith, “like a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom He may devour.”
Theodoret of Cyrus † AD 458 The Ecclesiastical History of Theodoret 4.19
Some they delivered to the Senate, some they trapped at their good pleasure, leaving no stone unturned in their anxiety to hunt in all from every quarter to impiety, going about in all directions, and like the devil, the proper father of heresy, they sought whom they might devour.
Pope St Leo I the Great † AD 461 Letters 22
There is nothing which can stay the devil’s wickedness, that “restless evil, full of deadly poison .” Above and below it “goes about,” seeking “whom it may” strike, dismay, and “devour
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 Register of the Epistles of St. Gregory the Great 5.43
… For indeed our adversary the devil, who, in his rage against the humble, as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour (
Early Popes (Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals) The Epistles of Pope Fabian 1
… “Watch ye, and pray, and stand fast in the faith. Quit you like men, and be strong. Let all things be done with charity.” Furthermore, we desire you to know this, that in our times, as our sins embarrassed us, and that ancient enemy who always goeth about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour,
Pseudo-Clement The First Epistle of the Blessed Clement, the Disciple of Peter the Apostle 5
… If so be, then, that thou longest for all these things, conquer the body; conquer the appetites of the flesh; conquer the world in the Spirit of God; conquer these vain things of time, which pass away and grow old, and decay, and come to an end; conquer the dragon; conquer the lion;
5:9
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 5.4
Faith stoppeth the mouths of lions , as in Daniel’s case: for the Scripture saith concerning him, that Daniel was brought up out of the den, and no manner of hurt was found upon him, because he believed in his God . Is there anything more fearful than the devil? Yet even against him we have no other shield than faith
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 19.10
10. Guarded therefore by these discourses, be sober . For our adversary the devil , as was just now read, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour
5:12
Eusebius of Caesarea † AD 339 The Church History of Eusebius 5.17.3
3. They cannot show that one of the old or one of the new prophets was thus carried away in spirit. Neither can they boast of Agabus, or Judas, or Silas,
5:13
Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on Matthew 1
… and that he composed it in the Hebrew tongue and published it for the converts from Judaism. The second written was that according to Mark, who wrote it according to the instruction of Peter, who, in his General Epistle, acknowledged him as a son, saying, “The church that is in Babylon, elect together with you, saluteth you; and so doth Mark my son.”
Eusebius of Caesarea † AD 339 The Church History of Eusebius 2.15
… And so greatly did the splendor of piety illumine the minds of Peter’s hearers that they were not satisfied with hearing once only, and were not content with the unwritten teaching of the divine Gospel, but with all sorts of entreaties they besought Mark,
Eusebius of Caesarea † AD 339 The Church History of Eusebius 6.25.5
5. The second is by Mark, who composed it according to the instructions of Peter, who in his Catholic epistle acknowledges him as a son, saying, ‘The church that is at Babylon elected together with you, saluteth you, and so doth Marcus, my son.’
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 81
But Mark saith, that when he had once denied, then first the cock crew, but when thrice, then for the second time; for he declares more particularly the weakness of the disciple, and that he was utterly dead with fear; having learnt these things of his master
5:14
St Ignatius of Antioch † AD 108 Epistle to the Tarsians 10
… I commend unto you the Church which is at Antioch. The Churches of Philippi, whence also I write to you, salute you. Philo, your deacon, to whom also I give thanks as one who has zealously ministered to me in all things, salutes you. Agathopus, the deacon from Syria, who follows me in Christ, salutes you. “Salute ye one another with a holy kiss.”
5:1
1. Elders therefore, — both in age, and in dignity and priesthood, whether it be lesser and common, or greater, namely the episcopate. Whence St. Jerome, epistle 85, translates it as priests. For he addresses priests and bishops as pastors of the Church, and commands them to feed strenuously the flock of the faithful committed to them by God, to whom therefore he prescribes the idea of pastoral life in few words, but forcefully. Whence among the Syrians this part of the epistle is wont to be read in the election and ordination of bishops, as the Syrian here notes. Hence also soon for PROVIDING, in Greek it is ἐπισκοποῦντες: thus St. Jerome, Oecumenius and others everywhere. THEREFORE. — The Syrian, but. Refer ergo both to all the preceding things, which although they pertain to all the faithful, yet especially to pastors, who ought to inculcate them to the faithful; and properly to verses 11 and preceding: "If any one speak, let him speak as the words of God; if any one minister, let him minister as of the virtue which God administereth." For these things especially pertain to priests who feed the flock both by preaching and by administering the holy Sacraments. Likewise to that of chapter IV, verse 17: "For the time is that judgment should begin at the house of God," as if to say, Since God begins judgment at his house and family, surely he will begin it from its rulers, and will exact from them an account both of their own soul and office, and of the flock committed to them. Let them therefore feed him duly and strenuously, so that they may be able to render an account to God the judge demanding it. I BESEECH. — Παρακαλῶ signifies three things, namely I exhort, I comfort, I beseech: here however it signifies more "I beseech;" for on account of modesty Peter, although the supreme Pontiff, does not so much command as entreat and beseech. CO-ELDER. — συμπρεσβύτερος, that is, as St. Jerome, epistle 85, co-presbyter; the Syrian, I am a presbyter your fellow. Again on account of modesty he calls himself not Pontiff, but co-presbyter, whom the Supreme Pontiffs have followed in their Epistles and Bulls, calling bishops "brothers and co-bishops;" for these are equal to them in the episcopate, namely in the power of Order, although unequal in jurisdiction. Wherefore St. Gregory the Roman Pontiff was unwilling to be called universal Bishop, lest he should seem to derogate from or diminish the right of the episcopate to other bishops, as if he alone were truly Bishop, the others only in name and merely his Vicars or Suffragans. He did this to check the insolence of John, Archbishop of Constantinople, who arrogated to himself the name of universal Patriarch, against whom St. Gregory, book VII, epistle 69 to Eusebius: "If one," he says, "is universal, it remains that you bishops are not." And book IV, epistle 36 to Eulogius: "If one Patriarch is called universal, the name of Patriarch is derogated from the others." Otherwise by right this name belongs to the Roman Pontiff. For thus the Council of Chalcedon calls St. Leo the universal Archbishop, that is, Bishop of bishops, Bishop of the whole Church, to whom the other bishops are subject and subordinate. Wherefore Oecumenius notes that St. Peter here teaches bishops modesty, as if to say, "If I, who was a spectator of such miracles, and equally as the father of Christ, who is king and Pastor of Pastors of the Church and of the whole world, according to that of Matthew chapter 2, verse 6: 'Out of thee shall come forth the ruler that shall rule,' in Greek ποιμανεῖ, that is shall feed, in the manner of David likewise of Bethlehem, 'my people Israel.'" WHO ALSO AM A PARTAKER OF THAT GLORY WHICH IS TO BE REVEALED IN THE FUTURE. — In Greek κοινωνός, that is, as St. Jerome, epistle 85, partaker; the Syrian, sharer and participant, namely I was, both on Mount Tabor, where I beheld Christ transfigured in glory with John and James: thus Lyra and Cajetan; both in the resurrection of Christ, his ascension and the sending of the Holy Spirit: for I beheld these things with my own eyes, and from them I drew a wonderful sweetness of spirit equally with grace. Thus the Gloss, Hugh, Dionysius and others. Secondly, I shall be a partaker and participant of the same glory soon after this life and my martyrdom: for St. Peter knew and expected this with firm hope, and, as Cajetan thinks, with certain revelation. For Christ had said to him: "Follow Me," namely to the cross and martyrdom; whence St. John adds, xxi, 19: "Signifying by what death he should glorify God." Therefore, says Cajetan, St. Peter had a revelation, not only of his own predestination, but also of the crown of martyrdom, and even of the time of the same, according to that which he says, epistle II, chapter 1, verse 14: "Being assured that the laying away of my tabernacle is nigh, according as our Lord Jesus Christ hath signified to me." In like manner St. Pius, St. Polycarp, St. Cyprian and other Pontiffs had a revelation of their death and martyrdom. Third, Lyra and the Carthusian interpret "communicator" actively, as if to say: I by preaching faith and hope of the glory in heaven to be revealed to the faithful hand over and communicate it. But κοινωνός is called by the Greeks a communicator in the passive sense, not the active. Peter makes mention of heavenly glory, both because his mind was occupied in the heavens and he yearned for heavenly glory; and also that he might draw the minds of Pastors and the faithful to heavenly things, and might encourage them with hope to undertake all labors and struggles for Christ courageously; so that "when the Prince of pastors shall appear, they may receive the unfading crown of glory," verse 4. For this reason he says it is to be revealed in the future, as if to say: In the present life we must labor, until our last breath: thus in the future glory and the heavenly crown will be revealed and given to us: for the present life is one of labor and merit, the future will be one of rest and reward, according to that saying of Christ: "Your reward is very great in heaven," Matt. v; and: "Your sorrow shall be turned into joy," John xvi; and that of Paul: "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; for the rest there is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord will render to me in that day, a just judge," II Tim. iv. Note first: St. Peter, as it were Pastor of the whole Church, feeds here the Pastors, that is the Bishops, instructs and directs them to fulfill well their Pastoral office. For, as St. Leo says, sermon 3 On his Anniversary: "From the whole world one Peter is chosen, who is set over the calling of all nations and all Apostles and all Patriarchs; so that, although there are many priests in the people of God and many Pastors, yet Peter properly rules all those whom Christ principally rules." Whence what Christ said to Peter: "Feed my sheep," St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Bishop of Constantinople, in his Apology for his Flight, thought was said through Peter to himself. And St. Chrysostom asserts the same was said to Basil the Bishop, lib. II On the Priesthood. Moreover, as Nazianzus says, Apol. 1: "The art of arts and the science of sciences is to rule man, the animal most varied and manifold of all." And from this St. Gregory, at the beginning of the Pastoral: "The art of arts," he says, "and the science of sciences is the governance of souls." But we perform this rightly if, as he says, lib. II, epistle 39, "by living and speaking we gain the souls of our neighbors; if we strengthen the weak in heavenly love; if we bend the perverse and proud by terribly sounding forth the punishments of hell; if we spare none against the truth; if devoted to heavenly friendships we do not fear human enmities." Memorable is the saying of St. Peter, by which, as Onuphrius writes in the Lives of the Pontiffs, in St. Peter, he resigned the pontificate to St. Clement: "In the year," he says, "of Christ 68, the holy Pontiff Peter, a little before his death, when he had learned that the time of martyrdom was approaching, the Lord revealing it, consecrated the blessed Clement, an old Presbyter of the Roman Church, designated as his successor by the imposition of hands, and commending to him the Episcopal chair and the Roman Church to be governed by him after him, saying: 'I," he says, "'hand over to you the same power of binding and loosing which my Lord Jesus Christ left to me, in which, despising and contemning all things, both of the body and of fortune, consult by prayer and preaching the salvation of men, as befits a good Pastor.'"' St. Basil in the Morals, Rule 80, chapter 15, inquires what sort of men ought to be preachers of the Gospel, and answers: first, as shepherds; second, as physicians; third, as parents and nurses; fourth, as helpers of God; fifth, as planters of God's branches; sixth, as builders of God's temple: all of which he proves from the words of Christ and Paul. "As Shepherds," he says, "of Christ's sheep, who, whenever the time demands it, should not hesitate to lay down even their own soul for them, that they may impart the Gospel to them. The good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep. Take heed to yourselves and to the whole flock, wherein the Holy Ghost hath placed you bishops to rule the Church of God. As physicians: who, with great gentleness of mind, skillfully according to the doctrine of the Lord, should cure the diseases of souls unto the acquisition of that health which is in Christ and perseverance. There is no need of a physician for those who are well, but for those who are ill. But we ought to bear the infirmities of the weak. As parents and nurses of children, who from the greatness of that charity which is in Christ, are prepared with willing mind to communicate to them not only the Gospel of God, but their own very life. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. For in Christ Jesus through the Gospel have I begotten you. As a nurse cherisheth her children, so desiring you, we were willing to impart to you not only the Gospel of God, but also our own souls, because you had become most dear to us. As helpers of God, who devote themselves wholly to works worthy of God alone for the Church of God. For we are God's fellow workers: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. As planters of God's branches, who in the vine which is Christ, should leave nothing alien or unfruitful; and those things which are fitting and fruitful, they should strive to make better, with all diligence applied. I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he will take away; and every one that beareth fruit, he will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit. I have planted, Apollo watered, but God gave the increase. As builders of God's temple, who should so touch each soul that it may fitly agree with the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets. According to the grace of God which is given to me, as a wise architect I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation no man can lay, but that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. Therefore now you are no more strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone, in whom all the building, being framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are built together into a habitation of God in the Holy Ghost." St. Bernard notes secondly, sermon 2 On the Resurrection of Christ, that it is repeated three times by Christ and said to St. Peter: "Feed my sheep," to signify that they are to be fed in three ways, namely, in mind, tongue, and hand. "Feed," he says, "in mind, feed by word, feed by deed: feed the soul by prayer, the word by exhortation, the example by exhibition." The same, epistle 201: "Feed," he says, "by word, feed by example, feed by the fruit of holy prayers." The same, epistle 42 to Henry, Bishop of Sens: "Nor shalt thou be hasty in judgment, nor vehement in vengeance: not remiss in correcting, not more severe in sparing, not faint-hearted in waiting; not excessive in food, nor notable in dress; not quick to promise, not slow to deliver, nor a prodigal giver." The same, sermon 66 in the Canticles: "Let it shame," he says, "the successors of the Apostles not to be the light of the world, but a bushel, and the darkness of the world. Let us say to them: Ye are the darkness of the world." Note thirdly: Christ said to Peter, and through him to other Bishops and Pastors: "Feed my sheep and lambs," not yours, so that he might commend his own faithful more earnestly to them. For the word sheep signifies that Christ is their Shepherd: but the word lambs signifies that Christ is their father, indeed their mother, inasmuch as he regenerated them in baptism and adopted them as sons to himself. Wherefore truly and fittingly St. Bernard in the Sentences, at the beginning: "As much," he says, "as there is distance between the Shepherd and the flock, so much ought there to be distance between the Bishop and the people. He stands there sublime and upright, he bends his head depressed to the ground." Whence the Poet: "And whereas the other animals look prone toward the earth, He gave to man a face lifted up, and to gaze upon heaven." "He rules, the other is ruled; he feeds, the other is fed; so that from the very form and bearing each may be distinguished: he has in his hand a rod, with which he may strike, or rather lead and bring back the sheep. But what is it to have a rod in hand, except in deed to have discipline, so that he may instruct his subjects more by example than by word? For the proud are ashamed to be disciples, if their masters have not gone before them in humility. Whence also concerning the Lord it is written: Jesus began to do and to teach. He has also a staff, with which he may strike the wolf; a rod for the sheep; with the staff the wolf, that is, the meek and obedient he ought to correct more gently, but the hard-hearted and wicked he ought to reprove more sharply. He holds a dog on a rope, namely zeal in discretion; he has also bread in his bag, that is, the word of God in his memory." And after many things more plainly: "It is the duty of Pastors," he says, "to watch over the flock, for three necessary reasons, namely for discipline, for custody, for prayers. For discipline, on account of the correction of morals, lest the flock committed to him fail through its own wickedness. For custody, on account of diabolical suggestion, lest it be seduced by hostile cunning. For prayers, on account of the urgency of temptations, lest it be overcome by faint-heartedness. In discipline the rigor of justice, in custody the spirit of counsel, in prayer the affection of compassion." See the same St. Bernard, in five books On Consideration addressed to Pope Eugenius, which are truly golden, and instruct the Pope exactly how he ought to rule the faithful in all things. See also the sayings of Ezech. III, 4, and finally St. Gregory in the Pastoral.
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2. FEED THE FLOCK OF GOD WHICH IS AMONG YOU. — Peter had heard from Christ: "Peter, lovest thou me?" and answering: "Lord, thou knowest that I love thee," had received: "Feed my sheep;" and this was repeated a third time by Christ. The same thing he now impresses upon others and commits to them, as if to say: I have been appointed by Christ the chief Pastor of the Church, I have fed and do feed his flock with all care, love and solicitude: you therefore, as subordinate pastors subject to me, do the same. For this is the law and will of Christ, which he made known to me, so that I might impress it upon you. Moreover, Christ alludes to his ancestor David: for David was a shepherd of sheep, and from this God made him a king, that is, a pastor of peoples, according to that in Psalm 77, 70: "And he chose David his servant, and took him from the flocks of sheep: from following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his servant, and Israel his inheritance. And he fed them in the innocency of his heart, and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands." For David was a type of Christ, as also the father of Christ, who is the king and Pastor of Pastors of the Church and of the whole world, according to that in Matthew, chapter 2, verse 6: "Out of thee shall come forth the captain that shall rule," in Greek ποιμανεῖ, that is, shall feed, like David likewise a Bethlehemite, "my people Israel." Thus Moses, called by God from feeding flocks, was called to feed and rule the Hebrews: for in feeding the flocks of Jethro, as it were in a gymnasium and preliminary exercise, he learned how he ought to feed men and the flock of the Lord, as I said on Exodus 3. "Feed" therefore is the same as "rule," as St. Jerome reads it, epistle 85; for a king endowed with that prudence, charity, care, diligence and patience ought to rule the people, with which a pastor rules sheep so as to feed and fatten them. For thus God rules men as his sheep, according to that in Psalm 22, verse 1: "The Lord ruleth me;" in Hebrew and the Septuagint: "The Lord feedeth me;" St. Jerome: "The Lord is my Pastor." Whence he adds: "And nothing shall be wanting to me, because thou hast set me in a place of pasture;" in Hebrew: "in a place of verdure;" Aquila and Symmachus, ἐν ὡραιότητι πόας, that is, in the beauty of grass, namely in the Church of Christ, which has the best pastures of Holy Scripture and the word of God, and of grace and future glory. WHICH IS AMONG YOU. — In Greek ἐν ὑμῖν, which Fevardentius translated, as if to say, "That which is among you," that is, as much as you can, as much as you are able. But Our translator rendered it better, "which is among you," that is, which is subject to you and committed to you. Whence the Syriac version translates, "which is delivered to you." For just as a kingdom is juridically in the king: so the Church, that is, the faithful people, is in its Pastor and Bishop, as its rector, head and governor. Again, the phrase "which is among you" signifies that Dioceses and Parishes are distributed, and to each is given his own Pastor and Bishop, who ought to rule only the one committed to him, and cannot invade another's; whereas St. Peter and his successor the Roman Pontiff is the Bishop and Pastor of all the faithful whatsoever scattered throughout the whole world. Whence St. Cyprian, in the book On the Unity of the Church, says, "there is one Episcopate, of which a part is held by each in its entirety." I except the Apostles: for they received power from Christ over the whole world; and therefore they were Bishops and Pastors of the whole world, but so as to be subject to St. Peter. This St. Clement seems to have wished to convey, epistle 1, where he calls St. James the Bishop of Bishops, and the ruler of all Churches. Wherefore Calvin ineptly, in book IV of the Institutes, chapter VII, from the fact that St. Peter exhorts others to feed their flock, concludes that it did not pertain to Peter to feed: for by the same reasoning he would conclude: "A king commands his viceroy, say of Sicily, to justly rule the Sicilians whom he has committed to him to rule: therefore the Sicilians are not ruled by the king, nor do they pertain to him as subjects;" when rather the opposite ought to be concluded in this way: "The king rules the Sicilians through the viceroy: therefore the Sicilians are subject to the king." THE FLOCK OF GOD, — not his own. Hence St. Bernard, epistle 237, with these words of Peter admonishes Pope Eugenius, that as the heir of Peter he hear Peter, and not call the Church Sarai, that is, my lady, but "Sara," that is, lady absolutely, because she is the lady and spouse of Christ, who is the true Patriarch of the Church and Abraham. Wherefore St. Augustine, tract. 230 on John: "Whoever," he says, "feed the sheep of Christ with the intention that they should be theirs, not Christ's, are convicted of loving themselves, not Christ; either from a desire of boasting, or of ruling, or of acquiring; not from the charity of obeying, and helping, and pleasing God." PROVIDENTES,—ἐπισκοποῦντες, that is, looking over, superintending, keeping watch; the Syrian, Pagninus and the Zurich Bible render it, "taking care of it." From this comes the name and office of Bishop, that is, overseer, as St. Ambrose interprets it, book I On the Dignity of the Priesthood, chapter vi, and superintendent, as St. Jerome translates it, epistle 85 to Evagrius. For it is the duty of a Bishop to superintend the flock, as St. Augustine testifies, XIX On the City of God, xix. Hence in the Church he sits in a higher seat, so that he may be able to survey all around, govern and correct, and in turn be seen and heard by all. He explains to feed, and gives various duties and modes of it. The first is, that they accurately inspect and survey their flock, and provide for it in all respects: wherefore they ought to reside with it, and frequently visit and inspect it. Hence residence is commanded to Bishops and Pastors by human and divine law, as the Council of Trent gravely teaches and decrees, sess. XXIII, cap. 1 On Reform. For when the Shepherd is absent or sleeping, the sheep sleep; when he is awake and whistles, they awake. Hence the Egyptians depicted God the ruler of all as it were an eye leaning on a staff, the eye representing providence, the staff representing power and governance. Thus Jacob kept watch and attended to the flock (whom Holy Scripture proposes as a model to Pastors and Bishops, as St. Gregory says), Genesis cap. xxxi, 39: "Neither did I show to thee that which was taken by beasts, I made good all the damage: whatsoever was lost by theft, thou didst exact of me: I was worn out with heat by day and by frost by night, and sleep departed from my eyes." Thus also to Pastors keeping watch over the flock an angel appeared, announcing the nativity of Christ the Shepherd of Shepherds, concerning whom St. Ambrose, book II on Luke cap. II: "Well," he says, "shepherds keep watch, whom the good shepherd instructs." Thus recently our Father Canisius, as our Sacchinus relates, book III of his Life, wrote to Otto the Cardinal and Bishop of Augsburg, acting at Rome on business, and urged him to return immediately to his sheep. "I would prefer," he says, "that you live without this Bishopric, than to rejoice in the title of Bishop alone, and feed the sheep so negligently, whose wool sustains you. Let others look to emoluments and honors: I consider and greatly fear the coming judgment, and the account to be rendered for the stewardship received, and the punishments prepared for the bad steward." NOT BY COMPULSION, BUT WILLINGLY.—First, passively as regards the Pastors themselves, that is to say, You, O Pastors, undertake and perform the office of Pastor, not compelled by lack of temporal things, so that you may live from the revenues of the pastorate; but willingly, readily, so that you may help and direct souls to God, hoping from him for eternal reward in heaven. Thus Bede. Again and rather, that is to say, Not unwillingly and reluctantly, but willingly, liberally, cheerfully and vigorously feed, in the manner of Paul saying: "If I do this willingly, I have a reward; but if against my will, a dispensation is committed to me." Hence St. Gregory, I part. Past., cap. VII, and St. Gregory of Nazianzus in his Apology, prefer Isaiah offering himself to God: "Behold I, send me," to Moses objecting to God's mission, Exodus cap. IV, 10. And St. Ambrose adds in Psalm CXVIII, octon. 14, that Isaiah therefore, "as a willing instrument, was filled with more abundant grace of the Spirit." This held especially true in the infancy of the Church, when the Bishopric was a burden rather than an honor, and when Bishops were everywhere dragged to the rack and torture. Whence St. Gregory, book IV, epistle 35, says he wishes to compel no one to undertake the Episcopate. See the words I Timothy III, 1. This sense seems to be the genuine one, especially because for compulsion the Greek is ἀναγκαστῶς, that is, from necessity, that is to say, Feed not as if compelled by necessity of feeding, from the office of Pastor imposed on you by the Apostles, but willingly from love of God and zeal for souls; and this is what τὸ according to God signifies. Secondly, however, it can be taken actively with respect to the sheep, that is to say, Feed the flock not so much by driving them with force, as by alluring them with persuasion; not so much driving them with the rod, as inviting them by example: so that the flock may follow you not by compulsion, but willingly and be fed in the pastures of Christ. Thus St. Gregory of Nazianzus explains it, Apology 1, who also adds the reason: "For what," he says, "is extorted by necessity, besides being tyrannical, is neither firm nor stable. For whatever is forced violently, just as a plant bent and pulled by force with hands, as soon as it is released, is accustomed to return to itself; but what proceeds from free will is wont to be at once most just and most certain, inasmuch as it is bound and confirmed by the bonds of benevolence." And St. Ambrose in Psalm CXVIII, octon. 14: "The Lord," he says, "approves the voluntary operations of his servants rather than the forced ones: therefore he makes them free from slavery, so that we may offer the gifts of our wills rather than the services of our necessities." He proves this with many examples of Paul, Jeremiah, Moses, Jonah and Isaiah, which see in him. Let the Pastor therefore put on the bowels of charity, as Paul admonishes. For charity, as St. Bernard says, epistle 2, "is a good mother in the Pastor: when it reproves, it is mild; when it caresses, it is simple; it is wont to rage piously, to strike without guile, to be angry patiently, to be indignant humbly." The second law and condition of feeding and of the Pastor is this, namely, that he feed not by compulsion, but willingly; and that he compel not by force, but move by love to the duty, which understand when the sheep are such as are moved by love: for some are of such a nature that they wish to be driven by fear, not moved by love, such as the lazy and stubborn, like heretics: to whom that saying of Christ applies, Luke XIV, 23: "Compel them to come in," that is to say, "Let necessity be found without, and willingness will be born within," as St. Augustine says, sermon 33 On the Words of the Lord. ACCORDING TO GOD. — Now these words are lacking in the Greek, but they were there formerly: for they are cited by St. Ephrem, volume II, paraenesis 47, St. Jerome, epistle 2, and others. This is the third condition of feeding and of the Pastor, that he feed the flock willingly according to God, that is to say, that he discharge the pastoral duty cheerfully, according to the will of God, who imposed it upon him; and therefore in feeding he should not regard men, but God, intending to please and satisfy him alone, looking to his glory alone, directing all the sheep to him, and striving to rule them according to his mind, will and precept, namely, that he care for them equally not by compulsion, but willingly to serve God. For in the primitive Church, when there were no riches and honors of the Church, but only labors, dangers and martyrdom, many shrank from the Episcopate and Pastorate, and discharged them as imposed upon them by the Apostles as if by compulsion of their command, and therefore reluctantly and slowly, not willingly, gladly and readily. These St. Peter corrects here, and admonishes that they discharge it willingly, thinking that this burden has been imposed upon them by God; therefore God will be with them, and consequently let them undertake and discharge it willingly and cheerfully out of love and reverence for God. Thus τὸ according to God is the same as that "in the Lord," which Paul uses frequently, and can be explained in four ways. First, that is to say, Let Pastors know that in feeding the Lord's flock, they serve the Lord, they do the Lord's business, not man's. Secondly, not for price, not for fear, not for covetousness, not to please men, but "in the Lord," that is, out of love of God alone and reverence for him, let them feed his flock. Thirdly, as servants in the sight of their master, so let they themselves seriously feed his flock before the Lord, according to that saying: "The eye of the Lord feeds and fattens the horse." For servants, seeing the eye of their master intent upon their horse, care for it and feed it diligently. Fourthly, let them regard the end, not their own, but the glory of God alone. See Canon 25, which I prefixed to the Commentary on the epistle of St. Paul. Some add that τῷ according to God signifies that it is the Pastor's duty to give the flock spiritual and divine pastures, but bodily ones only in order to spiritual ones, so that in feeding the body of the sheep they may more easily and better feed their souls. Thus St. Gregory, II part. Past., cap. VII, from this place gathers that the Pastor in caring for bodily things ought to be moderate, not excessively, lest he be diffused toward external things, and lest he kill himself with the point of ambition. Again from this gather that the zeal of the Pastor ought to be according to God, that is, true and discreet, not feigned and indiscreet. Truly the Poet: Often crime has hidden itself under the veil of zeal. He to whom zeal is heaven does not commit crime. Nor for the sake of filthy lucre. — This is the fourth condition of feeding and of Pastors, that they should not be greedy for gain, which in them, as persons dedicated to God and heaven, is base, shameful and sordid. St. Jerome inquires in his epistle to Nepotian, and says: "Some monks are richer than laymen were, and Clerics who possess wealth under the poor Christ, which they would not have possessed under the rich and deceitful devil, so that the Church sighs for the rich whom the world held before as beggars." He speaks of the avaricious who heaped up riches for themselves and their own: otherwise holy Bishops, such as St. Paulinus, St. Hilarius and others, as St. Prosper says, book I On the Contemplative Life, chapters IX and X, who had distributed their goods to the poor, received the offerings of the faithful given to the Church, "knowing that the goods of the Church are nothing other than the vows of the faithful, the price of sins and the patrimony of the poor. And therefore they were said to despise them because they possessed them not for themselves, but for others; nor did they receive them from a desire of having, but from the piety of helping." Wisely Simon of Cassia, book IX, chapter XVIII: "I would boldly say," he says, "that neither in miracles did the Apostles appear so wonderful in their age, as in the contempt of things; nor did they move men so much to the newness of life by the efficacy of their word in preaching, as by spurning external goods." Most excellently St. Bernard, epistle 42 to Henry, Archbishop of Sens: "By the example of the Apostle," he says, "you will honor your ministry, your ministry, I say, not dominion. You will therefore honor it, not yourselves: for he who seeks what is his own, desires to be honored himself, not the ministry. You will honor it moreover not by the splendor of garments, not by the pride of horses, not by spacious buildings; but by refined morals, spiritual pursuits, good works. How many act otherwise! There is seen in some priests great splendor of garments, but no virtue, or very little." And further down: "Is it fitting for a Shepherd to lie in bodily senses like cattle, to cling to the lowest things, to gape after earthly things: and not rather to stand upright as a man, to look to heaven with his mind, to seek and to understand what is above, not what is upon the earth, etc.? Tell me, Pontiffs, not indeed in a holy manner, but what does gold do in a bridle? Does gold repel cold or hunger from a bridle? To us laboring in cold and hunger, what do so many changes of garments avail, whether spread on poles or folded in bags? What you spend is ours, it is cruelly taken from us, what you spend in vain. And we too are God's creation, and we too are redeemed by the blood of Christ: we therefore are your brothers. See what it is to feed your eyes from a fraternal portion. Our life yields to you in superfluous abundance. Whatever is added to your vanities is taken from our necessities, etc., as if you were saying: Let us possess the sanctuary of God by inheritance." And further down: "In all his acts or words, let the Bishop seek nothing of his own, but only either the honor of God, or the salvation of his neighbor, or both. For doing this he will fulfill not only the office of a Pontiff, but also the etymology of the name, making himself indeed a bridge between God and his neighbor. This bridge reaches to God by the confidence with which he seeks not his own, but His glory. It reaches to his neighbor by that piety with which he desires to benefit not himself. A good mediator offers to God the prayers and vows of the people, bringing back to them from God blessing and grace." The same, epistle 23 to Atto, Bishop of Troyes: "Justice is incomparably better," he says, "than money, because that enriches and fills the coffer, this the soul. Finally the priests of God are clothed in justice, and certainly much more fittingly and worthily than in gold or silk." The same, epistle 24 to Gilbert, Bishop of London: "That is true and undoubted wisdom, which despises filthy gains, and judges it unworthy of itself to share a dwelling with the servitude of idols. It was not a great thing for M. Gilbert to become a Bishop, but for a Bishop of London to live poor, that truly is magnificent. For nothing could add to the glory of so great a name by the sublimity of dignity, but humility of poverty added very much; to bear poverty with equanimity is the virtue of patience, to desire it willingly is the praise of wisdom." To this pertains the saying of Alcamenes, who when asked "in what way one could best preserve a kingdom," answered: "If he did not make much of gain." Thus Plutarch in the Laconian. BUT WILLINGLY. — προθύμως, that is, as Pagninus says, promptly; the Zurich Bible, with a ready mind; the Syriac, with the whole heart, namely so that free from avarice and filthy gain, he may devote himself entirely not to his own, but to the welfare of the sheep. For the word but signifies that willingly is opposed to not for the sake of filthy gain, as if to say: Feed not greedily, in hope of gain: but liberally, with a liberal mind devoting yourselves entirely to the service of God and the salvation of souls. Wisely Cicero, book I of Duties: "Altogether," he says, "those who are to be placed over the Republic should hold two precepts of Plato: one, that they should protect the welfare of the citizens in such a way that they refer whatever they do to it, forgetting their own advantages; the other, that they should care for the whole body of the Republic, lest, while protecting some part, they abandon the rest." See the maxims of Isocrates, where he confirms this same thing in many places.
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3. Neither as dominating over the clergy. — In Greek κατακυριεύοντες τῶν κλήρων, that is, dominating over the clergy, or against the clergy, as arrogant and tyrannical men do, who strive to command and dominate others impetuously. This is the fifth condition of a Bishop and Pastor, namely that he should not be imperious, nor vex the Church imperiously, which is the clergy, that is, the lot and inheritance of the Lord. Thus formerly Israel was called נחלה nachala, that is, the lot and inheritance of the Lord, according to that in Deuteronomy, chapter XXXII, verse 9: "But the Lord's portion is His people, Jacob the lot of His inheritance." By "clergy" therefore, first, can be understood the faithful people, who into various clergy, that is, lots, parts, Churches and congregations, is distributed: concerning which he adds: "But as a form of the flock made," that is, of the faithful people. Thus St. Cyril, book I on Isaiah, discourse 3: "Let them not dominate," he says, "the clergy, that is, the people, which is the lot of the Lord;"; thus also the Syrian, Oecumenius and others. Thus Paul of Samosata was once blamed, because in the Episcopate he sought after the rank of secular honors, and strove to dominate in them, so much so that he plundered the people, and proceeding with great pride and pomp wished to be called an angel, and ordered psalms to be sung of himself, not of Christ, as witness Eusebius, book VII, chapter XXVI. Most excellently St. Augustine in the Rule: "He himself," he says, "who presides over you, should esteem himself happy not dominating through cupidity, but serving through charity;"; and the Author of the Imperfect, explaining that passage of Matthew, chapter XX, 23: "The princes of the Gentiles lord it over them, etc., it shall not be so among you; but whosoever will be the greater among you, let him be your minister," thus says: "The princes of the Church are, that they may serve their inferiors, that they may minister to them as they received from Christ, and neglect their own utilities, and procure those of others, so that, if it be necessary, they do not even refuse to die for the salvation of their inferiors, as the Apostle: I will spend, he says, and be spent myself for your souls," II Corinthians XII, 15. Secondly, by "clergy" can be understood Clerics, who properly are the clergy, that is, the lot of the Lord, and into various particular clergy, that is, lots, orders and degrees are distributed. For some are Readers, others Exorcists, others Doorkeepers, others Deacons, others Subdeacons, etc. Again, one clergy was at Antioch, another at Tyre, another at Pontus, another at Bithynia; for as many as there were Churches, so many also were there clergy. "Cleric," says St. Jerome to Nepotian, "let him interpret his own name, and striving by the definition of the name brought forth to be what is said. For if indeed κλῆρος in Greek, in Latin lot is called, for this reason are they called Clerics, either because they are of the lot of the Lord, or because the Lord Himself is the lot, that is, the portion, of Clerics." The same, epistle 2: "That I say," he says, "which Bishops know themselves to be priests, not lords: let them honor Clerics as Clerics, so that honor also be deferred to them by Clerics as to Bishops. That saying of the orator Domitius is well known: Why, he says, should I have you as a prince, when you do not have me as a senator?" And epistle 3: "A king rules over the unwilling, a Bishop over the willing: he subjects by terror, he is given to servitude: he guards bodies unto death, he preserves souls unto life." St. Peter therefore commands Bishops and Pastors, that they should not wish to dominate imperiously over inferior Clerics, and thus among them enmities, dissensions and quarrels arise, which harm fraternal charity, and scandalize the people, but that presiding over them modestly they may be loved, honored and helped by them. Wherefore St. Basil, Rule 43 among more fully disputed matters: "Gentleness of manners," he says, "and humility of heart, let these be the chief insignia of a Prelate. For such was Christ, who said: Learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of heart." This second sense, that we understand by the clergy the Clerics and their various grades and orders, is very fitting. First, because it is natural that some Bishops of loftier mind should wish to dominate over the clergy: for indeed it is more subject to them than the laity are, and this is signified by the word clergy; indeed some think that the word clergy attributed to Clerics comes from the election of St. Matthias, who through the clergy (κλῆρος), that is, the lot, was elected to the apostolate, as I said on Acts I, 26. Whence you may see how ancient is the name of clergy and Cleric, and its distinction from laity, which heretics wrongly deny. Second, because in the clergy properly are the clergy, that is, the various lots and grades of Clerics, as I have already said. Third, because Bishops and Pontiffs have prescribed many laws, canons, rites and ceremonies to Deacons, Subdeacons and other Clerics, as is evident from Canon Law. Privately also some exact more from them, now this, now that, commanding them, and ruling over them as if they were lords, according to that saying of Christ concerning the ancient Pontiffs: "They bind together heavy burdens and unbearable, and lay them upon the shoulders of men, but with their finger they will not move them," Matt. cap. XXIII, 4. Fourth, because many read in clero instead of in cleris, and expound concerning Clerics. Thus the Seventh General Synod, can. 4, where from these words of Peter it gathers that a Bishop ought to exact nothing from the Clerics subject to him; St. Jerome, epist. 2; St. Ephrem, opusc. De Poenit. injung.; St. Bernard, epist. 237, and others. Fifth, because St. Peter alludes to the Levites, who in the Old Testament were the Lord's clergy, that is, lot and inheritance, because the first fruits, tithes, vows offered to God they themselves as it were domestic servants and ministers of God received, Num. XVIII, 20; Deut. XVIII, 2. St. Peter therefore admonishes Bishops here to modesty, that they command their Clerics modestly, namely more by example than by precept, namely that they become a form of the flock, both of Clerics, and consequently also of the laity: for the people are accustomed to follow the clergy. St. Peter being followed by St. Dionysius, epist. 8: "This," he says, "the divine and supreme Pontiff Christ takes as a sign of eminent love in himself, if we feed his sheep with most modest governance." Thus Moses, Pontiff and prince of the Synagogue, was the meekest of all men of that age, Num. XII, 3. Thus also it is said of David Psalm. CXXXI, vers. 1: "Remember, O Lord, David, and all his meekness." Thus Probus sending St. Ambrose to Milan to calm the tumult of the people: "Go," he said, "act not as a judge, but as a Bishop." This was an omen and as it were an oracle. For he acted as a Bishop, and therefore was acclaimed and created Bishop by the voice of the people, who therefore lib. III, epist. 9, mindful of this omen concerning himself: "We prefer," he says, "and desire rather to overcome the insults of individuals by clement patience, than to avenge them by priestly authority;" and St. Leo, epist. 84, cap. 1: "Although sometimes," he says, "there occur things to be reproved in priestly persons, yet more should benevolence than severity act in correcting them, and exhortation than commotion, charity than power. But from this law those easily depart who seek their own things, not those of Jesus Christ; and while they seek to dominate more than to consult their subjects, honor pleases, pride puffs up, and what was provided for concord tends toward harm." Hence Bishops and Pastors are called Fathers, that they may know that they preside over subjects as fathers over sons, not as kings or tyrants over slaves. Hence the Pope is Father of fathers, indeed Servant of the servants of God. Whence St. Isidore: "Let the Bishop acknowledge," he says, "that he is a servant, not a lord; let him show himself to his subjects in such a way that he may shine forth not only in authority, but also in humility." Wisely St. Bernard, in book IV of his work On Consideration addressed to Pope Eugenius, teaches him and Prelates in what manner they ought to mix gravity with gentleness, lest either on account of the former, if it be excessive, they be an object of disgust and hatred, or on account of the latter be held in contempt. "Be," he says, "grave, but not austere, not dissolute, nor severe, but between these things maintain a mean, so that you be neither burdensome on account of severity, nor contemptible on account of familiarity. Austerity puts to flight the weaker, gravity restrains the lighter; in the Palace show yourself Pope, at home show yourself a father of a household; let your household love you. If not, see that they fear you. The guarding of one's speech is always useful, which nevertheless does not exclude the grace of familiarity: that bearing is more fitting, if austere in deed, serene in countenance, serious in word." Indeed St. Augustine, following St. Paul to the Galatians, chapter IV, verse 19 (where he says: "My little children, for whom I am in labour again until Christ be formed in you,") makes himself a mother to his subjects: "Consider me," he says, "to be a mother of your souls, and I wish to arrange you in such a way that in you neither spot nor wrinkle may appear before the tribunal of the eternal Judge. For desiring to provide your souls not only with ornaments but also with remedies, I strive to sew together what is torn, to patch what is rent, to heal what is wounded, to wash what is soiled, to restore what is lost, and to adorn with spiritual pearls those things which are whole." The Gentiles also saw this by the light of nature, as Christ intimates, saying: "The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them, and they that have power over them are called benefactors," Luke XXII, 25. "Benefactors," in Greek εὐεργέται, as Ptolemy Euergetes was called, on account of the benefits bestowed upon his subjects: on the other hand, he is a tyrant who in ruling consults his own good and honor, not that of his subjects. True princes therefore are rather ministers of the commonwealth than lords. Thus Antigonus, king of the Macedonians, observing his son ruling his subjects with excessive arrogance: "Do you not know," he said, "my son, that our kingdom is a splendid servitude?" thus Aelian, in book II of his Miscellaneous History. The first king of the Lacedaemonians was called Agis (and many thereafter were called Agis), that is, a leader, from ἄγω, that is, I lead, because he ruled with clemency, leading rather than dominating, as a ram leads and guides the flock. Whence Plistarchus, son of Leonidas, when asked why the kings of the Lacedaemonians did not take their name from the ancient kings? "Because," he said, "they preferred to lead rather than to reign, and the later ones in no way did otherwise." He alluded to the name Agis, that is, leader; but Plistarchus is the same as ruling over many. Thus Plutarch in his work on the Lacedaemonians. Let the pastor therefore consider that he is not a lord of his subjects, but a pedagogue, so that he may instruct them as the sons of a great king in good morals, and may direct and lead them to eternal life, as a certain Saint said, and therefore let him act with them in such a way that they themselves may trust him, dare to open to him their consciences, temptations and necessities, and may have recourse to him in all things as to a father, indeed as to a mother, and may rejoice to do so. BUT LET HIM BE A FORM OF LIFE TO HIS FLOCK FROM HIS SOUL. — This is the sixth law, gift and condition of the Pastor, namely that he be a form, that is, an exemplar of life to his flock; he opposes this form to domination, as if to say: Let them not dominate by command, but by example, so that by living holily they may prescribe to the faithful the form of a holy life. St. Paul confirms this to St. Peter, dictating to Timothy, Bishop of Ephesus, the rule in the First Epistle, chapter IV, verse 12: "Be," he says, "an example to the faithful in word, in conversation, in charity, in faith and chastity;" and to Titus, Bishop of Crete, chapter II, verse 7: "In all things show thyself an example of good works, in doctrine, in integrity, in gravity:" where in the Greek for "example" the same word τύπος is used, which the translator here renders as form, because, as St. Jerome explains on Titus II, Paul wishes that Timothy, or whoever the Prelate may be, be like an archetype, or primary form, from which living likenesses of virtues are expressed by the lineaments of an honest life transferred into himself. And St. Chrysostom there: "Be to all," he says, "a teaching and an example of your virtue, a mirror of life, which is proposed to all for imitation, as it were a certain primary image, having in itself all things that are good and honorable." And Primasius there: "Do not," he says, "by example destroy your word." Give therefore a form, that is, an exemplar of living rightly, O Prelate, to your subjects. Let it not suffice you that you go before the people in appearance and place, but strive likewise to go before in virtue and works of piety, so that thus the people may of their own accord imitate you even without thinking of it. "Let life command, let the tongue persuade," says St. Athanasius to the Monks. Thus in the chariot of the Cherubim, Ezekiel I, 19, which is a type of the Church, the wheels follow the motion of the Cherubim, that is, the motion and action of the Prelates (for these are mystically the Cherubim of God) are followed by the faithful. Cicero, in the First Philippic, condemns that insolence of rulers toward their subjects: "Let them hate, provided they fear," because, he says, "it is better to be loved than to be feared." Agesilaus, king of Sparta, when asked "what things ought a king to possess?" said: "Boldness against enemies, benevolence toward subjects, and in due season reason and counsel." Thus Stobaeus, sermon 52. Cyrus, king of the Persians, most warlike, used to say that no one ought to undertake rule unless he were better than those over whom he would exercise dominion. Thus Plutarch, in the Apophthegms of Kings. Antoninus Pius the Emperor, when at the beginning of his reign he absolved certain defendants and was reproved for it, replied, "The principate ought to be begun not with punishments, but with clemency." Thus Xiphilinus in his Life. M. Antonius Verus held that an Emperor ought not to protect bands of satellites, but the benevolence and goodwill of citizens. Thus Herodian, book I. For just as boys, while they learn to write and paint, observe an exemplar fashioned by their master and strive to reproduce it: so the people, says Isidore of Pelusium, book III, epistle 359, observe and imitate the manners of Prelates: for the people stand before Prelates, and act and are acted upon like a boy. Thus Paul presented himself to the faithful as a form and norm of living. "Be imitators," he says, "of me, brethren, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample," in Greek τύπον, that is, a type and exemplar of us, Philippians III, 17; and he praises the Thessalonians, first epistle, chapter I, for their virtue: "So that ye were made," he says, "a form to all that believe in Macedonia." Most excellently St. Jerome to Nepotian, epistle 2: "Let not thy works," he says, "confound thy speech, lest when thou speakest in the church, someone silently answer: Why then dost thou not thyself do these things which thou sayest? A delicate teacher is he who disputes of fastings on a full belly. A thief can accuse avarice. Let the mouth, mind and hand of Christ's priest be in accord." And to the same effect St. Gregory, in chapter XXVIII of Job, toward the end: "It is a law," he says, "laid upon preachers, that they fulfill what they hasten to persuade by speaking. For the authority of speaking is lost when the voice is not aided by works; that voice penetrates the heart of the hearer which confirms by works what it has sounded forth." To the same point tend those things which Cassiodorus writes under the name of King Theodoric, book V of the Variae, epistle 22: "For speech is a certain mirror of the manners of the agent, nor can there be greater testimony of the mind than the quality perceived in words." And epistle 21: "Act, lest thy speech be objected against thee, for it is a weight of the gravest shame to be convicted by one's own voice." Again book XI, epistle 8: "For speech cannot have authority which is not aided by example, since it is unjust to command good things and not to have done such things." Therefore David admonishes, Psalm CXXXI, 9, the priests, who ought to be the teachers of the Church, "that they be clothed with justice." On which passage St. Gregory thus writes: "The vestments of the priest what else ought we to understand than right works, the Prophet bearing witness, who says: Let thy priests be clothed with justice." Then alluding to the vestment of the Aaronic pontiff, from which golden bells hung suspended, he adds: "Therefore bells adhere to those vestments, so that with the sound of the tongue the very good works also cry out the priest's way of life." Let Princes and Prelates therefore remember that they stand on a high summit, where they are seen by all, where all eyes are fixed upon them, where all their deeds and words are observed and noted by many of the eyes of subjects: for a city set on a hill cannot be hid, as Christ says. Truly Seneca, in the book On Clemency, chapter VIII, addressing the prince: "To thee," he says, "it is no more possible to be hidden than to the sun; much light is against thee: all eyes are turned toward this." And in Cassiodorus, book III to Argol., Theodoric: "That brightness does not permit" (he speaks of the prefect of the city) "to do what the fickle crowd could not know, placed in the midst he draws the gaze of all toward himself, and the judgment of his whole life is proclaimed by the fame of the peoples." And book XI, epistle 6: "What thou doest within the barriers cannot be hidden: for thou holdest bright doors, open barriers; and although thou shouldest studiously close them, it is necessary that thou open thyself to all: for if thou standest without, thou art corrected by my gaze; if thou enterest within, thou canst not avoid the sight of those who observe. See to what place antiquity wished to place thee, thou art seen from all sides, thou who art versed in that brightness." Nor should we pass over what Plutarch writes in his Politics: "Each man," he says, "ought to cultivate his life and character, so that he may be entirely free from every mark of reproach, especially since the deeds of those who preside over the Republic are not merely observed and noted in their individual words and public actions, but their virtue also, their jests and serious matters alike, and even their household, their very family, wife, and bedchamber are inquired into more carefully." And Claudian expresses this elegantly: I shall warn you of this repeatedly in discourse, That you may know yourself to live in the midst of the whole world, Your deeds made plain to all your peoples, and that secrecy can never be given to royal vices; for the highest light of fate Permits nothing to remain hidden, and enters through all hiding places, etc. Wherefore "nothing is more shameful than to be excellent in rank and contemptible in worth," says Salvian, book II to the Church. For a prince is the living rule and animate law of the people. Briefly, but acutely and forcefully, St. Bernard, book II On Consideration to Eugenius, chapter VII: "A monstrous thing," he says, "the highest rank and the lowest spirit; the first seat and the lowest life; a lofty tongue and an idle hand; much speech and no fruit; a grave countenance and light conduct; immense authority and wavering stability." Wherefore St. Ambrose, epistle 6 to Irenaeus: "Let our way," he says, "be narrower, virtue more abundant, the path more pressed, faith more sublime, the track more confined, the vigor of mind overflowing, the paths straight, let there be an ascent to higher things." St. Chrysostom, book II On the Priesthood: "Let them come forth," he says (to the pastoral function, to the Episcopate), "who excel all by far, and who surpass the rest in virtue of mind as much as Saul excelled the Hebrew people in bodily stature: or rather much more so." The author of the Imperfect Work, homily 43: "Let men hear you," he says, "commanding small things, and let them see you doing great things." St. Gregory, part I of the Pastoral, chapter III: "Let the Pastor," he says, "be preeminent in action, so that by living he may show the way of life to his subjects: and the flock which follows the Pastor's voice and conduct may proceed better by examples than by words. That voice penetrates the hearts of hearers more willingly than the life of the speaker commends it; and the best pasture of sheep are the examples of the Pastor." Such was St. Malachy, Archbishop of Ireland, who, as St. Bernard testifies, used to say to his followers: "I do not refuse to die, that you may hold the example of my life." For he himself, says St. Bernard, was the rule of the Brethren: they read in his life how they ought to conduct themselves. Poor to himself, but rich to the poor: he was a father to orphans, a husband to widows, merciful in compassion, free in correction." The same Bernard, book IV On Consideration, chapters I and II, admonishes Pope Eugenius to reform above all his own court and the Roman Church, and to set it forth to the whole Church as form and example. "Around you are," he says, "your clergy and people, to whom you are especially a bishop, and thus you are held as a debtor of special care. Those also who daily assist you are the elders of the people, the judges of the world, etc. And first indeed it is fitting that that most orderly clergy be so, from which especially the form of the clergy proceeded into the whole Church. Then everything that is done wrongly in your presence is more shameful to you. It concerns the glory of your holiness that those whom you have before your eyes be so ordered, so formed, that they themselves be the mirror of all honesty and order, they themselves be the form. They ought to be found before all others ready for duties, suitable for the Sacraments, solicitous for instructing the peoples; circumspect in guarding themselves in all chastity." And chapter IV: "Let them be composed in morals, approved in holiness, prepared for obedience, gentle in patience, subject to discipline, rigorous in censure, Catholic in faith, faithful in dispensation, concordant in peace, conformed to unity. Who are upright in judgment, prudent in counsel, discreet in commanding, industrious in arranging, vigorous in acting, modest in speaking, secure in adversity, devout in prosperity, sober in zeal, not remiss in mercy, not idle in leisure, not dissolute in hospitality, not effusive in feasting, not anxious in the care of household matters, not desirous of others' goods, not prodigal of their own, circumspect everywhere and in all things, etc., who sent after gold do not go, but follow Christ; who exhibit John to kings, Moses to Egyptians, Phinehas to fornicators, Elijah to idolaters, Elisha to the avaricious, Peter to liars, Paul to blasphemers, Christ to merchants, etc. Who do not hasten to enrich themselves or their own from the dowry of the widow and the patrimony of the crucified, giving freely what they freely received." FROM THE HEART. — That is to say, not from pretense, not for outward appearance, not affectedly, not falsely and hypocritically, but truly, really, sincerely, from the heart and with your whole soul strive to be to the faithful a form and norm of holy and Christian life. For many put on a devout and religious countenance, but have an irreligious heart, or certainly a vain and wandering one. Such were the Scribes and Pharisees, whom Christ therefore reproves, and calls them whited sepulchres, Matthew XXIII, 27. St. Gregory compares these to the ostrich, because "they retain the life of holiness as it were by the feather of flight through appearance, but do not exercise the works," as he himself says, book XXXV of the Morals, chapter V, or VI; for the ostrich has feathers, but does not fly.
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4. AND WHEN THE PRINCE OF PASTORS SHALL APPEAR, — Christ the Lord, who says: "I am the good Shepherd: the good Shepherd giveth his life for his sheep," etc. John X, 11. You shall receive an unfading (concerning this epithet see what is said at chapter I, verse 4), CROWN OF GLORY. — The Scholastics, besides the crown and essential glory common to all the blessed, also give to Doctors (such as Bishops and Pastors) an accidental one, which they call an aureole; for they establish three aureoles: the first, of Martyrs; the second, of Virgins; the third, of Doctors, which were represented by the three crowns of the tabernacle, namely the crown of the altar of incense represented the aureole of Martyrs, Exodus XXX, 3; the crown of the ark represented the aureole of Virgins, Exodus XXV, 21; the crown of the table of the loaves of proposition represented the aureole of Doctors, Exodus XXV, 25. For a Doctor gives to the soul doctrine as it were his bread. See St. Thomas and the Scholastics, in IV, dist. 49. Moreover, both the crown of Doctors and Pastors will be great and distinguished. First, because it will correspond to their great charity, by which they strove not only to save and perfect their own souls, but also those of many others. Second, because it will correspond to the zeal with which they propagated the kingdom and glory of God: therefore, the greater their zeal and labor, the greater likewise will be their glory and laurel. Third, because the glory of subjects will be the glory of Pastors: therefore, as many holy Pastors will have crowns as there will be crowns of subjects whom they have led to salvation, according to that saying of St. Paul, I Thessalonians II, 19: "For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of glory? Are not you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? For you are our glory and joy." Thus on the day of judgment St. Thomas will draw India after him, Andrew Achaia, John Asia, Paul the whole world, as St. Gregory says, homily 17 on the Gospel: which indeed will be a great glory and crown. Thus in the Life of St. Aldegundis we read that St. Amandus appeared to her surrounded by a great multitude of Saints converted by him, among whom he himself stood out like a giant both in stature and glory; and all looked upon him as their master and father, and brought to him their crowns received from him. Wherefore this crown is called a crown of glory: "crown," because it is given as a reward to the pastor, a prize to the contender, wages to the laborer; "of glory," first, that is, glorious. Second, "of glory," because it is not woven from roses or gems, but from various gifts of heavenly glory. Third, "of glory," that is, of magnificence, majesty, divine splendor, as if to say, This crown will be magnificent, full of majesty and divine splendor, because it will make them crowned sons and heirs of the kingdom of heaven, and therefore kings and priests of God, according to that in the Apocalypse V, 10: "Thou hast made us to our God a kingdom and priests, and we shall reign upon the earth;" and Wisdom VI, 17: "They shall receive a kingdom of beauty and a crown of splendor from the hand of the Lord." Whence by hypallage "crown of glory" can be taken for glory of the crown, that is, glory of the kingdom, or from the glory of the crown, that is, crowning all around, encompassing, adorning and beautifying the holy Pastor. Fourth, "of glory," because it is also a crown of "grace" in this life, to which in the future will correspond equally a crown of glory, according to that in Psalm XX, 4: "Thou hast prevented him with the blessings of sweetness, thou hast set on his head a crown of precious stone," on which words St. Bernard, sermon 39 among the shorter ones: "A threefold blessing," he says, "is necessary for us, preventing, helping and consummating: the first of mercy, the second of grace, the third of glory. Mercy prevents conversion, grace helps conversation, glory perfects consummation." And St. Dionysius, Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, chapter II: "The Lord," he says, "proposes rewards to those contending as God; but he has taken the laws of the contest as a wise one, and has established rewards for the victors that are honorable and most beautiful; and, what is truly more divine, he himself, as he is supremely merciful and good, conquers in his warriors, while dwelling in them he fights for their salvation and victory against the empire of death and corruption."
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5. LIKEWISE, YOUNG MEN, BE SUBJECT TO THE ELDERS. By young men, in Greek νεώτεροι, that is, the younger, understand by catachresis any inferiors and subjects. For since the aged are accustomed to preside and rule on account of wisdom, while the younger are accustomed to be subject and ruled, hence the aged are called superiors, the younger subjects. Whence from the aged the senate was named. But especially by young men understand Clerics of the lower Orders, such as Deacons, Readers, Exorcists: for it is fitting for these above all to be subject to the elders, in Greek πρεσβυτέροις, that is, to priests. For just as a little before he commanded Presbyters not to domineer over the clergy, that is, the lesser and younger Clerics: so in turn he admonishes these not to become insolent against Presbyters, but to subject themselves to them. Thus Cajetan, Salmeron, Arias and others. For this is required by proper subordination and hierarchical order. St. Ignatius admonished the same thing to St. Peter shortly after, in his 7th epistle to the Tarsians: "Presbyters, he says, be subject to the Bishop, Deacons to Presbyters, the people to Presbyters and Deacons. Whoever shall have observed this decorum of order, I willingly exchange my life for their souls." And to the Smyrnians, epistle 10: "Therefore let all your affairs be accomplished in becoming order: let the laity be subject to Deacons, Deacons to Presbyters, Presbyters to the Bishop, the Bishop to Christ, as he himself to the Father." Finally, it is fitting that every young man revere the elders and allow himself to be directed by them. For grey hair is venerable, both on account of experience and wisdom, and on account of the moderation of passions, which in the young boil up and flourish on account of the abundance of blood and heat, according to that passage in Ecclesiasticus VI, 35: "Stand in the multitude of the wise and aged, and join thyself from thy heart to their wisdom, that thou mayest hear every discourse of God." Whence St. Ambrose, in the book On Widows: "Youth is near to falls, he says, the heat of various desires inflames men with the fervor of a hot age." Wherefore the same, in book I of the Offices, chapter XVII: "It is the part of good young men, he says, to have the fear of God, to show honor to parents, to have reverence for the elders, to preserve chastity, not to despise humility, to love clemency and modesty, which are the ornaments of a younger age. For as gravity is in the aged, and alacrity in the young, so in young men modesty is commended, as it were by a certain dowry of nature." The Philosophers saw and ordained the same thing. Diogenes to a young man blushing and therefore troubled: "Be of good cheer, my son, he says, such is the dye of virtue." Thus Laertius in his Life. Demetrius Phalereus admonished young men "to revere their parents at home, those they met on the way, and themselves in solitude." Thus Laertius, book V, chapter v. Socrates exhorted young men to have these three things, "prudence in the mind, silence in the tongue, modesty in the countenance," says Maximus, sermon 41. BUT ALL MUTUALLY (The Greek texts add ὑποτασσόμενοι, that is, subordinated, in that order which he has already mentioned: "Young men be subject to the elders") INSINUATE HUMILITY. The translator appears to have read ἐγκολπώσασθε, that is, insinuate; for κόλπος is indeed the bosom. "Insinuate" therefore, that is, "have in the bosom," namely in the mind and heart ready and prepared, so that you may immediately offer and exhibit it to others. Thus the Gloss and Hugh. Secondly and more properly, insinuate humility mutually, that is, cast it mutually into the bosom of another, so that it may enter and penetrate the mind of the other, and reconcile him to you and to Christ, and provoke him to return humility and charity. For thus orators use insinuation in the exordium, by which they insinuate themselves into the minds of the hearers and win them over, so that they may eagerly and willingly hear and receive what they are about to say. "Insinuation," says Cicero, in book I of the Invention, "is a discourse which by a certain dissimulation and circumlocution obscurely enters the mind of the hearer;"; and, as Servius in the XI Aeneid, "it is a cunning and subtle approach to persuasion." Such insinuation for Christians is humility, which wins over and binds all to itself. Thus Lucretius, in book VI, says: "The sun insinuates heat through the walls of houses." Thus Propertius, in book III, elegy 9, says Caesar insinuates riches, that is, sends them into the bosom. Thus the sea insinuates itself into the bosom of the land. Thus a flatterer insinuates himself into the mind of a prince. But the Greek texts in various places have ἐγκομβώσασθε (for which the Royal edition reads ἐγκοπώσασθε, with the same meaning), which can first be translated as bind together and hold fast, as if held together by knots. For Hesychius in his Lexicon translates it ἐνδέθητε, that is, bound together, bound fast: thus Vatablus, Hesselius and others; whence the Zurich version translates it, have humility of mind fixed in you; Pagninus, have it bound together. "For humility is not situated in garment or in the depression of the neck, or in the lowering of the voice, but in the constancy of the mind," says Nazianzen, oration 13. Second, it can be translated as embrace, put on, wrap around, adorn yourselves. For Hesychius also translates it κολλήσατε. Thus Oecumenius: "Humility," he says, "embrace from every side, so that you may appear to be clothed and wrapped in it on all sides." Which Our author acutely and aptly translates as insinuate, from the fold not of the breast, but of garments. For thus is called a sinuous garment, which has many folds and pleats, concerning which Ovid, II Metamorphoses: ..... The trembling garments are shaped by the breeze, that is, are formed, wrinkled, or gathered into folds. And Statius, book X of the Thebaid, says, "to fill a cloak insinuated with something." Hence also a fold is called the sail of a ship, which when winds blow curves and makes a fold. Whence Ovid: And spread full sails curved in a fold. And Virgil, V Aeneid: "And bends the folds into the wind." Therefore St. Peter says: "Humility toward one another" ἐγκομβώσασθε, that is, wrap around and insinuate, so that just as in a garment one fold and one pleat insinuates itself into another, and this into another and another in turn, and thus beautifully makes the garment sinuous, and through the folds elegantly drawn out and arranged: so likewise Christians should do, one toward another through humility as if a fold into the fold of another should insinuate itself, and this toward another and another in turn; thus all will make one as it were garment of the Church sinuous, connected, ordered, arranged, elegant, which will both refresh the minds of the faithful, and attract the minds of the unbelievers, so that they may wish to insert themselves into it and become Christians. Whence the Syriac translates: Be clothed around with gentleness of mind, one toward another. For St. Peter had said that Presbyters ought not to dominate over the clergy, that is, Clerics equally as laymen, but these ought to submit themselves to Presbyters as if younger and lesser. Now he prescribes to both the manner of accomplishing this, namely humility, if both the Presbyters toward the younger by lowering themselves to them, and the younger toward the Presbyters by submitting themselves, exhibit and insinuate it. For thus both will weave together one as it were garment of the Church, and one train from various folds and pleats elegantly composed. For just as a fold standing out or exterior, accommodates and insinuates itself aptly to a fold more depressed or interior, and vice versa the interior to the exterior: so likewise humility does, so that the superior accommodates and insinuates itself to the inferior, and conversely the inferior to the superior; and thus all weave together one elegant robe of concord, peace and charity. St. Paul harmonizes with St. Peter, Philippians II, 2: "Fulfill," he says, "my joy, that you may be of one mind, having the same charity, being of one accord, feeling the same thing, nothing by contention, nor by vain glory, but in humility each esteeming others better than themselves." For humility coordinates the superior with the inferior, and subordinates these to the superior. Humility therefore is the parent of order, concord, peace, charity, etc. "Humility," says Cassian, Conference XV, chapter vii, "is the teacher of all virtues, it is the most firm foundation of the heavenly building, it is the proper and magnificent gift of the Savior;"; and St. Basil in Monastic Constitutions, chapter XVII: "Humility," he says, "is the safest treasure of all virtues." The same, in the sermon On the Renunciation of Things: "Humility," he says, "is the net which embraces all virtues." St. Hilary in Psalm CXVIII, letter Res, teaches that in humility the head and sum of all commandments consists. "In humility," he says, "Christ taught that all the names and rewards of faith are contained." The same in Psalm CXXX: "The measure of humility and height is to be maintained, so that we be humble in heart, but exalted in sense and soul." St. Leo, sermon 7 On the Epiphany, forcefully: "The whole," he says, "discipline of Christian wisdom consists not in abundance of word, not in the cunning of disputation, nor in the appetite for praise and glory, but in true and voluntary humility, which the Lord Jesus Christ from the womb of his mother even to the punishment of the cross chose and taught for all strength and elegance." And a little before: "The whole victory of the Savior, which both overcame the devil and the world, was conceived in humility, accomplished in humility." St. Gregory, book XXXIV of the Morals, chapter xviii, or according to another edition, chapter xxiii: "It is most evident," he says, "that pride is the sign of the reprobate, but humility of the elect." And St. Athanasius, On Virginity: "Humility," he says, "in Christ, is pride in the devil." Wherefore St. Gregory, Bernard, Cassian and others teach that humility is the foundation of virtues, especially of peace and charity: of which matter John Moschus narrates an illustrious example in the Spiritual Meadow, chapter CCX. Two, he says, Bishops were in enmity, one of them came with his clergy, and fell at the feet of the other, saying: "Forgive me, lord, we are your servants." He, overcome by this humility: "You," he said, "are both my lord and my father." Whence he infers: "And you, when you have an enemy, do thus, and you will conquer. Therefore the humble man has greater glory than a king, because he is praised by all." Similar examples he recounts in chapters CCXVIII and CCXIX. Because God resisteth the proud. "For the Lord is high, and looketh on the low; and the high things he knoweth afar off," Psalm CXXXVII, 6. See the words of James IV, 6, where it has the same sentence. St. Chrysostom notes, homily 3 On the Words of Isaiah: he does not say: God abandons the proud, withdrawing his aid and grace from them, but ἀντιτάσσεται, that is, he opposes, and positively resists, not that God needs an arrayed battle or combat, since nothing is weaker than the proud man, but that by his mere nod he resists him, breathes upon him, destroys him, annihilates him, if he will. Whence St. Ambrose in Psalm CXVIII, octonary 7: "What therefore," he says, "can be worse than this sin, which began with an injury to God? and therefore Scripture says: The Lord resisteth the proud; as if undertaking a special contest against pride as the repeller of his own dishonor."
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6. HUMBLE YOURSELVES THEREFORE UNDER THE MIGHTY HAND OF GOD. St. James has, "in the sight of God;" it is an efficacious reason persuading humility. For who indeed is a man, nay rather a wretched little man, who does not humble himself under the majesty and power of God, who wills not only that we be subject and humble to him, but also to superiors and neighbors, so that if you humble yourself to them, you humble yourself to God: if on the contrary you exalt yourself over them and become insolent, you exalt yourself over and against God? "For humility, as St. Bernard says, On the Degrees of Humility, is the virtue by which someone, from the truest knowledge of himself, becomes vile to himself," so that before God, beholding his abyss of nothingness, of sins and miseries, he may say with St. Francis: "Who are you, O Lord, who am I? You are the abyss of all good, I am the abyss of all evil." The same, sermon 16 in the Canticles: "The true humble man, he says, wishes to be reputed vile, not to be proclaimed humble; he rejoices in his own contempt, being proud in this alone, that he despises praises." Who under the mighty hand of God, even unto hell, does not humble himself, thinking that God suspends the mass of the earth with three fingers; thinking that he is in the hand of God like a flea or a gnat, whom he might kill in such manner; thinking that he is surrounded and contained by the hand of God, so that he cannot escape it, that hand, I say, by which it casts down the high, strikes down the lofty, thunders against the proud, and stretches them into the depths of hell, as it thundered against Lucifer with so many thousands of angels, nay millions: that same hand again, which raises up the lowly, exalts the humble to the stars, nay above the stars; whence he adds: "That he may exalt you," etc. Wherefore our Sebastian Barradius, a man and apostolic preacher, whose excellent Commentaries on the Gospels exist, when dying and anointed with sacred oil, being asked by the Father Rector that, since, as St. Augustine testifies, sermon 6, book XVII of homilies, "the last words of a parent going to the tomb are wont to be held as of great importance," he should give his final admonition to his own, bidding farewell, he said: "Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in the time of tribulation. No other counsel remains. Let us all be earnestly humble, imitating Christ our Lord and our God, who throughout his whole life wished one thing alone to be learned from him, humility;" and dying, with bowed head, he gave up the ghost, so that as in life, so also in death he might imitate Christ. Thus our Conimbricenses in his Life, which they prefixed to his last work, namely the Itinerary of the Children of Israel. Furthermore Cassian, book IV of the Institutes, chapter thirty-nine, gives ten signs of true and genuine humility: "Humility, he says, is proved by these marks: first, if he has mortified in himself all his own will; second, if he has hidden nothing of his actions, and indeed of his thoughts, from his senior; third, if he commits all things not to his own discretion, but to his judgment, and willingly listens to his admonitions; fourth, if he observes obedience, gentleness and constancy of patience in all things; fifth, if he not only inflicts injury on no one, but does not even grieve and sorrow at injury inflicted on him by another; sixth, if he does nothing, presumes nothing which neither the common rule nor the examples of his elders encourage; seventh, if content with all lowliness, he judges himself unworthy of all things which are offered to him, as a wicked laborer; eighth, if he believes himself inferior to all, not in the surface utterance of his lips, but in the inmost affection of his heart; ninth, if he restrains his tongue, or is not clamorous in voice; tenth, if he is not facile and prompt in laughter." THAT HE MAY EXALT YOU, according to that in Proverbs 29, 23: "Humility follows the proud, and glory shall receive the humble in spirit;" and that in Psalm 17, 28: "You shall save the humble people, and shall bring down the eyes of the proud;" and Job chapter 5, verse 11: "He sets the humble on high;" and that saying of Christ: "Everyone that humbles himself shall be exalted," Luke chapter 14, verse 11. Whence Gregory of Nazianzus, oration 48: "Christ, he says, taught by his example that humility is the path from the lowest to the highest." The blessed Virgin taught the same, who, calling herself a handmaid, became the mother of God, Luke chapter 1, 38. Hence Saul heard from Samuel: "Was not when you were little in your own eyes, made you head over the tribes of Israel?" On which words St. Gregory, book XVIII of the Morals, 20, otherwise 22: "You were great to me, he says, because you were despised in your own eyes: but now because you are great to yourself, you have become despised to me." Humility therefore is the ladder of Jacob, which exalts men from earth to heaven. IN THE TIME OF VISITATION, namely when God shall visit you, so that he may reward your humility and exalt you either in this life or in the future. The word "visitation" is not in the Greek, but is understood: for καιρός signifies occasion, opportunity, fitting time, which is the time of visitation. Whence the Syrian translates, in fitting time; the Zurich, when it shall be opportune; Pagninus, in opportune time, according to that in Psalm 9, 10: "Helper (God) in opportunities, in tribulation;" and Psalm 30, 16: "In your hands are my lots;" in Hebrew, my times; in Chaldaic, the times of my redemption. See concerning this visitation said in chapter 2, verse 12.
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7. CAST ALL YOUR CARE UPON HIM, that is, cast; for the Hebrews use participles in place of the indicative, because they lack it. Or rather, casting refers to be humbled, as if to say: Be humbled under the mighty hand of God, humbly casting upon Him all your care. For thus you will show yourselves to think humbly of yourselves and sublimely of God, if, distrusting yourselves and trusting God, you resign into Him all your cares, anxieties and solicitudes. For thus by the very deed you will testify that you are so weak that you cannot provide for these things; but that God is so powerful, provident and benign that He will immediately provide for all these things as a father. Thus Christ forbids Christians to be solicitous about food, clothing, etc. Matthew vi; where St. Jerome says: "From care, he says, we are not entirely freed (which is usually called σπουδή, that is, honest zeal), but we are commanded not to be solicitous." He does not therefore forbid σπουδή, that is, moderate care, as the Anabaptists wish, who think the idle should have everything poured into their mouths by God alone, but μέριμνα, that is, anxious and excessive solicitude; for μέριμνα is said from μερίζειν τὸν νοῦν, because it divides, torments and as it were dissects the mind. Thus the Psalmist, Psalm XXXIX, 18: "The Lord, he says, is solicitous for me," where St. Augustine reads, The Lord will have care of me: "He who had care of you before you were, how will He not have care, now that you are what He wished you to be? For now you are faithful, now you walk in the way of justice, etc.; nowhere does He fail you, do not you fail Him, do not you fail yourself," and Paul, Philippians cap. IV, vers. 6: "Be nothing solicitous, but in all prayer, etc., let your petitions be made known to God." And Abraham, when Isaac asked where the victim was, answered: "God will provide Himself a victim for a holocaust, my son," Genesis xxii, 9. Whence the mountain on which Isaac was to be sacrificed was called Moriah, that is, vision, providence and provision of God; as therefore infants are not solicitous, but cast all their solicitude into the bosom of their mother, in which they recline and rest: so let the faithful do with God, who is to us father and mother. For what was said to Joshua by God cap. I, vers. 5: "I will not leave you, nor forsake you," was said to every faithful and just person. Let therefore the faithful say in any tribulation, poverty, distress, to God: "From the womb of my mother You are my God; into You I was cast from the womb," Psalm XXII, vers. 10. And that, Psalm CXXII, 2: "As the eyes of the handmaid in the hands of her mistress, so are our eyes to the Lord our God, until He have mercy on us." For, as St. Ephrem says, serm. On faith, ton. 1: "God who cures the diseases of the soul will also cure the body." St. Peter alludes to, nay cites, Psalm LIV, 23: "Cast your thought upon the Lord;" where the Septuagint translates, Ἐπίρριψον ἐπὶ τὸν Κύριον τὴν μέριμνάν σου, which words St. Peter uses here in Greek: μέριμνα is indeed care, solicitude, anxiety. Hebrew is יהבך iehab-cha, which the Chaldean translates, "cast your hope upon the Lord"; St. Jerome, "your charity," as if יהב iahab were put for אהב ahab, that is "he loved, held dear"; Pagninus, "your gift," or "what He gave you"; Vatablus from the Syriac or Arabic signification, "your burden," or "your weight," namely all that presses and weighs upon you, or troubles and torments you. Others "your burden," namely your affairs, solicitudes, hardships, events, dangers: for the Psalmist properly treats of these. The root יהב iahab signifies the affection of one petitioning. Whence Pagninus in the Lexicon translates, "eia," as if to say: Cast upon God all your "eia," that is, whatever moves and draws forth in you solicitude, eagerness and anxious prayer. Wherefore the Septuagint and St. Peter translate μέριμνα, that is "care" and solicitude. BECAUSE HE HAS CARE OF YOU. The Psalmist, Psalm LIV, 23, has, "and He Himself will nourish you"; Hebrew יכלכלך iekalkelecha, that is will sustain, perfect, care for you. St. Bernard notes, serm. 68 in Cant.: St. Peter does not say, he says, "That He may have care of you"; but: "Because He has care of you," openly showing that the Church of Saints is not only because beloved, but that it was first beloved, as if to say "Attend to Him, because He attends to you." Whence the same says in Psalm XC, serm. 9: "Why, if we understand these things, why do we delay to cast away entirely miserable, vain, useless, seductive hopes, and to cling with all devotion of mind, with all fervor of spirit to this one hope so solid, so perfect, so blessed?" The first reason is that God, just as He is the creator, is also the preserver, provider and curator of His creatures, especially of the faithful and the just. It is therefore His to govern, care for, moderate and provide for their affairs, burdens, troubles and cares. For this is what His sweet and efficacious providence demands. Whence St. Augustine, III Confessions, XI: "O thou good," he says, "Almighty One, who so carest for each one of us, as if thou caredst for him alone, and so for all as if for each one." Second, because it is deserved by faith, hope and confidence, by which the faithful reposes all his things in God, and reclines and rests in His bosom, as chicks under the wings of a hen. For this confidence greatly honors God: for it holds a great opinion of His power, faithfulness and aid, which God does not suffer to be frustrated, both that He may protect His honor, and that He may not fail those who hope in Him, but may be present and make them partakers of their hope and desire, according to that Psalm XXXIII, 16: "The eyes of the Lord are upon the just, and His ears unto their prayers;" and verse 18: "The just cried, and the Lord heard them; and delivered them out of all their troubles;" and verse 20: "Many are the troubles of the just, and out of them all will the Lord deliver them. The Lord keepeth all the bones of them, not one of them shall be broken." Thus St. Chrysostom, homily 56 to the people and 69 in Matthew: "Be not anxious," he says, "about thy things, but commit them to God; for if thou art anxious, thou art anxious as a man: but if thou lettest go, God will provide, etc. That therefore He may have great care for them, commit all things to Him alone. But if thou thyself also, neglecting spiritual things, shouldst handle them, He will not have great care for them. That therefore these things may be well disposed for thee, and thou mayest be freed from all anxiety, despise worldly things: for thus thou shalt have both the heavens and the earth, and shalt obtain future goods." Hence on the contrary it is said of the anxious, Proverbs XI, 7: "The expectation of the anxious shall perish." Third, because the faithful serves God faithfully; whence God, who does not suffer Himself to be overcome in faithfulness and liberality, faithfully cares for and directs all his affairs. God therefore asks of us only the solicitude of His service, and in return takes upon Himself all other solicitudes, according to that Micah cap. vi, verse 8: "I will shew thee, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requireth of thee: verily to do judgment, and to love mercy, and to walk solicitous with thy God;" and that Deuteronomy XXXIII, 3: "He hath loved the people: all the saints are in His hand;" and Ecclesiasticus XXXIV, 17, 18, 19, 20: "Blessed is the soul of him that feareth the Lord. To whom doth he look, and who is his strength? The eyes of the Lord are upon them that fear Him, a protector of power, a support of strength, a defence against heat, and a shelter from the noonday sun, a guard against stumbling, and an aid against falling, exalting the soul, and enlightening the eyes, giving health, and life, and blessing;" and David, Psalm XXVI, 1: "The Lord is my light and my salvation: whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?" And Psalm XC, 1: "He that dwelleth in the aid of the Most High, shall abide under the protection of the God of heaven." Where see St. Bernard. Furthermore, this holds place not only in temporal things, but much more in spiritual things, namely in victory over temptations, in the progress of virtues and perseverance. Whence the Apostle: "I can do all things," he says, "in Him who strengtheneth me," Philippians cap. IV, verse 13; and: "He who hath begun a good work in you, will perfect it unto the day of Christ Jesus," Philippians I, 6. For if God has care of each single hair, He will have much greater care of morals, says St. Augustine, sermon 6 On the Words of the Lord, who also adds: "Why dost thou fear man, O man placed in the bosom of God? Do not thou fall from His bosom: whatever thou shalt suffer there, will avail unto thy salvation, not unto thy ruin." And Origen, homily 8 in Leviticus: "The disciples of the Lord," he says, "are said to have even the hairs of their head numbered, that is, all their acts, all their words, all their thoughts are kept with the Lord, because they are just, because they are holy." See St. Bernard, sermon 68 in the Canticles. Thus St. Clement at the beginning of the Recognitions writes that this was the doctrine of St. Peter: "We Christians are anxious about nothing, nor about any event, but rest entirely in God's providence; knowing that we are a care to Him, that we are directed by Him in all things, so that all things work together for our good." St. Athanasius, in his tract On the Passion and Cross, teaches that Christ in His agony, fearful and anxious, sweated water and blood, and wore a crown of thorns, in order that He might heal and take away all our anxieties, cares and anguishes; therefore it is not fitting for a Christian to be anxious, since Christ has relieved him of all anxiety and taken it upon Himself. "Christ," he says, "wore a crown of thorns, that He might abolish the cares of our life (taking upon Himself, as it were, the thorns thereof)." St. John the Silent, when Alamundarus invaded the monastery, was unwilling to go out and flee, but resigning himself to God with great hope: "If God," he said, "does not care for me, why do I live?" Nor did hope or God deceive him: for God sent a terrible lion, which guarded and protected John. Thus Cyril in his Life. For in the greatest straits God is present, as if from a machine, and comes to aid, and, as he says: "Then is the chief place of prayers, when there is no place for hope." Thus St. Saba, entering a cave and looking about, found a lion with her cubs, and said to her confidently: "If you wish, remain with me; for there is room for both: but if not, depart. For it is fitting that you yield the place to me, not I to you." Wherefore St. Catherine of Siena received this doctrine from Christ: "Daughter, think of me, and I will think of you," and keeping it faithfully, she accomplished all things without care, with Christ as her guardian caring for all things. Ludovicus Blosius relates similar things concerning St. Mechtilde and St. Gertrude in his Spiritual Ornament, chapter XI, where he relates that Christ the Lord said to St. Gertrude: "This secure confidence, by which the faithful reposes himself and his affairs in me, believing that I can, know and will faithfully help him in any matter, pierces my heart, and brings such force to bear upon my mercy, that I cannot but favor such a one, and spend myself for him, and this in order that I may satisfy what I am, and the love with which I pursue him."
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8. Be sober and watch. — He joins these two together, because sobriety is the mother of watchfulness and vigilance, just as gluttony and drunkenness are the mothers of sleep and slumber. Again, just as sobriety is the mother of health, wisdom and holiness, especially chastity, and makes the mind watchful and keen for prayer and contemplation, and therefore is beloved of God and the Angels: so on the other hand drunkenness is the mother of infirmity, foolishness, lust and other vices, and lulls the mind to sleep and makes it unfit for meditation, and therefore is beloved of the devil. Thus St. Chrysostom, homily 88 on Matthew: "The devil, he says, has no greater friend than he who is stained with luxury and drunkenness: for this is the fountain, this is the mother and origin of all vices. It makes swine out of men: he who indulges in pleasures is in no way separated from a demoniac; for he is both shameless and furious in like manner: and we all pity the demoniac, but we all turn away from this man, because he willingly brings madness upon himself; and his mouth, eyes, nostrils and all the other instruments of the senses, he makes into the foulest sewers of pleasure." Wherefore the devil is wont to stir men to gluttony toward evening, and thence to sleep, so that at night, half-asleep, sluggish and almost torpid, he may tempt them through lust and other wicked impulses, and various and manifold ones, like a swarm of bees, as St. Basil says, homily 14. For this reason the Church begins Compline from these words of St. Peter, and thereby admonishes the faithful to be sober and watchful for prayer and resistance to the devil, so that thus the eyes may take sleep, while the heart always watches toward God, and therefore those about to go to bed should seriously commend themselves to their Guardian Angel and tutelary Saints, and fall asleep with holy thoughts. See what I have said concerning sobriety, Daniel, chapter I. Hence that old man in the Lives of the Fathers, book V, booklet XI, number 46, used to say that there are three forerunners of the devil: forgetfulness, negligence and concupiscence: "For indeed, he says, if forgetfulness comes, it begets negligence; from negligence truly concupiscence is born; from concupiscence truly man falls. For if the mind is so sober as to reject forgetfulness, it does not come to negligence; and if it has not been negligent, it does not receive concupiscence; if truly it does not receive concupiscence, it will never fall, with the help of the grace of Christ." Thus Paul writes to Timothy, second epistle, chapter IV, verse 5: "But thou be watchful;" and Christ to the Bishop of Sardis: "Be watchful, and strengthen the rest," Revelation III, 2. Hence the Church formerly used nocturnal vigils, for prayer in the all-night vigils of the Saints, and the same are still used by the Cenobites in nocturnal psalmody, who, as St. Jerome says in Daniel, chapter IV, 10, imitate the offices of the Angels always watching and praising God. There existed formerly in the East a monastery of the Acoemeti, that is, of those not sleeping, because they kept vigil almost the whole nights through in prayer and psalmody. Truly St. Cyril, Catechesis 4: "It is necessary, he says, with divine grace, a sober mind and watchful eyes, that we avoid tares for wheat, a wolf for a sheep, the devil for a good Angel." For the devil always watches, and everywhere is intent to harm and overthrow. We therefore must struggle with the watchful one as watchful, and as it were with a thousand eyes of Argus observe and beware of him. Whence St. Jerome to Heliodorus, epistle 1: "This lion lies in wait in his den, he lies in wait to seize the poor, and you, sheltered under the shade of a leafy tree, are you plucking soft sleep, destined to become prey? From there lust pursues me, from there avarice strives to break in, from there my belly wants to be my god instead of Christ; lust compels me, so that I might flee the Holy Spirit dwelling in me, so that I might violate his temple; he pursues me, I say, an enemy with a thousand names, a thousand arts of harming, and I, wretched, shall think myself the victor while I am being captured?" But after much more: "Do not believe, he says, do not be secure; although the expanse spreads out like a pool smiling, although scarcely the surface of the lying element is ruffled by the breath of wind, this great field has mountains; danger is enclosed within, the enemy is within. Haul in the ropes quickly, hoist the sails, let the cross be fixed as an antenna on the brows, this tranquility is a tempest." And St. Bernard, sermon 11 on Psalm XC: "Just as," he says, "God himself is solicitous for us, and has care for us; so the devil is solicitous to slay us and destroy us, and his one care is that he who has turned away should not return." Aptly therefore St. Peter, by antithesis, subjoins the hatred and envy of the devil toward us for our destruction. To these things we must be watchful, because, as Christ says in Matthew, chapter XXIV, 42, "you know not what hour your Lord will come." Where St. Gregory, homily 13 in the Gospel: "Our Lord," he says, "willed the final hour to be unknown to us for this reason, that it might always be able to be suspected, so that while we cannot foresee it, we might be prepared for it without ceasing;" and St. Hilary, commentary 24 on St. Matthew: "It behooves us to be prepared, because ignorance of the day agitates intent solicitude with suspended expectation." Furthermore: "He watches," says St. Gregory, in the place cited, "who keeps the eyes of his mind open to the aspect of true light; he watches, who drives from himself the darkness of torpor and negligence." Mystically, lovers of the world sleep. "For dreams are magistracies, riches, power, pride, the imposture of pleasures, desire of glory, a life of delights, ambition," etc., says Nyssen, homily 11 on the Canticle. Against these dreams must be set the vigilance of virtues. Whence St. Augustine, On the Words of the Lord, sermon 23, chapter X: "Watch," he says, "with your heart, watch with faith, watch with hope, watch with charity, watch with works." Because the Adversary. — In Hebrew he is called Satan, in Greek ἀντίδικος, that is, an adversary in a case and suit, a litigant, a plaintiff, an accuser, who namely seeks all reasons and means by which to bring suit against us, so that in the tribunal of God he may accuse us and bring us as guilty to condemnation. Great therefore is this adversary, great his suit and cause; for he acts against our soul, against our salvation, against eternity; he acts so that he may have us as companions in damnation and the fire of hell: and this first, from hatred of God by which he burns, namely lest God be honored by us; secondly, from envy, lest we occupy his seat in the heavens; thirdly, from pride, by which he desires to make all like himself and to rule over all. This is what Paul says, Ephesians VI, 12: "Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers: against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places;" and thereafter against them he gives to the faithful soldier as it were a full armor. Devil, — that is, a slanderer, from διαβάλλω, that is, I slander; wherefore ridiculously Thomas the Englishman: The Devil, he says, is called as it were devouring man with two hills, namely soul and body. This is to be pardoned to that age, rude and speechless in languages. Truly St. Gregory, II Morals, chapter V, otherwise IX: "The ancient adversary," he says, "when he finds not evils to accuse, seeks to bend good things themselves to evil; and when he is overcome by works, he searches our words to accuse; when he finds not accusation even in words, he strives to darken the intention of the heart, as though good deeds are not done with a good mind, and therefore ought not to be weighed by a good judge." St. Ambrose gives the cause of envy, book VII on Luke, chapter XII: "He sows," he says, "the enticements of sins, so that he may have in punishment partners whom he had in error as companions; and therefore he seeks partners for guilt, so that he may lose them as liable to punishment." Furthermore "the devil" is called by antonomasia Lucifer, prince of demons, Matthew IV, 1. Lucifer therefore not so much by himself (for he is relegated in hell, Revelation XX, 2), as through his followers goes about: for each of these is called, and is "a devil." Whence the holy Fathers teach that this air is full of demons, who carrying their fire and punishment with them, tempt men, and will tempt until the day of judgment: for then all will be relegated to hell. "The devil," says St. Augustine to Julian, "is the teacher of falsehood, he himself has become the adversary of our race, the inventor of death, the institutor of pride, the root of malice, the head of crimes, the prince of all vices, the persuader of base pleasures. Hence therefore when he first beheld the first man made by God, Adam, the father of us all, clothed in chastity, temperance, charity, and immortality, envious and jealous that man, a creature of earth, had received such great blessedness, which he himself, though he was an angel, is known to have lost through pride; the insatiable murderer immediately envied, despoiled Adam, and destroyed us." This is the second cause of the devil's wrath against men, namely envy (for the first, as I have said, is hatred of God, who damns him and punishes him in hell), concerning which St. Basil says: "The leopard, he says, is an animal most hostile to man, so much so that sometimes in the arena it attacks a man's eyes in its rage; but those who seek to elude the fury of the beast show it an image of a man made of paper: it immediately, in its fury, seizes and tears it to pieces, by this argument sufficiently showing how great is its enmity toward man. Thus also the devil persecutes man appearing in the image, when he cannot touch God himself; hence such bitter war against us." Thus St. Basil, homily on certain passages of Scripture. The third cause, namely pride, is manifest: for the devil swells with pride and ambition. Origen adds, homily 33 on Luke; the Nyssene, On the Life of Moses, before the middle; the Author of a sermon to the Brethren in the desert, sermon 68; the Master of the Sentences in II, distinction 11, that each man has a demon as an antagonist, appointed by Lucifer for temptation, just as he has a good angel appointed by God for his protection. But Cassian, Conferences, book VII, chapter XVII, teaches that certain demons are appointed who tempt to anger, others to lust, others to other vices; for each vice has its own rulers and demons. Whence in Scripture the devil is called the spirit of anger, of lust, of blasphemy, etc.: these things are to be discussed elsewhere. AS A ROARING LION. — In Scripture now the devil, now Christ is called "the lion of the tribe of Judah;" Apocalypse, chapter V, verse 5, on account of the contrary properties of the lion. For, as St. Augustine says, sermon 46 On Diverse Matters, chapter II: "Christ is called a lion on account of strength, the devil on account of savagery: that lion for conquering, this lion for harming." The devil therefore is called a "lion," first, because he is vigilant: for the lion sleeps with open eyes, indeed, as Aelian and others teach, while sleeping he keeps watch, and moves his tail. Whence some think the lion never sleeps, and say that it alone among animals is born with open eyes: for it has very large eyes, but thin eyelids, so that it cannot cover its whole eyes, and therefore it is called λέων (lion) from λάω, that is "I see," because it is ὀξυδερκὴς ἄγαν, that is, of most acute sight. Hence the lion is a symbol of vigilance, and therefore it is customary to affix it to the doors of basilicas, as we see done in Rome. Similarly the devil is ever watchful to harm man. Wherefore St. Basil on that passage, Take heed to thyself: "Like a strenuous fighter, he says, keep the eye of your soul never wandering, but attentive and ever watchful; fortify yourself, and guard with outstretched hands those parts where a wound would be lethal: fix your eye on your adversary unmoved, more firmly." Again, the lion, says Epiphanius, heresy 78, "is an animal most voracious, in appearance tawny, in strength most solid, and, so to speak, most regal over other animals." Thus also the devil has a canine hunger, indeed a rabid hunger for devouring souls; in appearance tawny, namely bloodstained; in strength most solid, and king over all the children of pride, Job XLI, 25. Second, because the devil is cruel like a lion, which is never tamed, and becomes domestic; indeed the devil, fed by many souls, is not satisfied, but rages more, "when lions when sated are harmless," as Pliny says, book VIII, chapter XVI. The lion has a huge mouth, strong teeth, curved and powerful claws: thus the devil is most rapacious and most voracious. Third, because the devil, like a lion, roars, that is, strikes down with voice, sound and terror, according to that passage Amos III, 9: "The lion hath roared, who will not fear?" Hence Eusebius, book IV of the Preparation, chapter III: A daemon, he says, is called from δαίω, that is "to fear," because it strikes fear: although more truly δαίμων is said, as if δαήμων, that is "knowing." For antiquity attributed to demons the invention of human arts. Whence Plato calls the moderator of the universe the "greatest daemon." A daemon therefore cannot harm you, unless you fear him, unless by fearing you willingly yield to him and consent, just as he who before the conflict is prostrated not by a weapon, but by a trumpet, as St. Bernard says, sermon 43 on Psalm XC, where he teaches that the lion terrifies more by its roar than by its bite, and so much so that animals which resist its bite, indeed sometimes overcome the lion, cannot endure its roar; "so that by the sound of its roaring, as if by a certain force, they are struck and wounded," says St. Ambrose, VI Hexaemeron, chapter III. Thus the devil harms more by his threats and terrors than by strength and blows. Hear St. Bernard: "Your adversary as a roaring lion, says Peter. Thanks to that great lion of the tribe of Judah: this one can roar, but cannot strike. Let him roar as much as he will, yet the sheep of Christ shall not flee. How much does he threaten, how much does he exaggerate, how much does he attempt? Let us not be beasts so that that empty roaring may prostrate us. For thus those who have investigated such things more carefully report that at the roar of a lion no beast can stand, not even that which struggles against his blow with all its courage; and often the one that does not sustain the roar overcomes the striker. Truly a beast, truly devoid of reason, is he who is so faint-hearted that he yields to fear alone; who, overcome by the mere exaggeration of future labor, is prostrated before the conflict not by a weapon, but by a trumpet. You have not yet resisted unto blood, says that valiant leader, who knew that the roar of this lion was vain." And another: "Resist (he says) the devil, and he will flee from you." Hence the demon is a myrmcoleon, that is, an ant-lion, because he dominates the timid as a lion, but fears the bold as an ant, as St. Gregory teaches, Olympiad., and others in Job IV, 11: "The tiger (for which the Septuagint translates myrmcoleon) perished." Fourth, the lion devours its prey from rage and hunger's madness, and therefore before it devours the captured prey, it roars, says St. Cyril in Amos III. Thus also the devil devours souls from rage. Again, the lion disdains the remnants of its prey, says the Nazianzen in a poem on the vileness of external man, while he thus sings: And the lion when he has sated his belly with prey, as they say, Shrinks from approaching the remnants of his own flesh. Thus the devil disdains and scorns those whom he has perverted and killed, and treats them as slaves, nay as corpses, as is evident in witches and poisoners, whom he scourges, beats and torments as beasts, like a butcher and executioner. Again, "the bones of lions are so hard that when struck, fire is elicited from them as from flint," says Aristotle, lib. II De Part. animalium, cap. IX. These bones represent the obstinacy and pertinacity of the devil, both in sin and in his zeal to harm men: hence also the lion's, as well as the devil's, neck is shaggy, stiff and inflexible, as Aristotle testifies, lib. IV, cap. X. Fifth, Epiphanius in Physiol., cap. I; Aelian, lib. XI, cap. XXX; Plutarch, De Animalium Comparat.; Isidore, lib. I; Origen and others relate that the lion obliterates its own footprints with its tail, sweeping them away, obscuring and erasing them, so that hunters following its tracks may not find its lair and capture it with its cubs. Aelian and Plutarch add that the lion walks with twisted feet, so that in them as in a sheath it hides its claws, especially in time of snow, lest its footprints appear in it. Thus likewise the devil covers evil with the appearance of honesty, and hiding his end and purpose, conceals his deceits, lest they be revealed, and thus he himself be recognized and repelled. Moreover, the lion, says Aristotle in Physiog., cap. VIII, has a vast mouth, a square forehead, a huge brow, strong shoulders, robust ribs and back, sinewy legs, a youthful gait: thus also the demon. Sixth, the lion, because he is of a fiery nature, burns with lust and rage: thus also the devil. Hear Pliny, lib. VIII, cap. XVI; Aristotle, lib. IX Histor. Animalium, cap. XLIV, relates "that the lioness bears five cubs at the first birth, and each year one fewer, becoming sterile at one: and they are shapeless and tiny pieces of flesh, of the size of weasels, at first: scarcely able to walk at six months, and not moving until two months old." Hence Aristotle, lib. VI Hist. Animal., cap. XXIII, says that lions of Syria bear five times in their life. Seventh, the lion stinks on account of voracity and gluttony: so also the devil; whence in Hebrew he is called שעיר sair, that is, "a goat," because he appears and is adored by sages in the form of a goat, and stinks like a goat; or sur, that is, "hairy, hirsute, horrible, hair-raising," because appearing in horrible form he strikes terror, and induces the erection of hair and horror. Thus Pliny in the place cited says that lions have a heavy odor, no less a foul breath: they are rarely seen drinking, and feed on alternate days: meanwhile from satiety they abstain from food for three days. They are able to devour solid things in chewing; and when the belly cannot contain them, they extract with claws thrust into the throat, so that if they must flee, they do not go away in satiety. Polybius reports that in old age men are attacked by them, since they do not have the strength to pursue beasts. Then they besiege the cities of Africa, and for this reason he says he saw crucified men with Scipio, because others would be deterred by fear of similar punishment from the same harm. Thus the demon seeks men and souls and thirsts for them. "The devil devours, and as it were incorporates into himself through the mortal sin of sinners," says Lyra. On the contrary, the faithful and holy food is Christ: whence St. Ignatius, hearing lions roaring, said: "I am the wheat of Christ, ground by the teeth of beasts, that I may be found pure bread." Eighth: "The tail of lions," says Pliny, "is the index of their mind, as also the ears of horses. When unmoved, therefore, he is pleased, clement, and similar to one cajoling, which is rare: for his anger is more frequent. In the beginning the earth is beaten: with increase the back is scourged as by some incitement. The greatest force is in the breast. From every wound, whether from claw impressed or from tooth, black blood flows." Thus the devil reveals his malice and anger only in the tail, that is, in the end of temptation; then he shows black blood, namely that he thirsts for nothing but the deaths and slaughter of men. Again, he creeps into and insinuates himself into the breast and heart of man; for with that occupied, he occupies the whole soul and the whole man. Whence St. Cyprian, in the tract On Zeal and Envy: "The Lord," he says, "commanded us to be prudent, and ordered us to watch with cautious solicitude, lest the adversary, always watching and always lying in wait, where he has crept into the breast, should kindle fires from sparks, should exaggerate the greatest from small things: and while he flatters the remiss and incautious with a gentler breeze and softer breath, he may stir up storms and whirlwinds to bring about the ruins of faith and salvation, and shipwrecks of life. We must therefore keep watch, most beloved brethren, and labor with all our strength, that against the raging enemy, and directing his darts against all parts of the body, by which we can be struck and wounded, we may resist with careful and full vigilance, according as Peter the Apostle in his epistle forewarns and teaches, saying: Be sober and watch, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour." Ninth, Pliny continues: "When the pregnant female fights for her cubs, it is said that she fixes the gaze of her eyes to the ground, lest she fear the hunting spears: nor does she look with sidelong eyes, and they do not wish to be looked upon in the same way. It is believed that the dying bites the earth, and that a tear is given to death." Thus the devil looks not to heaven, but to the earth, and causes his own likewise to look, lest they fear the spears of sins and of hell. Again, the demon is a lion in savagery, a fox in cunning, because those whom he cannot overcome by force, he strives to overcome by deceit. He thus makes that saying of Lysander: "Where the lion's skin does not suffice, the fox's must be added." And that of Pindar in the Isthmian Odes, ode 4, On Melissus: "He is similar in spirit to the boldness of heavily roaring lions for hunting with labor, but in cunning he is a fox, which lying on its back restrains the assault of the eagle: but one ought, doing anything, to weaken the adversary." Tenth: "This animal is so fierce," says Pliny, "that the rims of wheels being turned around, empty chariots, and the crests of fowl, and even song terrify it more, but especially fires." Thus the devil is terrified and put to flight by things that appear slight in appearance, namely the crest of the cross, joy, psalmody and the singing of hymns, the circle and assembly of monks and clerics, but especially by the fire and zeal of the love of Christ. Whence St. Antony, according to St. Athanasius: "Believe me," he says, "from experience, Satan greatly fears the vigils of those living rightly, their prayers, fastings, gentleness, voluntary poverty, contempt of vain glory, humility, mercy, the mastery over anger, and especially a pure heart toward the love of Christ. The most wicked serpent knows, by the command of the Lord, to lie beneath the feet of the just, who says: Behold, I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy." Whence St. Chrysostom, homily 22 on the epistle to the Ephesians: "We shall trample upon the power of the devil," he says, "if we trample upon sins, all temporal things I mean, pride, concupiscence, arrogance, all passions of the soul. For riches, money, and the pursuit of vain glory give occasion to the devil." Eleventh: "The lion," says Aristotle in the Physiognomy, chapter VIII, "has a youthful gait and his whole body is articulated and sinewy: but walking slowly, and proceeding magnificently, and shaking himself about on his shoulders, loving victory." The same, book IX of the History of Animals, chapter XLIV: "In hunting, when he is seen, he never flees or fears; but even if forced to yield by a multitude of hunters, he departs slowly and step by step, frequently stopping and looking back; but having found a dark place, he withdraws himself with the swiftest flight he can, until he comes into open ground: then again he walks slowly." Thus the demon simulates strength, dissimulates fear, so that he may show his own strength and pride, and appear to conquer, even while being conquered. Twelfth: The lion attacks great and strong animals, despises small and vile ones. Again, he does not eat except what he has caught alive. Thus Aelian, book II, chapter III. So also the food of the devil is the elect, Habakkuk I, 16; he attacks the better, holier and stronger; he despises the timid and carnal as his own. Again, the lion, when wounded, rises more fiercely against the one who wounded him: thus the demon rages more when he is wounded, namely when men apply themselves to piety, as in the time of Lent, as Cassian teaches, Conferences, chapter XXI, verse 28. CIRCUIT,—namely assiduously and continually. Whence St. Fulgentius to Thrasius, book I, chapter V, calls his circuit unwearied. In Greek περιπατεῖν, that is, as the Zurich edition has it, he goes about; Pagninus, he walks all around; others, he circles about; St. Jerome in Isaiah, going about he seeks. Thus the devil himself says: "I have gone around the earth, and walked through it," Job I, 7. And Christ concerning him: "When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places," etc., Luke XI, 24. Hence also after the example of his father, "in the circuit the wicked walk," Psalm XI, 9, that is, they wander about all around, vagrant and unstable, so that they may harm the pious. Thus likewise Theodoret, Athanasius, Chrysostom there. Whence the Chaldean renders it, in the circuit the wicked walk like a leech, which sucks the blood of the children of men. Thus the Jews, and likewise heretics, Psalm LVIII, verse 15, are said to circle about the city, that is the Church, because they wander about seeking everywhere ways to attack it, and yet do not wish to enter it: whence from one error and heresy they slip into another. Again Eusebius: The circle, he says, is contrary to the straight line, hence the wicked in a circle, that is, obliquely toward the extremes, but the pious proceed straight according to reason toward the middle of virtue. Tropologically St. Augustine: The wicked walk in a circuit, that is, he says, in the desire of temporal things, which by the repeated circuit of seven days like a wheel revolves, and therefore they do not arrive at the eighth, that is, at the eternal day, for which this psalm is entitled: hence also they are multiplied, because they recede from the unity of God. This circuit and perambulation of the devil signifies, first, that he is vagrant and unstable, because, abandoning God through sin, he lost the stability of mind (for this is in God alone), concerning which I have said more on that passage of Lamentations I, 8: "Jerusalem hath sinned grievously, therefore she is become unstable." Secondly, his wrath and desire to harm; for the devil circles about like a duelist, who in a duel observes his antagonist all around and circles about in order to strike him down, and does this constantly and perpetually. For only circular motion can be perpetual, because a circle lacks beginning and end, whereas others do not, as Aristotle teaches, lib. VIII Physic., text. 75 and 76, where he proves that circular motion is first, and the measure of others, and that it is continuous; because it always moves around the center, not toward an extremity, as straight motion moves, and therefore the heavens are moved by circular motion. This circulation, then, the devil learned in heaven, when he dwelt there as an angel; but he converted it from good to evil when he fell and became the devil. Thirdly, his cunning, frauds and deceits, by which, like a serpent, he winds and rewinds, so that he may entangle men with his arts, scruples, perplexities, etc., circumvent, implicate, ensnare, deceive, capture them, according to that passage in Job cap. XL, vers. 12, concerning Behemoth, that is the elephant, which is a type of the devil: "The sinews of his testicles are twisted." Where see St. Gregory and St. Leo, serm. 7 De Nativit.: "The demon knows," he says, "to whom he may apply the heat of cupidity, to whom he may introduce the allurements of gluttony, to whom he may set the incitements of lust, to whom he may infuse the poison of envy; he knows whom he may trouble with error, whom he may deceive with joy, whom he may oppress with fear, whom he may seduce with admiration." Fourthly, he walks about as the prince of the world; for to walk about in Scripture signifies dominion and empire: for thus a master walks about in his field, a king in his kingdom, a duke in regions subdued by war, as I have shown in many places in Zach. I, 11; whence Job says XII, 24: "There is no power upon earth that can be compared to him who was made so that he should fear none." Fifthly, he circles about, just as a hunter circles about stags, a fisherman fish, an army a city, so that he may enclose, capture or kill all, according to that passage in Job XL, 18: "Behold he will swallow up the river, and will not wonder: and he hath confidence that the Jordan may flow into his mouth." Whence Thomas Anglicus: The perversity, he says, of the devil is signified by the name "adversary," his strength by the name "lion," his cruelty when he is called "roaring," his solicitude when he is said "to circle about seeking." Hence from us is required against the first, that we resist; against the second, that we be strong; against the third, that we have the gentleness of faith; against the fourth, that we watch. Sixthly, this circling signifies the sagacity of the devil, by which he explores each one's desires, vices, infirmities, occasions, so that he may attack and tempt each one on that side by which he is weaker: just as a duke who besieges a city circles about to see on which side it is less fortified, so that he may break through by that side. Whoever therefore wishes to resist the devil, let him examine all his affairs, let him fortify all his senses with keen vigilance, let him mortify all his vices, especially those to which he is more prone; where he is weaker, there let him strengthen himself more, and let him be wholly watchful, and arm himself through prayers, effective purpose, penances, counsels of the elders, etc. Hear St. Cyprian, tract. De Zelo: "He circles about us individually, and like an enemy besieging the enclosed, explores the walls, and tries whether there be any part of the members less stable and less faithful, by whose access he may penetrate to the interior. He offers to the eyes alluring forms and easy pleasures, so that by sight he may destroy chastity. He tempts the ears through melodious music, so that by the hearing of sweeter sound he may dissolve and soften Christian vigor. He provokes the tongue with insult, he incites the hand with injuries to petulance of striking, so that he may make it bold; he opposes unjust gains, so that he may capture the soul with money; he injects pernicious expedients, he promises earthly honors, so that he may take away heavenly ones; he shows false things, so that he may steal away true ones; and when he cannot deceive secretly, he threatens openly and manifestly, intending the terror of turbulent persecution, to overcome the servants of God; always restless and always hostile; in peace treacherous, in persecution violent. Wherefore, most beloved brethren, against all the devil's either deceitful snares, or open threats, the instructed and armed mind must stand, as always prepared to resist as the enemy is always prepared to attack. And because his missiles which creep in secretly are more frequent, and the more hidden and clandestine discharge, the less it is perceived, the more gravely and more frequently it rages into our wounds; let us also watch to understand and repel these things, among which is the evil of zeal and envy." And St. Antony, according to St. Athanasius, admonishes Christians not to furnish their strength to demons through idleness: "For such," he says, "as we and our thoughts shall be found, such they are accustomed to present themselves to us; and if they find any seed of evil mind and fear in our hearts, like robbers who occupy desolate places, they begin to heap up fears, and cruelly threatening, they punish the wretched soul;" and St. Leo, sermon 7 On the Nativity: "All," he says, "the demon examines the customs, winnows the cares, scrutinizes the affections, and seeks there causes of harming, wherever he sees one occupied more studiously." Seventh, he circles about so that he may drive men in a circle (like a whirlwind driving chaff), namely into a vertigo of mind, so that, as if demented and deprived of brain and reason, they are swept in a circle of his machinations, namely of concupiscences, and they rush from one sin to another and another, until they complete and fulfill the whole circle of all sins. WHOM HE MAY DEVOUR. — A lion devours not by swallowing, but by crushing prey with strong teeth, according to that of Isaiah XXXVIII, 13: "As a lion so hath he broken all my bones;" and that of St. Ignatius: "I shall be ground by the teeth of beasts;" so also the demon, with the hatred and rage with which he rages against God and men, strives utterly to crush them. Whence St. Chrysostom, homily 22 to the People: "He circles about," he says, "seeking not whom he may bite or break, but whom he may devour." It is a catachresis: for the demon does not properly devour men or souls; but he tears them, destroys them and torments them, and by that very thing he feeds and delights himself as if on the most delicious food; and this is what τὸ devour signifies.
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9. WHOM RESIST YE (St. Jerome in chapter 55 of Isaiah reads, against whom resist ye; the Syriac, rise up) STRONG IN FAITH. — Here St. Peter gives to the faithful three weapons to overcome the devil: the first is to resist him; for resistance is indeed victory, because the devil does not extort by force, but by persuading and flattering he asks for our consent; if we deny him that, we conquer; the second is fortitude; the third is faith; for resistance conquers him, fortitude subdues him, faith weakens him. For faith, representing to the mind vividly the future rewards and punishments, stirs up man to contend generously for them, and to implore God's aid to fight bravely. Whence through faith Christ dwells in our hearts. Ephesians III, 17: "For faith is the substance of things to be hoped for, the evidence of things that appear not," Hebrews XI, 1 and following, where Paul teaches that all the Saints conquered through faith. The same, Ephesians VI, 16, arming the Christian soldier against the devil from head to heel, gives him faith for a shield, hope for a helmet, but if the right eye had been put out, they would have been altogether blind in battle. Thus Josephus, VI Antiquities, v. Tropol. St. Gregory there: The right eye, he says, is the contemplation of eternal brightness, which is made through faith; the left is carnal desire and the contemplation of earthly things. Therefore Naas, that is in Hebrew the serpent, namely the devil, put out the right eyes of his people, when he takes away the contemplation of eternal things, and makes men think only of and desire carnal things, and not attend to heavenly things, which they used to love. Thus also Angelomus there. Here that saying of Seneca in Hercules Furens is true: Whomever you see strong, deny that he is wretched. Never is renowned virtue borne to the Stygian waves: live strong. And that of Pliny: "As the palm tree strives upward under an imposed burden, so the mind of a strong man, the more it is pressed by affairs, and the more fortune rages, is all the more upright." Such was Agamemnon, who with steadfast fortitude, pressing Troy unconquered with a ten-year siege, subdued and occupied it, and from this was called Agamemnon, as it were ἀγαστὸς τὴν μονήν, that is, admirable in perseverance and duration, says Plato in the Cratylus. Agamemnon therefore is the same as Parmeno. Namely, "the siege of a city which you desire to capture must be pressed and urged constantly," says Vegetius. In like manner, he who wishes to resist the devil, who wishes to overcome some vice, let him be Agamemnon, let him be Parmeno, let him attack and capture it with a ten-year siege and battle. Such a one the daemon flees and says to his: "Let us leave this one; for he is Agamemnon: he will not withdraw from his Troy until he occupies it." KNOWING THAT THE SAME SUFFERINGS (τὰ αὐτὰ τῶν παθημάτων, that is, the same sufferings) ARE BEING ACCOMPLISHED IN YOUR BROTHERHOOD THAT ARE IN THE WORLD. — He consoles and strengthens the afflicted faithful of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, etc., to whom he writes, by the example of the brethren, that is of Christians, scattered throughout the whole world, who suffered similar things, as if to say: Stand strong, O faithful of Pontus, etc., in every temptation and suffering which the devil raises up against you, thinking that this suffering is not peculiar to you, but common to all the faithful; you therefore have all of them as brothers and companions in suffering, equally as in faith. By this communion and fellowship therefore you console and strengthen yourselves, both because it is pleasant to have a companion in pain, and thus a companion is a lightening of pain; and because the fury of the devil divided and scattered among all the faithful is less in particular and individual persons: for it would be far greater if it bore down wholly upon individuals; and because this is the power of fellowship, that in it one is strengthened and fortified by the conjunction of the others, according to that in Ecclesiastes IV, 12: "A threefold cord is not easily broken;"; and because the other faithful all sympathize with your suffering, as being your brothers: and the compassion of a brother lightens the burden and weight of suffering. Thus Oecumenius, Vatablus and others. STRONG IN FAITH. — In Greek στερεοί, which St. Jerome in chapter LV of Isaiah translates as strengthened in faith; the Syriac, confirmed; Pagninus and the Zurich Bible, solid; others, rigid, hard, firm. For all these things are signified by τὸ στερεοί. Note: Not any sort of faith whatsoever, namely thin and weak faith, but living, firm, strong and generous faith conquers the devil, because his darts are fiery, Ephesians VI, 16. For he stirs up temptations and burning concupiscences, according to that passage in Job chapter XL, 12: "His breath maketh coals burn." But these can be extinguished only by vehement faith. Wherefore under faith as a root understand hope, prayer, charity; for faith strengthened by hope, armed by prayer, inflamed by charity, conquers the devil. When these are kindled, in any temptation we say with St. Paul: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation? or distress? or hunger? or nakedness? or danger? or persecution? or the sword? etc. But in all these things we overcome, because of him that hath loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor might, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord," Romans VIII, 35. Wherefore the devil strives to rob us of this firmness and strength of faith, so that destitute of faith we wander about like the blind, and dash into his snares; for faith is the eye of the soul. As a symbol of this thing, Naas, king of the Ammonites, wished to put out the right eye of the inhabitants of Jabes, I Kings XI, 2, and this both as a reproach, and so that they could not rebel, making them useless in war and blind; for soldiers cover the left eye with a shield; therefore with the right removed they would have been altogether blind in battle. Thus for the greaves the readiness of the Gospel, for the belt truth. Whence Isidore, book III On the Highest Good, chapter V: "By the unbelieving," he says, "the devil is feared as a lion, by the strong in faith he is despised as a worm." And St. John, first epistle, chapter V, verse 4: "This is," he says, "the victory which overcometh the world, our faith;" and St. Antony in St. Athanasius: "The sign," he says, "of the cross and faith in the Lord is an impregnable wall for us;" and again: "If we are cheerful in the Lord, and the desire of future goods shall inflame us, if we always commit all things into the hands of God, no demon shall be able to come to assail us: for when they see hearts fortified in Christ, they return confused. Thus also Job, confirmed in the Lord, the devil fled from, and the most wretched Judas, stripped of faith, he bound with chains of captivity. There is therefore one way of conquering the enemy, spiritual joy, and the constant remembrance of the soul always thinking of the Lord, which, driving away the games of demons as smoke, shall pursue adversaries rather than fear them." The same thing St. James admonished, chapter IV, verse 7: "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." See the things said there. Note first, τὸ quae in mundo est some refer to the passion which preceded, as if to say, Act, endure, because this passion which happens to "your brotherhood," that is to you, O brothers, is only of this world: therefore it will last a short time, because the future age, which awaits you, will not be one of passion, but of crown and glory. Thus Arias. Or, as if to say, Do not wonder, O faithful, that you suffer such things; for even the unbelieving and worldly, and indeed all who are in the world, suffer similar things; for this world is a forum of passions and a stadium of troubles. Secondly and genuinely, τὸ quod in mundo refer to fraternitati, which follows, as if to say, Your brotherhood which is in the world, that is, your brothers who are scattered throughout the whole world, suffer similar temptations, passions and persecutions from the enemies of faith, the devil stirring them up, and you suffer them. And this is required by τὸ ei, and the Greek texts which have τὸ ἐν τῇ ἀδελφότητι, that is, the brotherhood which is in the world. Whence the Syriac translates, know also that against your brothers, who are in the world, those same passions befall them. Note secondly: An abstract noun is put for a concrete one: for he calls "brotherhood" the brethren, that is the faithful, not those to whom he writes, but their companions in faith, who were in the rest of the world, as is evident from the Greek already cited. Why the faithful are called brethren, I have said cap. I, 22, and James II, 13. Rightly does Clement of Alexandria, lib. V Strom., refute the gentiles arguing against the faithful because they called themselves brethren, thus: "We are brethren, inasmuch as we are of one God and one master, somewhere also Plato seems to say in this manner: You who are in the city, are altogether brethren;"; and Minucius Felix in the Octavius: "We are called brethren, as men of one God our Father, as sharers in faith, as co-heirs of hope." The origin of this appellation proceeded from the Jews, who called one another brethren, not only in faith and religion, but also in blood. For all were descended from the twelve Patriarchs, as it were heads of the twelve tribes, who all were brethren, inasmuch as they were sons of Jacob, grandsons of Abraham; for from the Jews Christ was born, and the Synagogue of the Jews was the mother of the Church of Christians, which therefore as it were daughter and heir succeeded to the dying and ceasing mother, when the Synagogue passed into the Church. Hence likewise the nomenclature of brethren passed from that into this. Note thirdly: For "to be done" in Greek is ἐπιτελεῖσθαι, which our translator first rendered "to be done"; the Syriac, "to come to pass"; secondly, Pagninus and Cajetan, "to be perfected"; Zurich, "to be consummated"; Gagneius, "to be prepared and exhibited"; others, "to be fulfilled", according to that saying of Paul: "I fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ in my flesh, for his body which is the Church," Coloss. I, 24. For the cycle of the sufferings and patience of the Church is perfected from the sufferings and patience of individual faithful, her sons and members; and therefore each faithful ought to prepare himself for suffering, thinking that he is fulfilling and perfecting not only his own but also the crown of the whole Church. Whence Cajetan thus explains τὸ perfici, as if to say: Sufferings are not to be fled, but to be sought after; because through them we are perfected in patience, and so those sufferings strengthen us in virtue and make us perfect, according to that which Paul says of Christ: "It became him, etc., to make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering," Hebr. II, 10. And cap. V, 8: "And indeed though he was the Son of God, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered, and being consummated, he became to all that obey him the cause of eternal salvation." The Greek ἐπιτελεῖν signifies all these things and more, namely to perfect, to accomplish, to supply, to complete, to consummate, to discharge, to undergo, to perform, to execute.
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10. BUT GOD OF ALL GRACE (namely the author, preserver, promoter, perfecter, rewarder and crowner: whence he adds), WHO HATH CALLED US INTO HIS ETERNAL GLORY IN CHRIST JESUS (that is, through Christ Jesus), AFTER YOU HAVE SUFFERED A LITTLE, HIMSELF SHALL PERFECT YOU, CONFIRM YOU AND ESTABLISH YOU. — St. Dionysius gives the reason, Eccl. Hierarch., cap. II: "For the Lord, he says, as he is supremely merciful and good, conquers in his warriors, while dwelling in them, fighting for their salvation and victory against the assault of death and corruption." This is the final and ultimate stimulus for striving and suffering, that God aids those who strive, perfects them and crowns them. For he himself is God "of all grace:" therefore also of patience, perseverance, and eternal glory. For this last is the greatest of graces. Truly St. Augustine, serm. 67 De Temp.: "For if always, he says, we think upon the benefits of our God, which have been bestowed upon us without any preceding merits of ours, our sins do not rule over us; or if perchance they have crept in, they are quickly corrected through penance. For who could even conceive in mind, not to say explain in words, how great are the benefits of our God toward us? For he made us when we were not, he restored us afterward when we had perished. He underwent death, he freed us with his precious blood, he descended into hell, he snatched us from the jaws of eternal death, he even promised us the kingdoms of heaven," etc. Behold how God is God of all grace. Note first: That "all grace," although it signifies any virtue and grace whatsoever, yet especially signifies patience and fortitude for enduring the passions and temptations which the devil stirs up against us through himself or through his agents, as if to say "all grace;" that is, all patience: "for patience hath a perfect work," James I, 4. But perfection includes all virtues; therefore also patience. Wherefore what the Apostle said of charity, I Cor. cap. XIII, vers. 4, you should say the same of patience: "Patience is kind, envieth not, dealeth not perversely, is not puffed up, is not ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things." Whence Hugo, Catharinus and Salmeron interpret all grace as the whole, entire and perfect grace, so that it is an enallage of quantity, by which the whole universal is put for the whole quantum, namely all for the entire. Note second: That "who hath called us into his eternal glory," gives the end and cause both of the preceding and of the following, as if to say, Because God hath called us into his eternal glory, hence he himself is the author "of all grace:" for this corresponds to glory as seed to fruit, merit to reward, labor to recompense; hence again he himself "after you have suffered a little shall perfect you, confirm you and establish you." Truly Abba Hyperichius in the Lives of the Fathers, lib. V, libello 11, num. 35: "Let your thought, he says, be in the kingdom of heaven, and soon you shall receive it as an inheritance." Whence St. Peter adds: "In Christ Jesus," that is, through Christ Jesus, namely first, through the merits of Christ; second, through the preaching of Christ; third, through the calling and grace of Christ: for through these we are called to eternal glory. Second, "in Christ," so that we who suffer may be in Christ who suffered, as members, and with him make one body of the Church now militant through grace, hereafter triumphant through glory. Thus Thomas Anglicus and the Gloss. Third, Lyra and Dionysius, "in Christ," that is, on account of Christ, or for Christ, after you have suffered a little. Fourth, "in Christ," that is, after the manner of Christ, who is to us both a mirror and a reward of patience. Thus St. Bernard, serm. 74 in Cantic., teaches that Christ is both the form of one striving and the glory of one triumphing. "You are both to me, Lord Jesus, he says, both a mirror of suffering, and a reward for the sufferer: both strongly provoke, and vehemently inflame. You teach my hands to war by the example of your virtue, you crown my head after your victory by the presence of your majesty, whether because I behold you fighting, or because I await you not only crowning, but also as a crown." Furthermore, St. Peter, just as he began his epistle from the benefit of calling to faith and Christianity, so he ends in the same, to show how great this is and how much it should be esteemed, and therefore the faithful ought always to have it before their eyes, give thanks for it, ask for perseverance, and finally live a life worthy of it. Note thirdly: The word "a little while" (Zurich version: "for a short time afflicted") itself perfects—and brings great consolation and incentive to those suffering to endure readily and steadfastly, namely by thinking that the suffering is brief, and that God will perfect those tested and afflicted for a little while. Whence Tertullian, to the Martyrs, chapter III: "Your Master," he says, "Christ Jesus, who anointed you with the Spirit and brought you to this contest, etc., so that your strength might be strengthened in you, because virtue is built up by hardship, but destroyed by softness." Thus St. Antony struggling with a demon: "When he lifted up his eyes," says St. Athanasius, "he saw the vault of heaven opening above, and with the darkness driven back, a ray of light flowing down to him. After the coming of this splendor, no demon appeared any longer, and the pain of the body was immediately taken away. The building also which had been dissolved a little before was restored. Immediately Antony understood the presence of the Lord, and drawing long sighs from the depths of his heart, he spoke to the vision that had appeared to him, saying: Where were you, good Jesus? Where were you? Why were you not present from the beginning to heal my wounds? And a voice was made to him, saying: Antony, I was here; but I was waiting to see your struggle. Now, however, because you have not ceased fighting manfully, I will always help you, and I will make you to be named throughout the whole world. Having heard these things, rising up, he was so strengthened that he prayed, so that he understood he had received more strength then than he had lost before." Thus Theodosius the Abbot in John Moschus in the Spiritual Meadow, chapter LXVI, when he had seen the devil in the form of an Ethiopian and an enormous giant, who stretched from the earth even to heaven, and hid his head among the clouds, and heard: "Theodosius, you must struggle with this one;" and when he said in fear: "Who am I, that I, a mere man, should struggle with such a giant?" he heard: "Enter with all eagerness and confidence; for as soon as you have attacked him, I will be present as your helper, and I will place the crown of victory upon you." Thus it came to pass. We often experience the same in ourselves, when we undertake something difficult, so that before undertaking it we shrink back and think the matter impossible to accomplish. But when we undertake it and begin the work, immediately the difficulties diminish and yield, and we accomplish the thing itself with little labor, so that it is true what that one says: "Things are not in themselves difficult, but are difficult in being perceived; and therefore not things, but opinions about things disturb and overthrow us;" and that saying of the Nazianzen in the Sentences: "As the rustling of leaves frightens hares, so the shadows of things frighten the timid and cowardly." Those things therefore which appear hard should be attacked by great souls, and as if closed (as the lion does) to difficulty, and with blind eyes, and thus immediately the horror of difficulty will be overcome, and the thing will appear easy to do. We read that some Martyrs, and namely Sts. Mark and Marcellian, trembled at the beginning of their martyrdom and had great pains and struggles; but when with steadfast mind they gave themselves as prey to the torturers for the glory of God, and earnestly besought God's help, they overcame all fear and horror, and bore all torments joyfully and eagerly, both because this generous mind overcame the pains, so that it counted them small or nothing; and because God is present with and helps great souls, either by diminishing the sense of pain, or by so strengthening the mind with His consolation and grace that it esteems all torments light. For just as a light weight is lifted up and as it were relieved by a greater counterweight: so every pain is mitigated by great love and spirit. "For my weight is my love," says St. Augustine. Note fourthly: The word "himself will perfect" in Greek is καταρτίσαι, which the Zurich version renders "will restore," as if whatever in power and mind has been dislocated, injured, divided, broken, gaping, distorted, weakened through afflictions by reason of impatience and faintheartedness, he will restore, strengthen, unite, make equal. Others render it "will join together," or "will make whole," so that, equipped with all the parts of patience and virtues as it were with limbs joined together, you may be whole, exact, complete and perfect. HE SHALL CONFIRM AND STRENGTHEN. — Pagninus: may he support and strengthen. All these are the same, or nearly the same, and signify only through amplification that this perfection is firm and solid, and consists in the firmness and solidity of patience and virtue. Whence the Greek texts add θεμελιώσει, that is, he shall found; the Zurich and Pagninus versions, he shall establish. Hence the Syriac translator renders it: That, when we shall have endured these small oppressions, we may be strengthened, and confirmed, and persevere in him (Jesus Christ) forever. Hence again some read these words as nouns and ablatives: καταρτίσει στηρίξει, σθενώσει, θεμελιώσει, that is, he shall perfect by confirmation, by consolidation, by foundation. But it is better that our text and others take the three last not as nouns, but as verbs of future tense, and therefore likewise for the first καταρτίσαι, that is, may he perfect, in the optative, they read in the future καταρτίσει, that is, he shall perfect. Now the Greek texts all read in the optative καταρτίσαι, στηρίξαι, σθενώσαι, θεμελιώσαι, that is, may he perfect, may he confirm, may he strengthen, may he found. Others, however, distinguish these variously. First, Salmeron: "He shall perfect, he says, through charity, he shall confirm through living hope, he shall strengthen through efficacious faith." Again the same author adds that Christ perfects the faithful whom he bought and redeemed, the Father confirms those same whom he created, the Holy Spirit strengthens them with the spirit of his grace and fortitude. Second, Titelmannus: "He shall perfect, he says, through patience, he shall confirm and strengthen through perseverance." Whence also Prosper, book I On the Calling of the Gentiles, chapter XXIV, teaches from this passage that perseverance is a gift of God. Third, the Carthusian adapts these to three powers of the soul: "He shall perfect, he says, the intellect through the intelligence of the purified mind, he shall confirm the will through the fervor of charity, he shall strengthen the memory so that it may be fixed in God and remain fixed." Or, as Thomas the Englishman: "He shall perfect reason through knowledge of truth, he shall confirm the concupiscible appetite in the love of goodness, he shall strengthen the irascible so that it yields to no terrors or difficulties." Fourth, Hugh applies and opposes these to three enemies of man: "He shall perfect, he says, against the world, he shall confirm against the flesh, he shall strengthen against the demon." Fifth, others, as if to say: "He shall perfect us by giving the will to will perfectly and constantly, he shall confirm by giving the will to execute the thing willed, he shall strengthen by giving strength and the very act of executing." Furthermore, God does all these things inchoately in this life through grace and patience, but perfectly he will do the same things in the future through glory. For he will perfect the intellect through the light of glory, so that it may see and contemplate God as the highest good; he will confirm the will, so that it may love him with all its strength; he will strengthen it, so that it cannot be torn away from so great a good, but may cling wholly to him, nor be able to be separated from him by any thing or reason. Thus nearly Hugh, Primaticius and others, and the Syriac version favors this when it renders: We may be strengthened, and confirmed, and persevere in him forever. This is what Paul says: "The momentary and light tribulation of our suffering works for us above measure in the sublimity of an eternal weight of glory," II Corinthians IV, 17. "This is the aim, this is the end," this is the goal, this is the crown, this is the victory prize of the Christian, from which as St. Peter began his Epistle, so also does he end in the same. Most excellently Lactantius, book VII, chapter VI, depicts Christians and the whole system of Christianity with this circumscription: "For this reason, he says, the world was made, that we might be born: for this reason we are born, that we might know the maker of the world and of ourselves, God: for this reason we know, that we might worship: for this reason we worship, that we might receive immortality as the reward of our labors, since the worship of God consists in the greatest labors: for this reason we are affected with the reward of immortality, that, made like to the angels, we might serve the highest Father and Lord forever and be an eternal kingdom to God. This is the sum of things, this is the mystery of God, this is the mystery of the world." Whence St. Gregory of Nazianzus, On Christ Suffering, says that he was born and suffered not for himself, but for us: I have become, he says, the body of Christ, he is mine. He bore me dying, me he bore rising when death was conquered. And with him to the Father he carried me above the stars. And Prudentius, On the Resurrection of the Flesh: Drive fear from your hearts, my members, and believe that you yourselves will return with Christ to God: for he bears you, and calls you back with him; laugh at threatening diseases, despise the inflicted calamities, scorn the dark graves, and where the rising Christ calls, go there. And Tertullian, in the book On the Resurrection, gives the phoenix, a bird of Arabia reviving, as the symbol of resurrection, and compares Christians suffering, dying and rising again to it. For concerning the phoenix Lactantius thus sings: She herself is her own offspring, her own father, and her own heir, her own nurse, always her own foster-child. She herself indeed, but not the same: because she herself is not herself, having obtained eternal life through the good of death. At Ravenna there exists an emblem for a painting of the phoenix: He dies secure who knows himself to be reborn through death; that death cannot be called death, but rather a new life. The most illustrious Bona, mother of John Galeazzo, Duke of Milan, after her husband's death, took care to have a phoenix struck on a coin with this inscription: Alone made alone I follow God alone. Finally, St. Cecilia took care to have a phoenix carved on the tomb of St. Maximus the Martyr; and at Rome in the crypts of many Martyrs the phoenix is seen carved on sarcophagi. Thinking of these things, hoping for them and desiring them, the Saints desired passions, sought crosses, thirsted for martyrdoms. Among them St. Vincent stood out, who was as greedy and avid for torments as the tyrant Dacian was lavish in inflicting them upon him; he held the rack as a delight, claws as delicacies, the frame as a soft bed, and, what is remarkable, as these increased, so too did the vigor of his mind and body increase, so that he seemed to revive, be restored and strengthened even as he was flayed and nearly destroyed by them; and so much so that on a bed of roses he breathed out his soul, to which torments had given life: truly roses and delights were torments to him, but torments and sufferings for Christ were his delights. Thus God perfected, confirmed and solidified him who suffered little, so that being higher than man, like an incorporeal angel, he played and mocked in bodily pains, and mocked the tyrant, so that by his wounds he wounded and tortured the tyrant more than he himself was wounded by them. Similar was St. Agatha mocking Quintian. For having suffered little, she was so strengthened that she said to Aphrodisia the procuress who attempted her: "You labor in vain: for I am so firmly established in faith, chastity and love of God, that by His grace the sun will sooner lose its light, fire its heat, snow its whiteness, than I change my purpose. Let Quintian prepare lions, sharpen swords, kindle fires, open the gates of hell, and stir up all demons against me, by God's help I shall live and die a Christian as much as a virgin; for I love and desire Christ most intently, to whom I have wholly devoted and betrothed myself."
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11. TO HIM BE GLORY AND DOMINION. — The Syriac version: to him glory, power and honor. St. Prosper, book I On the Calling of the Gentiles, chapter XXIV, "to whom virtue and honor." The Greek κράτος signifies power, strength, force, dominion, principality, victory, all of which are fitting for this place, as if to say: God will perfect those who suffered little, and will give them victory through perfect patience: therefore all praise of victory is to be attributed to Him, not to us, according to that saying of Paul, I Corinthians XV, 57: "Thanks be to God, who hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ;" and II Corinthians II, 14: "Thanks be to God, who always triumpheth," that is, causes "us to triumph in Christ Jesus." St. Peter, just as he began with a doxology of God, saying: "Blessed be God," so he ends with the same, saying: "To Him be glory," etc., in order to teach that God and the praise of God ought to be the beginning, middle and end of our actions, and therefore should be frequently used in heart and mouth, as St. Paul uses it in Romans XI, 36, and chapter XVI, 27; Ephesians III, 21; Philippians IV, 20; Hebrews XIII, 21; Galatians I, 5, and elsewhere: concerning which more in Revelation IV, 11, and V, 12, and VII, 12.
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12. BY SILVANUS. — This is Silas, who, bearing these letters of St. Peter from Rome into the East, there encountered St. Paul, and adhered to him as a companion in preaching, II Thessalonians I, 1. Thus St. Jerome, epistle 143; the Syrian, Oecumenius and very many others. Therefore Dorotheus errs in the Synopsis, and the Menologium of the Greeks, 1 August, in distinguishing Silvanus from Silas. Some think that Silvanus, or Silas, not only delivered but also wrote this epistle dictated by St. Peter. For he says: "By Silvanus, etc., I have written briefly." He names the bearer, so that the faithful may be certain that the epistle was delivered by him, that it is Peter's genuine work, not fictitious, not forged. AS I SUPPOSE. — Refer to faithful in the words, as if to say, I have written by Silvanus, because he himself is faithful to you, as I suppose. Others will refer it to I have written briefly, as if to say, I suppose I have been brief in writing. For sometimes one writing or speaking seems brief to himself, who to his hearers or readers seems prolix: thus the Syrian and Cajetan. EXHORTING, — that you may steadfastly retain and fulfill in deed the faith of Christ and the precepts of virtues which I have written out in this epistle: for "I testify" that in these is situated "the true grace of God, in which you stand," that is, you persevere steadfastly. In the Greek it is ἑστήκατε, that is, you stood; but it should be read ἑστάναι, that is, you stand, or certainly the past tense is taken for the present, after the Hebrew manner: for by the present all explain it throughout. Some, however, read στῆτε, that is, stand, and this aptly corresponds to the Greek παρακαλῶν, that is, "exhorting" or "encouraging" you, that you stand and persevere in the faith of Christ and the grace of Christianity. For the Syrian wrongly translates παρακαλῶν as "being persuaded." Thus Paul says Philippians cap. IV, 1: "So stand in the Lord, dearest"; and Galatians V, 1: "Stand and be not held again under the yoke of bondage." Note that faith and the new law are called grace, because it is the supreme gift of God, freely given to the unworthy and undeserving, so that He may make them pleasing to Himself and worthy of heaven, according to that saying in John I: "The law was given through Moses, grace and truth came to be through Jesus Christ." For the old law was one of rigor and justice, the new is one of grace and clemency.
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13. THE CHURCH SALUTES YOU (the word Church is not in the Greek, but is understood: whence the Interpreter rightly expressed it, as also the Syrian) WHICH IS IN BABYLON, ELECTED TOGETHER WITH YOU. — Heretics, such as Beza, Viretus, Sadulius, Velenus and others, in order to defend their false dogma, namely that St. Peter was not in Rome, and therefore the Roman Pontiff is not the successor of St. Peter and head of the Church, take "Babylon" properly, that is, the city either of Assyria or of Egypt. For there was a twofold Babylon, one in Chaldaea, the other in Egypt, which is now called Cairo. But they err, first, because the Jews, such as St. Peter was, had been expelled from Babylon and Assyria by Caius Caesar, as Josephus teaches, XVIII Antiquities, final cap. But Babylonia in Egypt was then an obscure place and a fortress, says Strabo, lib. XVII. Second, because St. John, Apocalypse XVII, 9, says that Babylon sits upon seven mountains, or hills; but no other city is seven-hilled except Rome. Whence the heretics, forced to confess, acknowledge that in the Apocalypse by "Babylon" Rome is understood (hence Luther wrote a book On the Babylonian Captivity, that is, on the Roman, namely of the Pope and Papacy, as he himself explains). If in the Apocalypse, why not here? For St. John was contemporary with St. Peter; whence Rome and Babylon were the same to both. Third, because the orthodox Fathers and Doctors unanimously assert it, namely Papias, disciple of St. John, in Eusebius, lib. II History, cap. XIV, otherwise XV. St. Jerome in Isaiah cap. XXIV and XLVII, and lib. II Against Jovinian, near the end: "To you, he says, I speak, you who have blotted out by confession of Christ the blasphemy written on your forehead." Tertullian, lib. III Against Marcion, cap. XIII; Bede, Oecumenius and others here; Andreas of Caesarea, Aretas, Ribera, Alcazar, Viegas, Pererius and others, Apocalypse XVII and XVIII. You will ask by what reason Rome is called "Babylon?" I answer: First, because Rome succeeded to Babylon in empire as a daughter to a mother, or rather as a granddaughter to a grandmother, and therefore the Babylonian empire passed over and ceased in the Roman, just as the Synagogue passed into the Church, Judaic Jerusalem into the Christian: whence for this reason the Church itself is called the Synagogue of Zion and Jerusalem. Thus St. Augustine, VIII On the City of God II, calls Babylon the first Rome, and Rome the second Babylon: "We see, he says, two kingdoms standing out far above the rest in their clarity, that of the Assyrians (under which he includes the Babylonians) first, then that of the Romans, ordered and distinguished from each other both in time and in place. For as that was first, this is later: in the same way that one arose in the East, this one in the West. Finally, at the end of that one, the beginning of this one followed immediately." And cap. XXII: "The city of Rome was then founded as the highest, as it were a second Babylon, and as it were the daughter of the former Babylon, through which it pleased God to subdue the world, and having brought it into one society of republic and laws, to pacify it far and wide." Secondly, because Rome was similar to Babylon in the amplitude and magnificence of empire. Thus Oecumenius. Whence Babylon was a type and prelude to Rome, and this by many parallels and analogies which Orosius recounts, lib. II, cap. II and III. For first, he says: "The kingdom of Ninus and Babylon was transferred to the Medes in that year in which among the Latins Procas, the father of Amulius and Numitor, the grandfather moreover of Rhea Silvia, who was the mother of Romulus, began to reign. Secondly, just as from the first year of the empire of Ninus until Babylon began to be restored by Semiramis, there intervene sixty-four years, so from the first year of Procas, when he began to reign, until the founding of the City made by Romulus, there are sixty-four years. Thirdly, Babylon was dishonored in that year under Arbatus in which Rome was founded under King Procas. Fourthly, Babylon was finally overthrown in that time by King Cyrus in which Rome was first freed from the dominion of the Tarquin kings. For under one and the same concurrence of times that fell, this rose: that then first suffered the dominion of foreigners, this then first also spurned the disdain of its own; that then dying as it were left its inheritance, this however growing to manhood then knew itself heir; then the empire of the East died, the empire of the West was born. Fifthly, Babylon stood for 1164 years, until Arbatus, who despoiled it of empire, and Rome after the same number of years, that is 1164, was despoiled by the Goths and their king Alaric of its riches, not of its kingdom, remains still and reigns unharmed. Sixthly, similar the origin of Babylon and of Rome, similar the power: similar the magnitude, similar the times, similar the goods, similar the evils, although not similar the end or similar the decline. For that one lost the kingdom, this one retains it; that one bereft by the death of a king, this one secure with an unharmed emperor. And why this? Because there the foulness of lusts in the king was punished, here the most continent equity of Christian religion was preserved in the king; there without reverence of religion it filled the greed of pleasure with the license of fury, here there were also Christians who would spare; and Christians on account of whose memory, and in whose memory it would be spared." Thus far Orosius. Finally, in the time of St. Peter Rome was Babylon, that is, a confusion of idols, vices and spoils of the whole world. Whence Tertullian, lib. III Against Marcion, cap. XIII: "Thus also Babylon," he says, "even in our John is a figure of the Roman city, therefore great, and proud in kingdom, and a subduer of the Saints of God." Where note: Babel or Babylon in Hebrew is the same as in Greek σύγχυσις, as the Septuagint translates it Genesis XI, 9, in Latin "confusion," or mixture: "Because there the language of all the earth was confused," that is, because there the languages of men were mixed and divided, when previously all spoke one and the same, namely Hebrew. The root therefore of Babel is בלל balal, and by crasis bal, that is to confound, to mix: for from this, the letter B being added, Babel is made. Moreover with the letter B added, and Babel said for bal or bel, either because "bet" in Hebrew signifies "in," so that Babel is the same as "in confusion," as Pagninus wishes in his Interpretation of Hebrew Names; or B is put for בא "ba," that is "came," so that Babel is the same as "confusion came," as Aben Ezra wishes; or rather by onomatopoeia bal or bel is doubled, so that babel is the same as balbel. For thus the Hebrews double their roots at times, and from triliterals make quadriliterals, as from kalal by doubling they make kilkel; from galal, that is to roll, they make gilgel: whence galgala, and gulgolet, or gulgolta, that is skull, or calvary, from convolution and roundness. Now just as for gulgolta, for the sake of euphony, by eliding the middle L, they say golgota; so for balbel they say babel, by eliding the middle L. On account of a similar confusion of vices therefore, St. Peter called Rome Babylon. He did not wish to name Rome, lest he bring Roman Christians into danger. For if these letters had fallen into the hands of Gentiles, they would have reported to the Emperor of Rome that there was a great multitude, and thus the Church of Christians, whom he would immediately have moved to persecution against them. Baronius adds that St. Peter, having escaped from prison in Jerusalem, wished to hide, lest Herod, understanding that he was acting in Rome, would write to Caesar, and have him again apprehended. Tropologically: The impious and worldly are citizens of Babylon, because they are continually occupied and tossed about in the confusion of business, desires, tumults, disturbances and accidents of this world; but the Saints are citizens of Jerusalem, that is of the vision of peace, because in peace of conscience they serve and cleave to God alone, and say: "In peace in the selfsame I will sleep and rest." St. Augustine in Sentences, Sent. 221: "Two loves," he says, "make two cities in the whole world: the love of God makes Jerusalem, the love of the world makes Babylon. Let each one therefore ask himself, and he will find of which city he is a citizen." And St. Gregory, XVIII Moral., XXV: "The citizens," he says, "of Jerusalem are those who love only the heavenly fatherland; the citizens of Babylon are those who are subject to the cares of the earthly fatherland. Since therefore it is evident that often even the good are involved in earthly cares by earthly study (as Daniel, he says, was set by the king over Babylon), we plainly recognize that thus sometimes the citizens of Jerusalem pay tribute to Babylon, just as often the citizens of Babylon pay tribute to Jerusalem." I shall say more about this Babylon in Apoc. XVII and XVIII. For the first, and that singular and excellent, was the election of the faithful Romans, and of the primitive Roman Church, inasmuch as drawing the firstfruits of the Spirit from Christ through SS. Peter and Paul, it flourished with heroic faith, sublime hope, ardent charity, and therefore produced continually so many hundreds of thousands of Martyrs through three hundred years of persecution. Wherefore many princes, kings and queens for the sake of devotion journeyed to Rome with great journeys and expenses, that they might religiously visit the holy places; indeed not a few chose to live and die there, and to be buried among the Saints, whose examples I have recounted in Isaiah cap. LXVI, 23. Indeed Christ the Lord appearing to St. Brigid (as her Life has it with Surius, 23 July) commanded her to make pilgrimage to Rome, saying: "Go to Rome; for there the streets are paved with gold, and reddened with the blood of Saints: there on account of the remissions or indulgences which the Saints have merited, one comes to heaven by a short way." She obeyed, and having gone to Rome, she attained such holiness there, that dying there in the year of the Lord 1373, she merited to be inscribed in the catalogue of the Blessed with solemn rite, and so her house was converted into a temple, and is religiously visited by inhabitants and pilgrims. Meritedly therefore Tertullian, lib. De Praescript.: "Blessed," he says, "is the Church (Roman) to which the Apostles poured out their whole doctrine with their blood." St. Augustine, epistle 162, says that in the Roman Church the primacy of the Apostolic see has always been vigorous. St. Jerome, lib. II Contra Jovinianum: "Know," he says, "that the Roman faith praised by Apostolic voice does not receive such deceptions, even if an angel should announce otherwise than what was once preached. Armed with equal authority it cannot be changed." St. Irenaeus, lib. III, cap. III, teaches that the whole faith is preserved in the Roman Church, and to it all ought to flee. The same teaches Optatus, lib. II contra Parm.; St. Cyprian, lib. I, epist. 3; St. Ambrose, orat. De obitu Satyri fratris, and others. Coelect. — Some interpreters wrongly read collecta. For in Greek it is συνεκλεκτή, that is coelect, that is, elected together with you, a sharer of your election to faith, grace and salvation. The people of the Jews was elected first by God, equally as by Christ, of whom St. Peter was particularly the pastor and curator, Gal. II, 8, and to whom he writes this Epistle primarily, cap. I, vers. 1. The people of the Gentiles was coelected by Christ, who joined the Gentiles with the Jews into one Church; and by this word St. Peter insinuates this to the Jews (for Rome was the head of the Gentiles), so that the Jews in their usual manner do not turn away from the Gentiles, but love them as brothers in Christ, and associate themselves with them. Again, by this word he confirms the faithful of the East in faith by the faith of the city and Church of the prince, namely the Roman, in that it agrees with them both in faith, and in the hope of vocation, and in charity. Again, the Church is the elect Church, the Church of the elect to faith and grace, and if they persevere in it, to glory. St. Peter alludes, first, to Abraham, the father of the Synagogue, of faith and of the faithful; for just as God chose Abraham in Babylon and led him out of Ur of the Chaldees into the promised land: so St. Peter converted St. Clement, St. Pudens, St. Linus, St. Cletus and other most illustrious men at Rome, who were the chief leaders and princes of the Church. Second, he alludes to the Babylonian captivity: for then the people of God and the Synagogue of the Jews dwelt captive in Babylon, and converted many Babylonians to the faith of the true God; whence there was then in Babylon the Church of God elect. In like manner at Rome St. Peter converted very many from paganism, and so established there the citadel and head of the Christian Church. There was therefore at Rome a Church coelect by God, that is, elect equally as once the Synagogue of the Jews. AND MARK MY SON. — This "Mark" was not John surnamed Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, of whom Acts XII, 12, but St. Mark the Evangelist: St. Peter calls him his son, not according to the flesh, but according to faith and spirit; because he had imbued him with his faith, doctrine and spirit, so that he wrote the Gospel: hence he had him as his helper and interpreter, and therefore most dear: and for this reason he soon sent him to Alexandria, where he established a Church flourishing with such continence and holiness, that his disciples the Essenes, that is the holy and pious, are so named, of whom I spoke in Acts V, 1. Hence it is clear that St. Mark was not one of the 72 disciples of Christ, as Epiphanius wishes, Heresy 51, but was converted after Christ by St. Peter; therefore he calls him son, because he begat him in Christ. Thus Papias in Eusebius, lib. III, cap. ult.; St. Jerome, On Ecclesiastical Writers, on Mark; Bede, Preface to St. Matthew, and others. Some add that he is called "son" because he was the interpreter of this epistle, which is probable. Hence Bede and others conclude that this epistle of St. Peter is most ancient, and the first of all epistles, and was written in the year of Christ 45. For in that same year (which was the third of the emperor Claudius) St. Mark, having written the Gospel at Rome, departing from St. Peter proceeded to Alexandria, where he sat as it were Bishop for 19 years, namely until the year of Christ 64, the 8th of Nero, in which he was crowned with martyrdom, as witness Eusebius, lib. I Hist., XIV, and lib. III, cap. ult., and others.
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14. GREET ONE ANOTHER WITH A HOLY KISS. — Namely, a Christian kiss, chaste, sincere; not an infidel one, unchaste, feigned, which is part of adultery, the gateway of crime, the beginning of death, as St. Basil says in his work On Virginity. Whence with a holy kiss as a profession of charity, Christians greeted one another before the holy Synaxis, with the Deacon crying out: "Embrace and kiss one another," as Cyril testifies in his fifth catechesis. For a kiss is a sign, first, of reconciliation; second, of peace; third, of charity; fourth, of joy; fifth, of Catholic communion, as the Author teaches in the book On Friendship, found in St. Augustine, volume I. Whence the Greek texts and Oecumenius, for a holy kiss, read a kiss of charity, not of carnality. For a kiss signifies that soul is joined to soul, and mouth to mouth with pure love. Tertullian, however, in his book On Prayer, calls a kiss the seal of prayer. For, as St. Augustine says, sermon 83 On Various Subjects: "After the Lord's Prayer, 'Peace be with you' is said, and Christians kiss one another with a holy kiss, which is the seal of peace, if what the lips show forth is done in the conscience, that is, as your lips and your brother's lips come together, so let your heart not depart from his heart." See what is said concerning the holy kiss, II Corinthians, chapter XIII, verse 12. GRACE BE WITH YOU ALL. — In Greek εἰρήνη, that is, peace: thus the Syriac version. Peace among the Hebrews signifies grace and every good; perhaps also our Author for εἰρήνη reads χάρις, that is, grace. For St. Paul, the companion and follower of St. Peter, everywhere in his epistles beseeches grace for the faithful, and so the beseeching of grace and peace is the true seal of an Apostolic epistle. Whence it is used by Saints Ignatius, Polycarp and other apostolic men of that age in their epistles. Who are in Christ Jesus. — Who are incorporated into Christ through faith, hope, and charity, soon to be incorporated through eternal happiness and glory, as he said in verse 10. Excellently Eusebius of Emesa, or rather St. Eucherius of Lyons, in his homily On St. Maximus: "O," he says, "human frailty! Whatever you do is small in comparison with the hope of eternal things." For, as Cicero says in the Tusculan Disputations, book IV: "What would seem great to him in human affairs, to whom all eternity and the magnitude of the whole world is known?" More sublimely and divinely St. Augustine, in book XII of the Confessions, chapter XI: "O blessed one," he says, "cleaving to your blessedness, blessed by your eternal inhabitant and illuminator. Nor do I find what I would more willingly call heaven of heavens to the Lord than your house contemplating your delight without any defect of going forth into another, a pure mind most harmoniously one in the stability of the peace of holy spirits, citizens of your city in the heavenly places, above these heavenly places. Whence let the soul understand, if it can, whose pilgrimage has been long, if it now thirsts for you, if its tears have now become its bread, while it is said to it each day: Where is your God? if it now asks of you one thing, and seeks this, that it might dwell in your house all the days of its life. And what is its life but you? And what are your days but your eternity, as your years which do not fail, because you are always the same? Hence let my soul understand, if it can, how far above all times you are eternal, when your house, which has not wandered, although it is not coeternal with you, yet by cleaving to you without ceasing, suffers no change of times."
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
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1. Seniores ergo, qui in vobis sunt, obsecro, consenior. Ad EccleBiarum paetores, id est Episcopos sive presbyteros exhortationem convertit, sui memor officii et potestatis a Christo acceptae, quando dictum ei fuit: Tu es Petrus, et super hanc petram aedificabo Ecclesiam meam. Et tibi dabo claves regni coelorumf etc, Matth. 16. Et tu aliquando conversus confirma fratres tuos, Luc. 22. Et quando tertio audivit: Pasce oves meas, Joan. 21. Nam eadem auctoritate, qua admonet Episcopos Ponti, Galatiae, Cappadociae, Asiae et Bithyniae, quas regiones in fronte Epistolae nominavit, potuit et reliquos Episcopos omnes, ubivis constitutos, admonere. Quare etiam hic locus ad confirmandum Fetri super universam Ecclesiam primatum cumprirais valet. Nec obstat, quod se conseniorem vocat, nt objicit Calvinus, dicens: Si jus primatus habuisset, poterat illud obtendere, idque ad praesentem causam aptius fuisset. Nam quis non intelligat (quod et Oecumenius admonuit), modestiae causa Petnim sic locutum? ut qui Bciret, efficaciorem fore suam ad Episcopos exhortationem, si eos alloqueretur ut fratres et socios; quam si, ut subjectos. Hinc et Romanus Episcopus, Petri successor et imitator, caeteros Episcopos in suis ad eos epistolis ac rescriptis fratres salutare consuevit; interdum coepiscopos et consacerdotes; numquam autem filios. Quod si quidquam valeret Calvini objectio, sequeretur, nec Petrum, nec Paulum habuisse potestatem ullam regiminis supra vulgus fidelium. Nam in suis Epistolis omnes /"mfrcs vocant. Meminisse debebat Calvinus, ipsum Dominum Salvatorem de suis Apostolis ita esse locutum Matth. 28.: Ite, nuntiate fratribus meis; item Salvatorem dixisse Petro Lucae 22.: Confirma fratres tuos. Graeca paiticulara illativam non habent; sic autem reddi possunt: Presbyteros, qui inter vos sunt, adhortor ipse compresbyter. Nam TiapaxaXsTv usitatius adhortari significat, quam obsecrare. Presbyterorum nomine significantur Episcopi. Se vero compresbyterum eorum vocat, id est coepiscopum. Recte enim annotavit Beda, et ante eum Hieronymus in Epist. 85., quae est ad Evagrium, presbyterum hoc loco, quemadmodum et in Actis, et in Epistolis Paulinis non aetatis nomen esse, sed officii ac dignitatis. Nam dicitur eis: Pascite, et pastores appellantur. Additiuncula B. P. Quare rectius fecisset interpres noster, tum hoc loco, tum Act. 15. et in principiis Epistolarum B. Joannis secundae ac tertiae, si Graecum nomen presbyteri et compresbyteri retinuisset; quod faciendum esse, quando eo nomine non senilis aetas, sed ecclesiasticus gradus, ut hic, designatur, ipse etiam Laurentius diligenter monuit in Annot. ad cap. 15. Act. et ad init. secundae B. Joannis, probante ipso quoque Desiderio annot. in cap. 20. Act. et in hunc B. Petri lccum. Queraadraodura videmus fecisse S. Hieronymum Epistola illa 85.; presbyteri enim et compresbyteri nomen usurpat. Ubi tamen quaeritur, utrum etiam simplices presbyteri, quos vocamus, eo nomine comprehendantur. Sane, quamvis nomen presbyteri generale sit etiam usu Apostolorum, ut omnes, qui sunt ordinis sacerdotalis, complectatur, quemadmodum alibi docuimus; ut Phil. 1., 1 Tim. 3. et 5. et Tit. 1., principaliter tamen hoc sermone solos Episcopos convenit Petrus, ut qui soli proprie ot plena ratione sint dominici gregis pastores; non in partem operis vocati, velut parochi, sed absolutum et illimitatam (quod ad divinum jus attinet) exercendi in suo grege pastoralis officii potestatem habentes. Ad quos proinde spectat, non tantum praedicare Dei verbum, et eacramenta ministrare, quod utrumque parochi faciunt; verum etiam leges ponere, et transgressores punire, et contumaces ab Ecclesia per excomraunicationera ejicere. Unds et in canonibus, et apud veteres, ipsi soli vocantur pastores. Sed et Paulus Eph. 4., pastores et doctores nominans, solos Episcopos intellexit. Caeteri vero curam aniraarura habentes olim voczbsiXiiMr presbyteri, postea curati, plebani, parochi seu parochiarum rectores.
Et testis Christi passionum. Testem se mmcwpsit passionum Christi, non ideo solum, quod Christi passiones, id est afflictiones, crucem et mortem, verbo praedicaret; sed quod Christum patientem opere etiam ipso testificaretur, multis pro eo toleratis afflictionibus, persecutionibus et contumeliis. Itaque Christi passiones Hesselius interpretatur, non quas Christus passus est, sed quas pro Christo passus fuerat Petrus; ut testis afflictionum Christi dicatur testis afflictus pro Christo; quemadmodum Paulus loquitur Col. 1.: Adimpleo ea, quae desunt passionum Christi, id est afflictionum pro Christo tolerandarum. Veruntamen, ut ipsius Christi paesiones intelligantur, quarum se Petrus testem dicat per suas pro Christo passiones, probabilius puto. l^ a.m passionibus Christi statim opponit gloriam Christi nimirum ipse Christus gloriosus exsistit. De hujusmodi testimonio, quod non tam verbo, quam opere perhibebatur Christo, locus est apud Paulum 1 Tim. 6.: Confessus es, ait, bonam confessionem coram maltis testibus; et mox de Christo Jesu: Qui, inquit, testimonium reddidit sub Pontio Pilato bonam confessionem. Quo et illud pertinet, ubi Dominus, Apoetolis suis praedicens mala, quae passuri essent a persecutoribus, subjungit, id futurum in testimonium Judaeis et gentibus, Matth. 10. Nempe quoniam ipsae martyrum Christi passiones erant futurae loco testimonii. Quare et xax' Hox^''^ martyres, id est testes vocantur. Hoc autem de se commemorat Petrus, ut suo velut exemplo compresbyteros animet, ne metu persecutionum cessent ab officio; quemadmodum et id, quod sequitur, adjungit, ut eos in eandem una secum futurae gloriae spem erigat.
Qui et EJus, quae in futuro revelanda est, gloriae communicator. Graeca sic sonant: Qui et ejus, quae futura est revelari (id est quae revelabitur) gloriae consors. Nam communicator proprie non dicitur, qui fit consors, sed qui consortes alios facit. Quod utique sibi Petrus adscribere non voluit. Sensus est: Qui idem etiam gloriae, quae revelabitur in adventu Domini, particeps ac socius sum futurus. De qua gloria Paukis quoque Rom. 8. sic ait: Existimo, quod non sunt condignae passiones hujus temporis ad futuram gloriam, quae reveJabitur in nobis. Ubi similiter in Graeco est: Ad eam, quae futura est revelari, gloriam. Sic autem et Petrus hanc gloriam opponit passionibus pro Christo toleiatis, volens id ipsum significare, quod ibidem Paulus, dicens: Si compatimur, ut et conglorificemur. Hoc tamen, quod se consortem appellat illius gloriae, utrum dicat ex speciali revelatione, videlicet ea, cujus meminit 1. Epist. cap. 2., an vero bonae ac Christianae spei tantum haec verba sint, non liquet; ac magis fortassis apparet, illam revelationem postea B. Petro factam qua fuisse, quando coepit appropinquare martyrio. Porro gloriae communicationem, de qua loquitur Petrus, quidam aliter interpretati sunt, dicentes, eam Petro contigisse in transfiguratione Dominica, cui interfuit, et quae typus quidam fuit gloriae in nobis revelandae; vel (ut alii) in Domini resurrectione et ascensione, quas vidit. Secundum hos supplendum est verbum praeteriti temporis: communicator seu consors fui. Verum quod primo dixi, magis probabile est, et eo modo exponunt Oecumenius, Cajetanus, Titelmannus et Hesselius.
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2. Pascite, qui in vobis est, gregem Dei. Quidam Graeci codices habent: gregem Christi, sed plures: gregem Dei, quibus et Syrus adstipulatur; cum alioqui grex Christi, tamquam supremi pastoris, qui pro ovibus animam suam posuit, rectissime intelligatur. Illudvero: Qui in vobis est, Graece: t6 Iv 6|iTv, Erasmus et alii verterunt: quantum in vobis est; ut similis sermo sit cum illo Paulino Rom. 12.: Ouod ex vobis est (xo l^ 'j/jiuiv), cum omnibus hominibus pacem habentes. Sed eam versionem merito Lorinus improbat. Nec enim Petro dictum fnerataDomino: Pasce ovesmeas, quantum in te est, sed absolute. Nec istiusmodi praeceptis et exhortationibus ullo modo conveniunt modificationes istae: Si potes; quantum in te est etc. Nam illae potius remitterent animum ejus, qui admonetur. Quapropter retinendum omnino, quod noster vertit; qui in vobis, id est apud vos est, et cum quo unum estis corpus, una Eccleaia. Sic et versu praecedenti: Seniores, qui in vobis sunt. Nec sensu dissonat, quod lidbet Syriaca paraphrasis: Traditum vobis gregem Dei. Similis loquendi forma apud Osee 4.: Ejus, qui in te est, misereberis pupilli. Notandum sane, quemadmodum grex esse dicitur in pastore, sic e diverso, secundum Scripturam, pastorem esse in grege, ut Act. 20., Paulo pastores sic adhortante: Attendite vobis et universo gregi, in quo vos Spiritus sanctus posuit Episcopos regere Ecclesiam Dei. Quemadmodum et praecipit Ecclesiasticus cap. 32.: Rectorem te posuerunt, esto in illis. Quo reciproco scrraone significatur, arctissimam esse debere conjunctionem pastoris et gregis; ut nec oves aberrent a suo pastore, et nec animo, nec corpore pastor a suis ovibus separetur. Itaque ex hujusmodi Scripturis optime statuitur pastorum apud oves suas residentia perpetua, tamquam jure divino necessaria. Verbum: pascite, Graece: TCOt/iatvaTS, non solum significat pabuli curam ac subministrationem, sed universum regimen seu gubernationem, quam pastor ovibus ex oflficio impendit. Unde vetus interpres regendi verbo eam Graecam vocem convertere solet, ut Psalm. 2.: Reges eos in virga ferrea, et 22.: Dominus regit me, et79.: Qui regis Israel, intende. Sic et locum praesentem citat Hieronjmus in Epist. 85.: Regite gregem Christi. Quin etiam reges ac principes hujus saeculi, tam in sacris, quam profanis literis pastores hominum ac populorum vocantur, Jer. 23., Ezech. 34. et apud Homerum non semel. Apposite vero sanctus Hilarius, enarrans Psalm. 2., Graecam vocem interpretatur: pastoraliter regere. Reguntur au~ tem oves Christi pastoraliter (ut verbis utar Joannis Hesselii, praeceptoris mei), dum eis praebetur pabulum Christianae doctrinae, non tantum publicis praedicalionibus et exhortationibus, sed etiam secretis atque privatis institutionibus, consolationibus, correptionibus. Item, dum eis sedulo administraniur Sacramenta Christi; dum eis optima vitae exempla proponuntur; dum temporalibus eorum necessitatibus hilariter succurritur; dum utiles leges et praecepta praescribuntur, dum admodum soUicite, frequenterque pro eis apud Deum oratur, ingemiscitur, ploratur, sacrificatur. Haec ille. Perabsurde vero Calvinus ofierrendi sacrificii munus a pastore removet, hoc argumento, quia sacrificare non est pascere; quasi Christus ipse non tunc maxime fecerit pastoris officium, quando, se ipsum in ara crucis offerens, animam suam posuit pro ovibus suis. Certe eodem argumeato Calvinus excluserit orationem ab officio pastoris. Nam si sacriticare pro ovibus non est pascere, igitur nec pro eis orare pascere erit.
Providentes non coacte, sed spontanee secundum Deum. Providentes, Graece STiiaxoTrouvTsg, id est intendentes, sive, ut legit Hieronymus, superintendentes; ac si diceret: Episcopum agentes. Nam allusio est ad Episcopinomen; quasi dicat cum Paulo: Attendite gregi vestro, in quo positi estis Episcopi. Nomini vestro respondete. Hoc agite, quod appellamini. Superintendite et curam agite quisque sui gregis. Addit autem: non coacte, sed spontanee, tum ut pastores secernat a mercenariis; nam coacte providet, ait Beda, qui propter rerum temporalium penuriam, non habens, unde vivat, idcirco praedicat Evangelium, ut de Evangelio vivere possit; hoc autem mercenarii est; tum ne faciant officium velut inviti, quomodo solent, qui frequenter ac facile de molestiis curae suae pastoralis conqueruntur. Nam et hoc illiberaliB est animi; qnema-^modum contra liberalis est ingenii, no?i ex tristitia aut ex necessitate facere. Quod Paulus monet 2 Cor. 9. Caeterum utrique vitio opponitur: Spontanee, vel, ut legit Hieronymus, voluntarie providere, idque secundum Deum. Id autem facit, qui libenter, alacriter et prompte, quique, ut ait idem Beda, nullius terrenae rei, sed tantum supernae mercedis intuitu, verbum Dei praedicat, ac caetera pastoris officia praestat. Particulam: secundum Deum, pleraque Graeca non habent. Atqui Hieronymus in Epist. memorata, Gregorius part. 2. curae pastoralis, cap. 7., et Beda in comment. legisse se declaranl, ac pro eo Syrus paraphrastes reposuit: spiritualiter; tametsi sensus est, quem Beda significavit, ut recta intentione, qua solius Dei gloria quaeratur, nec alia, quam superna merces exspectetur, gregem Domini procurent; nisi malis: secundum Deum, id est secundum Dei voluntatem. Quod eodem recidit.
Neque turpis lucri gratia, sed voluntarie. Pro tribus vocabulis: turpis lucri gratia, Graecis unum adverbium est compositum: aio/poxspfidic, et voluntarie, Graece: TcpoOu/iox;. Pro quo Syrus: in toto corde vestro. Alii itaque sic reddunt: Non turpiter affectantes, sive sectantes lucrum, sed prompto animo. Quamquam non refert, adverbio, an nomine turpitudo exprimatur, Nam Paulus resolvit, ac nomine expressit, ad Tit. 1.: atoxpou xepSouc X^?^^3 turpis lucri graiia. Et hoc loco Syrus: Non in lucro turpi. Vocat autem tam Petrus, quam Paulus turpe lucrum, non quod ex re turpi proveniat (agit enim de functione episcopali, qua quid honestius ac praeclarius?), sed quod turpiter, id est animo cupido et avaro quaesitum sit aut quaeratur, ita ut facile, qui sic affectus est, etiam ex alia re qualibet paratus sit compendium sectari. Vide, quae diximus ad illud Epistolae ad Tit. 1.: Non turpis lucri cupidum. Igitur atoxpoxsp^oig, providet gregi. qui ditari vult ex officjo curae pastoralis. Nam turpe est, quaestus gratia tam sanctum exercere ministerium. Quod additur: sed voluntarie, videtur idem esse cum eo, quod prius dixit: sed spontanee. Est enim observandum, Apostolum opponere haec duo: coacte et turpis lucri gratia, ei, quod est: spontanee seu volurdarie. Nam et qui coacte, id est inopia compulsus, ut habeat, unde vivat, et qui turpis lucri gratia, nt dives evadat, pastorale munus exercet, non ex animo id facit, quo curet ovium salutem; sed privati commodi causa, quo cessante, nollet inutilem subire laborem.
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3. Neque ut dominantes in cleiHs. Rectius: in cleros, sive adversus cleros. Id enim Graeca volunt. Hieronjmus in epist. ad Nepot. legit: in clerum. Sic et alii quidam posteriores; vitiose tamen, ut arbitror, mutato numero plurali in singularem. Cleros multi Latinorum interpretantur clericos, id est ecclesiasticis ministeriis deputatos, ut sunt presbyteri, diaconi, ac caeteri post eos. Sic et Graecus Oecumenius, sacrum coetum cleri nomine intelligens. Et huc citant Hieronymum, in epistola, quam dixi, ita scribentem: Episcopi sacerdotes se esse noverint, non dominos; honorent clericos, quasi clericos, ut et ipsis a clericis, quasi episcopis, honor deferatur. Scitum est illud oratoris Domitii: Cur ego tehabeam ut principem, cum tu me non habeas ut senntorem? Et interpositis Apostoli Petii ex hoc loco verbis: Pessimae consuetudinis est, inquit, in quibusdam Ec' clesiis tacere presbyteros, et praesentibus Episcopis non loqui; quasi aut invideant, aut non dignentur audire. Sic ille, de fastu quorundam Episcopoporum supra clerum. Veruntamen longe probabilius est, per cleros intelligi gregis Dominici portiones, quae singulis Episcopis pascendae ac regendae, vehit sortito, obtigerunt; juxta id, quod Cyprianus dicit, Ecclesiam esse unam, cujus singulas portiones singuli Episcopi in solidum tenent. Phrasis desumpta a sorte (nam clerus sortem significat), qua veteres, etiam ex Dei praecepto, utebantur in distribuenda terra singulis in possessionem. Hinc enim partes, quae singulis obvenerant, xX^poi^ id est sortes, vocabantur. Unde Psalm. 67.: Si dormiatis inter medios cleros, id est in medio sortium vestrarum. Sane totum gregem nomine cleri hic intelligi, satis arguit adversativa, quam Petrus facit: Non dominantes in cleris, sed forma facti gregis; tamquam idem sit clerus et grex. Quapropter et Syrus interpres pro cleris gregem scripsit: Non tamquam Domini gregis etc. Denique nec consuetum est, clericos appellare cleros pluraliter, sed clerum, nomine collectivo. Proinde non dubitamus, hunc intellectum, quo cleri vocabulum extenditur ad totum gregem cuique Episcopo attributum, priori anteponere, secuti auctores, qui sic intellexerunt, Cyrillum lib. 1. super Jesaiam orat. 3., et hujus loci commentatores, Bedam, Cajetanum, Gaignaeum, Titelmannum, nec non Jansenium explicantem illud Psalmi modo citati: Inter medios cleros. Quibus adde Erasmum in annotat. Item Vatablum et Emanuelem Sa. Prohibet igitur Apostolus id, quod Dominum suum prohibentem audiverat illis verbis: Principes gentium domi^ naniur eorum, et qui majores suntj potestatem exercent in eos; non ita erit inter vos, Matth. 20. Non solum enim dominari dicuntur in alios, qui potestatem, quam super illos habent, ad suam ipsorum convertunt ac referunt utilitatem; cujusmodi potestas est dominorum in servos; verum etiam qui, more principum hujus saeculi, imperant cum ostentatione potestatis, nec nisi cum satellitio et pompa asseclarum prodeunt in publicum, scilicet ut terrorem subditis incutiant. Atqui Christus voluit, in pastoribus et rectoribus Ecclesiae magis apparere humilitatem et mansuetudinem, quam potestatis ostentationem atque severitatem, et amorem magis, quam terrorem; ut absit non solum animus, sed etiam species dominandi in plebem subjectam; potiusque sese per humilitatem gerant ut ministros eorum, quibus praesunt, utilitatem ipsorum spiritualem omni studio procurantes, juxta quod Dominus ibidem consequenter praecipit: Sed quicumque voluerit inter vos major fieri, sit vester minister. Quod quidem ministerium consistit non solum in docendo ac praecipiendo, verum etiam in exhibendis sanctae conversationis exemplis. Unde sequitur:
Sed forma facti gregis ex animo. Graeca et Syra non habent additum: ex animo. Bernardus quoque non addit, citans hunc locum epistola 237. Deinde nec est in Graeco forma, sed tuuoi, formae f plurali numero, quod et legunt multi probatique codices Latini, tam vetusti, quam recentiores. Sensus autem planus est: Ut se ipsos suo gregi velut typos, formas et exemplaria quaedam exhibeant vitae Christianae ac bonorum operum, quibus inspectis ad similia provocetur. Admonet hoc Paulus discipulos suos Titum et Timotheum: In omnibus ie ipsum praebe exemplum (tutiov) 6onorum operum, Tit. 2. Exemplum (tutcoc:) esto fidelium in verbo, in conversatione, in caritate, in fide, in castitate f 1 Tim. 4. Sed et semet ipsum Paulus ut TUTCOV^ idj est formam imitandam proponit iis, quos Christo genuerat, ut Phil. 2. et 2 Thess. 3.
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4. Et cum apparuerit princeps pastorum, percipietis immarcescibilem gloriae coronam. Percipietis, Graece: xo/jiisToOs, reporiahitis, quemadmodum vertit capite primo: Reportantes finem fidei vestrae salutem animarum. Principem pastorum Christum vocat, Graece uno vocabulo: apxtTroi/isva, quasi dicat: archipastorem. Est autem Christus pastorum princeps primarius, cujus oves sunt etiam pastores ipsi, pariter cum aliis ovibus sanguine ejus redempti. Nam Petrus, qui haec scribit, erat quidem ipse etiam pastorum princeps; sed secundarius atque vicarius. Cum apparuerit, intellige: veniens gloriosuB ad judiciQm, quomodo de eo Joannes 1 Epist. 3.: Cum apparuerit, similes ei erinius. Gloriae coronam, id est coronam glorioaam, vel, ut vult Hesselius, coronam valde gloriosam. Non enim simplioiter, inquit, vitam aeternam significat; sed altiorem prae caeteris gradum. Unde Danielis 12., cum dictum esset, bonos ituros in vitam aeternam, de eminentiori pastorum praemio sequitur: Qui autem docti fuerint, fulgebunt sicut splendor firmamenti; et qui ad justitiam erudiunt multos, quasi stellae in perpetuas aeternitates. Hanc coronam sunt, qui aureolam interpretentur, quae doctoribus attribuitur, ut Hugo Card. et Thomas Anglicus. Sed probabilius est, principale praemium intelligi, quod et alibi coronae nomine significari solet; ut Jacob 1.: Accipiet coronam vitae, quam repromisit Deus diligentibus se. Immarcescibilem vocat ad discrimen coronarum, quae apud nos dantur victoribus. Nectuntur enim ex floribus et foliis, quae paule post marcescunt. At illa corona coelestis nec marcescet, nec veterascet umquam; sed viroris ac floris gratiam semper retinebit. Cum autem corona sit praemium ac merces victoriae, consequitur argumento a relatis, hominem pugnantem ac vincentem mereri gloriam regni coelestis, ac proindo falli vehementer eos, qui merita bonorum operum negaot. Merita dico, quae tamen ipsa etiam Dei dona sunt.
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5. Similiter, adolescentes, subditi estote senioribus. AdoJescentes, Graece: vswTspot, juniores. Hujus praecepti duplex adfertur sensus. Plerique aetate juniores et seniores intelligunt, cum prius de senioribus locutus sit, qui officio tales sunt, id est de presbyteris sive Episcopis. Alii volunt, hoc praeceptum respondere superiori, ut, sicut ibi jubentur seniores, id est, Episcopi, pascere ac regere gregem Dei, id est populum sibi Bubjectum, ita nunc vicissim junioribus eive minoribus, id est plebi subjectae, praecipiatur erga suos pastores et praefectos obedientia. Sensum hunc indicat Beda, quem sequuntur Carthusianus, Cajetanus, Hesselius et alii nonnulli. Favet ei imprimis illud: similiter, quo significari videtur ofiScium reciprocum bene regendi etprompte obediendi. Deinde quod et alibi juniorum nomine subditi interdum significantur, ut Luc. 22.: Qui major est in vobis, fiat sicut junior, Graece: vstoTSpoc. Sed et contra priorem sensum objici potest, quamvis aetate juniores senibus debeant reverentiam, Domino praecipiente, Lev. 19.: Coram cano capite consurge, et honora personam senis, proprie tamen illis non debere obedientiam, nisi alia ratione sint eis subjecti. Itaque videtur hoc Petri praeceptum idem esse cum praecepto Pauli Hebr. 13.: Obedite praepositis vestris ei subjacete eis. Omnes autem invicem humilitatem insinuate. Plus est in Graeco. Sic enim habet: Omnes invicem subjecti, sive subjicientes vos. (Est enim praesentis temporis participium uTiOTaaooficVOt). Deinde sequitur: Humilitatem induite, Graece: eyxojipcoaaoOs, quod proprie significat: innodate. Quasi dicat: Arcte vobis adstriogite. Erasmus vertit: infiocam habete. Oecumenius interpretatur: Vobis circumdate, amplectimini. Noster interpres, quae in Graeco velut sejuncta leguntur, in unum sensum conjunxit; quod et fecit Syrus Paraphrastes, quum sententiam totam ita vertit: Et circumamicti estote mansuetudine animi unus erga alium. Vel ut Tremellius Latine reddit; Et amicite vos intrinsecus demissione mentis unus erga alium. Metaphora sumpta videtur a genere vestimenti in nodum constricti, quo servi utebantur; iyx6,apa)/jia Graeci vocabant. Praecipit ergo Petrus, priori quidem parte, id ipsum, quod Paulus Eph. 5.: Subjecti invicem in timore Christi. Non enim sensus est, omnes omnibus subditos esse debere, sed alios aliis, inferiores superioribus, uxores viris, filios parentibus, servos dominis, quemadmodum Paulus ibidem consequenter declarat. Posterioris partis sensus est: Humilitatem animi (Graece Ta7:£ivo(ppoo6v7jv) induite, et instar vestis nodo adstrictae vobis conjunctam retinete, ne uspiam excutiatar. Hoc praeceptum omnibus commune est, adeoque necessarium, ut humilitatis virtutem arctissime et intime custodiamus. Ad id veropersuadendum subjungit, quod sequitur:
Quia Deus superbis resistit, humili' bus autem dat gratiam. Sententia desumpta ex proverbiis Salomonis, cap. 3., juxta LXX. interpretum translationem. Unde eam sumpsit Jacobus Apostolus Epist. suae cap. 4., pro qua in Hebraeo legitur, interpretante Hieronymo: Jpse deludet illusores, et mansuetis dabit gratiam. Nec enim in sensu diversitas est, ut ostendimus in exposit. Epistolae Jacobi. Nam illudere proximum et prae se contemnere, proprietas est superborum. Deludit autem eos Deus, dum humiliat et contemptibiles reddit, eludendo atque frustrando eorum conatus et studia, quibus suam quaerunt excellentiam; quod est superbis resistere. Humilibus autem, hocipso, quo jam humiles sunt, a Dei gratia praeventis, gratiam dat ampliorem, augens, quod dedit, et novis subinde gratiae suae donis priora cumulans; denique eos exaltans per gloriam in saeculo futuro, quae et ipsa gratia est, Paulo testante: Gratia Dei vita aelerna, Rom. 6. Quod et Petrus signiiicat versu sequente. Porro caetera ad hujus sententiae declarationem pertinentia require in commentario B. Jacobi.
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6. Humiliamini igitur sub potenti manu Dei, ut vos exaltet in tempore visitationis. In Graeco non additur: visitationis. Tantum enim legitur: iv xatpw^ in tempore. Et huc adjecta videri potest dictio: visitationis, ex loco cap. 2. hujus Epist.: Glorificent Deum in die visitationis. Erasmus hunc locum vertit: Vt vos extollat, quum erit opportunum, id est quum ita judicabit expedire, etiam in hoc saeculo. Nam xaipoQ proprie tempus commodum et opportunum significat. Verum multo melius, juxta Scripturae consuetudinem, intelligitur dies adventus 6ail. Eslii Comm. Tom. III. Domini et universalis judicii, qui solet antonomastice nunc tempus, nunc dies vocari, ut Matth. 8.: VeniUi ante tempus torquere nos? Marc. 13.: Nescitis, quando tempus sit; 1 Cor. 4.: Nolite ante tempus judicare; 2 Tim. 4.: Quam reddet mihi Dominus in illa die justus judex, et Hebr. 10,: Quanto videritis appropinquantem diem. Per potentem Dei manum omnipotentia Dei significatur, nt Exod. 14.: Viderunt manum magnam, quam exercuerat Dominus contra eos. Itaque sensus est: Quandoquidem Deus superbis resistit, et gratiam dat humilibus, humiliter vos Deo subjicite, et hominibus propter Deum, qui potens est dejicere superbos, et extollere humiles. Ita futurum, ut vos exaltet magnosque faciat et gloriosos tempore sui adventus ad judicium. Recte exaltationem extremo tempori retributionis assignat Apostolus, quia praesentis temporis exaltatio, praeterqiiara quod meriturum proportioni non respondet, caduca est, et permodica, respectu gloriae futurae. Manifeste vero significat, exaltationem illam futuri saeculi gratiae nomine comprehendi, de qua dixerat: Humilibus autem dat gratiam.
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7. Omnem soUicitudinem vestram projicientesinEwn. Projicientes, Graece aoristus est: liiippi^Ci.vzBQ, ut recte ita vertas: omni sollicitudine vestra projecta in Eum, vel, ut Erasmus: Omni cura vestra conjecta in Eum. Refertur haec pars praecepti ad verbum: humiliamini, et addita est ad significandum, quid inter alia postulet illa nostri humiliatio sub potenti manu Dei; nimirum perfectam oraniiim curarum nostrarum in Deum resignationem. Id enim est, omnem sollicitudinem nostram in Deum projicere. Quod sumpsit Apostolus ex Psalmo 54., in quo canitur: Jacta super Dominum curam tuam. Sunt enim eadem in Graeco verba: 'ET:i'pp!.<]>ov STul xupiov T7JV /ilpt/jivav aou. Non igitur vetat Apostohis, ne ullius rei curam aut sollicitudinem habeamus; sed praecipit, ut eam totam conjiciamus in Deum, id est, ut in omni cura nostra de rebus necessariis, et curam nostram postulantibus, toti pendearaus a providentia Dei. Quod fit, dum a Deo, tamquam universali provisore, per ordinata media quaecumque petimus, exspectamus. Constat autem, inter media divinitus ordinata esse operam et industriam; imo et curam ac sollicitudinem humanam; quemadmodum et preces ac supplicationes ad Deum. Et hoc modo conciliandi sunt loci Scripturae in speciem pugnantes, quorum aiii prohibere, alii praecipere videntur sollicitudinem humanam de rebus quibuscumque. Prohibetur enim inordinata sollicitudo; praecipitur et laudatur ordinata, qualis est, quam dixi et declaravi.
Quoniam Ipsi cura est de vobis. Hoc dicit loco ejus, quod in Psalmo sequitur: Et Ipse te enutriet; videlicet ex specie genus colligens. Non enim solum alimenta Deus homini, curam suam omnem in ipsum projicienti, verum et alia praestat omnia, quae bene et ordinate ab ipso exspectantur. Haec autem fides et cogitatio providentiae divinae magnam adfert animis Ohristianis tranquillitatem et pacem, et ab anxietate curisque supeifluis liberat.
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8. Sobrii estote et vigilate. Repetit temperantiae et vigilantiae praeceptum super. cap. datum versu 7., ut vehementius illud commendet, subjuncta etiam ratione necessaria. Graece legitur sine conjunctione: N7Jt)>aT£^ ypTjyopVjoaxs. Et quidem v/jtJ^aTc capite praecedenti vertemnt interpretes: vigilate. Sed hic ita non potest exponi propter verbum yp^f}yopTJoaxs, quod proprie vigilate significat. Qua de re plura diximus ad locum cap, praeced. Quod igitur hic dicit: VTg^aTc, idem est cum praecepto Dominico Luc. 21.: Attendite vobis, ne forte graventur corda vestra in crapula et ebrietate. Nam quod ibi sequitur: et curis hujus vitae, convenit eum eo, quod hic jam praecessit de sollicitudine nostra tota in Deum projicienda. Vigilia significat attentam curam salutis adversus hostilitatem. Sumpta metaphora a castrensibus excubitoribus. Caeterum prius est, sobrium esse, deinde vigilare. Nam sobrietas aptum reddit hominem ad vigilandum, sicut e contrario saturitas somnum provocat.
Quia adversarius vester diabolus tamquam leo rugiens circuit, quaerens, quem devoret. Haec, inquit, causa est, cur sobrios et vigilantes vos esse velim, quia perpetuum nobis bellum est cum adversario vigilantissimo et intentissimo ad nocendum, id est diabolo. Cui resistere non poteritis, si crapula gravatos et somno oppressos inveniat. Vocat eum dcvTc- ^ixov, id est adversarium, exponens Hebraicum vocabulum Satan, quod adversarium signiScat, et per antonomasiam principi daemonum in Scripturis attribuitur; ut qui juratus sit hostis humani generis, in quod et peccatum, et mortem, invidia motus, introduxit, Genes. 3., Sap. 2. Idem antonomastice diabolus vocatur, id est calumniator y delator, et, ut nominat Joannes Apoc. 12., fratrum accusator j cujus omne studium est, homines reddere vituperabiles ac Deo invisos; quod solent criminatores et calumniatores; cum alioqui non sit nescius, calumniae non esse locum apud Deum omnia scientem. His duobus nominibus, diaboli et Satanae, appellatur Apoc. 12. et 20. Comparat eum Petrus leoni, prae fame rugienti, et praedam quaerenti, quam comedat; leoni quidem, quia fortissimus et saevissimus est: Non enim est super terram potestas, quae comparetur ei, Job. 41. Ac fortasse respicit Petrus ad apertas dynastarum persecutiones, dum leonem nominat, non draconem; ut censet Augustinus, enarrans illud Psalmi 90.: Conculcabis leonem et draconem, et in homil. 35. inter 50. Deinde rugientis, id est famelici, epitheton huic leoni addit Apostolus, quia perniciem nostram inexplebiliter appetit, nec ulla ei praeda sufficit. Circuit autem, sive ut in Graeco est, TicpiTiaTsTj ambulat, ohamhulat diabolus, quaerens, quem devoret (quemadmodum et ipse de se loquitur Job 1. et 2.: Circuivi tcrramy et perambulavi), dum quaquaversum tendit laqueos tentationum, quibus pertrahat homines in peccata. Nam diabolo, pertraxisse quemlibet in peccatum, est, eum devorasse. Facit autem haec, tum per se, tum per ministros suos daemones, imo et per homines malos. At quaeres, quomodo per se id faciat, cum Apoc. 20. scribatur ligatus et missus in abyssum et clausus, ut non seducat amplius gentes, donec consummentur mille anni. Responsio est, illis verbis figurate significari, quod diaboli potestas per adventum Christi cohibenda fuerit ac restringenda usque ad finem saeculi; quo siones appropinquante rursum solvendus sit, relaxatione potestatis, quando per Antichristum ejusque ministros Ecclesiam Christi de integro tamquam instauratis viribus oppugnabit. Non tamen interea temporis cessat ab hominibus tentandis; sed tantum tentat, quantum permittitur. Locum hunc adducens Cyprianus in serm. de zelo et livore, pulchre explicat multiplices diaboli per diversa peccatorum genera tentationes.
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9. Cui resistitej fortes in fide. Fortes in fide, Graece: solidi fide. Hinc OTspsot, idem est, quod firmi, solidi. Hinc oxepscajia, firmamentum. Docet B. Petrus, diaboli tentationibus, sive apertis, sive occultis, resistendum esse firmitate fidei, qua videlicet non solum indubitanter credamus promissionibus Dei, verum etiam fiduciam in nobis excitemus eas consequendi, proposita nobis ante oculos Dei potentia et veritate, et misericordia per Christum. Nam gratia et veritas per Jesum Christum facta est, Joan. 1. Et: Haec est victoria, quae vincit mundum, fides nostra, 1 Joan. 5. Si mundum, igitur et mundi principem diabolum. Idcirco autem victoria, qua diabolum et omnes ejus tentationes superamus, adscribitur fidei, quia fides ostendit bona speranda, et ad ea capessenda nos excitat animatque, et unde petenda sint auxilia, quibus adversario resistamus, docet. Hinc Paulus praecipit, ut in ea lucta et pugna, quae nobis est cum potestatibus nequitiae spiritualibus, sumamus in omnibus scutum fideij quo possimus omnia tela nequissimi ignea exstinguere, Ephes. 5. De qua fidei virtute plenius idem Aposto- Uis disserit Hebr. 11. Haec fides spem et caritatem adeo non excludit, ut eas secum adducat. Est enim fides sperans, diligens, invocans, obediens, justificans, operans, et proinde vivens; non otiosa, non mortua, quam informem Theologi vocant.
Scientes, eandem passionem ei, quae in mundo est, vestrae fraternitati fieri. Eandem passionem j Graece pluraliter: xa auxa xdiv na^rnxdxiiiv, easdem pas- sive afflictiones. Et fierij Graece: liiiTsXsTo^a^ id est perficij consummarij impleri. Dicit perfici sive implerij ad significandum Dei decretum, quo vult, electos suos non sine passionibus ad gloriam pervenire, testante Paulo Act. 14.: Quoniam per multas tribulationes oportet nos intrare in regnum Dei. Sensus igitur est: Cum non ignoretis, fratres vestros, passim per mundum dispersos, multa similia pati, Deo sie volente, qualia vos patimini. Hinc apparet, Apostolum, ut supra dixi, respicere potissimum in hac exhortatione ad tentationes, quas diabolus ingerit, apertas adversus Ecclesiam commovendo persecutiones. Quam Ecclesiam vocat fraternitatemj quia fideles omnes fratres sunt sub unoPatreDeo; Christo dicenteMatth. 23.: Omnes vos fratres estis. Adjicit vero partem hanc Petrus, ut tentatos consoletur ex communione tentationis et certaminis cum fratribus aliis, quo communem pariter cum illis sperent a Deo victoriam.
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10. Deus autem omnis gratiae. Initium hoc est epilogi totius Epistolae, quo fidelibus afflictis precatur a Deo firmitatis et perseverantiae donum, ideoque Deum omnis gratiae vocat epitheto ad rem praesentem apposito, quo significat, omne bonum salutare (quod gratiae nomine solet intelligi) a Deo datore et auctore exspectandum esse.
Qui vocavit nos in aeternam suam
37 ■'■ gloriam in Christo Jesu. Qui vocavit nos, utique vocatione gratuita. Nam id consequens est ex eo, quod dixit Deum omnis gratiae. Vocavit, inquam, in aeternam suam gloriam, id est ad hoc, ut aeternae suae gloriae participes nos faceret; sicut de se dixit supra: Qui et EjuSj quae in futuro revelanda est, gloriae communicator. Quod addit: in Christo Jesu, ad vocationem referendum videtur; ut sensus sit, Deum nos ad aeternam gloriam vocasse per meritum Christi Filii sui pro nobis passi. Cui tamen merito non sola vocatio, sed et omnis gratia subsequens, et ipsa gloria sit adscribenda. Valet autem haec pars ad augendam fiduciam, quia, qui coepit opus bonum, perficiet iisque in diem Christi Jesu, Phil. 1.
Modicum passos ipse perficiet, confirmabit, solidabitque. In Graeco quatuor sunt verba, atque ea modi optativi. Sic enim habet: Modicum passos ipse perficiat sive instauret vos, fulciat sive stabiliat, roboret sive confirmet, fundet sive solidet. In nonnullis quidem exemplaribus Graecis, quae Robertus Stephanus annotavit, verba sunt indicativi modi, temporisque futuri, quemadmodum in Latinis; verum ea minus probatae sunt fidei. Tametsi et Prosper lib. 1. de vocat. gent. cap. 24. citat hanc partem omnino. ut nunc in Latinis legitur. Quae tamen lectio sensum non facit diversum. Sicut enim Hebraei futura pro praeceptivis usurpant, sic et interdum pro optativis. Jam quod ait: modicum passos, non tam indicat levitatem afflictionum hujus vitae, quam durationis brevitatem. Quamvis enim aliae aliis graviores sint, omnes tamen brevi spatio vitae mortalis coucluduntiir. Unde Erasmus et Hentenius verterunt: parumper afflictos. Vide, quae Bupra diximus ad illud cap. 1.: Modicum nunc, si oportet, contristati. Ita loquitur Dominus Jes. 54.: Ad punctum in modico dereliqui te, et in miserationibus magnis congregabo te. Quamquam, si modicum hoc loco sumas tam ut oppositum magnitudini, quam ut diuturnitati, perinde commodus erit sensus, et congruet cura eo, quod Paulus dicit 2 Cor. 4.: Quod in praesenti est momentaneum et leie tribulationis nostrae etc. Porro in quatuor illis verbis paene synouTmis, quae desumpta sunt ab aedificantibus, congeries quaedam est, qua metaphorice significatur fidelium in virtutibus instauratio et confirmatio usque in finem.
5:11
11. Ipsi gloria et imperium in sac~ cula saeculorum! Amen. Precationem seu bonam optationem doxologia claudit, qua major in Deum fiducia fidelibus afflictis cddatur ex mentione summae potestatis divinae, quae significatur imperii nomine. Habetur eadero clausulasuperiori capite, vers. 11. Ex quo etiam apparet, indicative potius, quam optative exponendam esse. Nam verbum est illic additur. Sensum inde require.
5:12
12. Per Silvanum fidelem fratrem vobis, ut arbitror, breviter scripsi. Graece: Per Silvanum vobis fidelem fratrem, ut arbitror, paucis scripsi. Juxta quam lectionem pronomen: vobis, referendum videtur ad nomen: fidelem, ut sensus sit: Qui vobis fidele praestat ministerium; tametsi Sjrus interpres, aeque ut Latinus, referat ad verbum: scripsi, quomodo refertur Hebr. 13.: Etenim perpaucis scripsi vobis. Sic autem habet Syriaca versio: Haec pauca, ut arbitror, scripsi vobis per Silvanum fratrem fidelem. Ubi nota, quod dicit demonstrative: haec pauca. Quod est contra eos, qui de alia quapiam Epistola prius missa B. Petrum hic loqui suspicantur. Quorum opinionem refellimus initio, cum de hujus Epistolae auctore ageremus. Silvanum existimat Oecumenius eundem esse, qui cum Paulo Apostolo scribit utramque ad Thessalonicenses Epistolam. Erat enim Pauli collega in praedicando Evangelio, Silas Hebraeo nomine dictus, de quo multa Act. cap. 15. et tribus seqq. Quod ait Petrus: per Silvanum scri' psi, quidam sic accipiunt, ut Silvano fuerit usus amanuensi in hac Epistola scribenda. At verisimilius eet, sensum 6886: Scripsi mittendam per Silvanum. Sic enim habent omnes hypograpliae Graecae Epistolarum Pauli: Scripta per Phoeben, Timotheum, l'ychicum, Onesimum etc, id estmissa per eos. Continet igitur haec pars commendationem Silvaui, tamquam fidelis in Evangelio ministri, nec non commendationem ipsius Epistolae, quod eam per talem virum miserit. Addit, paucis 3e scripsisse, ne molestum sit legere. Quomodo et Paulus, Heb. 13. dicens: Uogo vos, fratres, ut sufferatis verbum solatii. Etenim perpaucis scripsi vobis. IUud vero: ut arbitror, non ad fidelitatem Silvam, ut quidam volunt (sic enim dubitandi de ejus fide potius occasionem daret), sed ad brevitatem Epistolae refertur, additumque est modestiae causa.
Obsecrans et contestans, hanc esse veram gratiam Dei, in qua statis. ObsecranSj Graece: TcapaxaAwv, quod etiam verti potest: adhortans, ut alii verterunt, huic loco non minus convenienter. Nam et Syrus ita reddidit: Et suadeo ac testor, quod haec est gratia vera Dei, in qua statis. Colligit hic paucis verbis institutum suum Petrus, cur scripserit hanc Epistolam, et quid in ea potissimum egerit. Haec, inquit, scripsi, quu vos adhortarer, ut maneatis in fide suscepta; testificans vobis, tamquam testis et Apostolus Christi, hanc, quam nobis praedicantibus suscepistis fidei gratiam, et in qua hactenus statis et permanetis, veram esse gratiam Dei, per quam nimirum vere Deo grati sitis ad vitam aeternam.
5:13
13. Salutat vos Ecclesia, quae est in Babylone coelecta. Male quidam codices: collecta. Nam Graece est: ouvsxXcXttj, id est coelecta; sicque legit Hieronymus in catal. in Marco. Nec in Graeco additur: Ecclesia, sed intelligitur. Coelecta vero, id est una nobiscum a Deo electa, et, ut Erasmus vertit, vestrae consors electionis. Respicere enim videtur Apostolus ad hoc, quod in prima salutatione eos vocavit electos, ita scribens: Electis advenis etc. Quaeritur, quam Babylonem hic dicat. Certe veteres, ut Papias, Hierapolites Episcopus, et ex eo Eusebius lib. 2. hist. Eccles. cap. 15. atque Hieronymus in Marco et in Epist. 17., item Beda et Oecumenius in commentariis, denique recentiores omnes orthodoxi, Babylonem Romam interpretantur. Quo nomine etiam in Apocalypsi cap. 17. et 18. Roma significata est; utique propter confusionem idololatriae, quae tunc in ea vigebat, ut quae omnium gentium serviebat erroribus, sicut ait S. Leo in serm. de natali Petri et Pauli. Quamquam postea Apostolica praedicatione et institutione tandem effectum est, ut ex Babylone in sanctam Jerusalem et novam Sion converteretur, qualis permanet in hodiernum diem, quemadmodum id pulchre declarat Rupertus lib. 8. de glorific. Trinit. cap. 5. Ex hoc commentario consequens est, Petrum Romae fuisse atque sedisse, quod impudenter a sectariis quibusdam negatur. Volunt autem Babylonem intelligi vel illam in Scripturis nominatissimam Chaldaeae metropolim, vel ejusdem nominis urbem in Aegypto, quae Cairum hodie dicitur; quo videlicet Petrum Roma longissime faciant absentem, mirabili studio Catholicis contradicendi. Negant enim, Petrum Romae fuisse, quod tota testatur antiquitas; aflSrmant autem, Babylone fuisse, vel in Aegypto, vel in Chaldaea, quod nuUa prodit historia.
Et Marcus filius meus. Hunc esse Marcum, qui Evangelium conscripsit, omnes iidem auctores, quos modo citavi, confirmant. Vocat autem filium suum, quod propter sedulam in Evangelio cooperationem singulariter carum haberet, ut de eo dicere posset, quod Paulus de Timotheo Phil. 2.: Quia, sicut patri filius, mecum servivit in Evangelio. De hoc Marco plura apud Hieronymum in catalogo, et apud Bedam iu comm. Anautem idem sit cum Joanne, Mariae filio et Barnabae consobrino, qui cognominatus est Marcus, cujus meminerunt Lucas Act. 12. et Paulus Col. 4. et 2 Tim. 4., dubitant nonnuUi. Sed diversum fuisse, probabilias est, ac bene probatur a Cardinale Baronio tom. 1. Annal. Idem Baronius ad annum Christi 45. ex bonis auctoribus docet, Marcum fuisse spiritualem B. Petri filium, quem is baptismo genuerit, §. 31.
5:14
14. Salutateinvicem in osculo sancto. Graece: in osculo caritatis. Quod fere idem est cum osculo sancto, et opponitur osculo impuri et inhonesti amoris. De osculo sancto et de ^eterum con.suetudine salutandi cum osculo vide, quae diximus in comm. Rom. 16.
Gratia vobis omnibus, qui estis in Christo Jesu! Amen. In Graeco non Xaptc^ sed sipTjvrj legitur, id est: Pax vobis etc. Quae consueta erat Hebraeis salutandi formula, de qua egimus ad illud Rom. 1.: Gratia vobis et pax. Qui estis in Christo Jesu, id estChristianis. Amen approbantis particula est cum optatione. De qua vide, quae dicta a nobis Rom. 1. vers. 25.
5:1
… 24:48; Acts 1:8), they present themselves as the "witnesses" of facts that did not occur in angulo, in secret (Acts 26:26; 1:21-22; 2:32; 3:15; 4:19-20; 5:32; 10:39), not as purveyors of ingeniously invented fables, doctas fabulas secuti (II Pt. 1:16; I Pt. 5:1-4; I Io. 1:1-3, etc.). …
5:3
… At the beginning of Christianity, this term indicated the whole Christian people, considered as the chosen people (1 Pt. 5:3); but already in the 3rd century the word is used to indicate those who are assigned to the service of worship (cf. Tertullian, De monogam., 12; Origen, Hom. in Ieremiam, 11, 3). The …
5:4
2. Eternal. - A truth defined in the Creeds (Denz-U, 6, 9, 14, 16, 40), by the Fourth Lateran Council (ibid., 429), by Benedict XII (ibid., 530), by the Council of Trent (ibid., 809), asserted in numerous biblical texts (Mt. 25, 46; Jn. 16, 22; I Cor. 9, 25; II Cor. 4, 17; I Pt. 5, 4) and by all of tradition (cf. St. Augustine, De Trinitate, XIII, 8: «Nullo modo esse poterit vita veraciter beata, nisi fuerit sempiterna»). …
… In the Old Testament the Lord is with much greater reason called "Shepherd of the Peoples." Indeed St. Peter calls the Lord "the chief Shepherd" (1 Pt. 5, 4). In the Martyrium s. Polycarpi Jesus Christ is called "Shepherd of the Catholic Church over all the earth" (F. X. Funk, Opera Patrum apost., I, p. 304). Abercius (v.), bishop of Hierapolis …
… (Jas. 1:17); but he inculcates good works and emphasizes their value: "what would it profit, my brethren, if one should say he has faith while he has not works? can faith save him?" (ibid. 14). St. Peter speaks of "the incorruptible crown of glory" (1 Pt. 5:4), which the "presbyters" who have worthily fulfilled their ministry will receive at the appearing of the Prince of pastors; the same reward awaits all the faithful for their good works …
… the precariousness (I Cor. 7:29-31; I Pet. 4:7; I John 2:15-18) of men and of events (B. Allo [v. bibl.], pp. 180-83). And Christians are united from now on, living with Christ, to his p. which will also be the p. of his faithful (Col. 5:4; Heb. 9:28; I Pet. 5:4; I John 2:28; 3:2). The "nearness of the Lord" is a cause of fear, like the irruption of a thief (I Thess. 5:2-4; II Pet. 3:10; Rev. 1:3; 16:15), of austerity (Rom. 13:11 ff.; I Cor. …
5:6
… Cf. also: Mk. 13:33; Lk. 21:8; I Cor. 4:5; I Pt. 5:6).
… Satanwestalt im Lichte der sozialen Verhältnisse des Nahen Orients, in Klio, 28 (1935), pp. 219-27; E. G. Closen, Der « Dämonen Sünde ... Gen. 4, 7, in Biblica, 16 (1935), pp. 431-442; F. Ogara, « Adversarius... diabolus tamquam leo rugiens » (I Pt. 5, 6-11), in Verbum Domini, 16 (1936), pp. 166-73; H. Torczyner, How Satan came into the world, in The Expository Times, 48 (1936-57), pp. 563-65; A. Stola, Theologie der Mystik, Ratisbona …
5:7
… 31; 22, 42; Mt. 26, 39, etc.) and practiced it throughout His mortal existence, which He chose to close with the incomparable words: "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" (Lk. 23, 46). St. Peter and St. Paul also inculcate the same doctrine (I Pet. 5, 7-8; Rom. 8, 28). It is founded on the dogma of God's Providence with its two essential points: that nothing happens in this world except by the sovereign will of God, according to the …
5:8
… inherent ambivalence of all "symbolic forms": the same lion that because of its strength and majestic beauty symbolizes Christ, called (Rev. 5:5) "the lion of the tribe of Judah," lends itself by its dangerous ferocity to the similitude of the devil (1 Pt. 5:8). While the king of animals, in the sense of the first conception, was introduced into a miniature of the Bible of Charles the Bald and into a stained-glass window of St-Denis (12th …
… He continues to struggle (1 Pet. 5:8). His attempt will have no end except with the end of the world. …
… But the Scriptures, on the other hand, attest that the d. are sometimes the cause of our misfortunes and infirmities (cf., besides Job 1 and 2, Mt. 12, 22; 17, 14-17). Moreover, prowling like a lion in search of prey (I Pt. 5, 8), they do not refrain from blowing on the fire of passions
… etymologically as "the accuser (ὁ κατήγορος) of our brethren (= Christians) who accuses them (ὁ κατήγορος) before God day and night." The eschatological function of the d. is to lose men at the supreme judgment; the d. is ὁ ἀντίδικος "the adversary in court" (1 Pt. 5:8). Meanwhile he tempts men and deceives them to prevent their union with God; he frustrates God's ways for the salvation of men (Mt. 13:19, 30). Hence the opposition between "the children …
… Cf. Jn. 12:31; Rom. 16:20; Heb. 2:14. Also in 1 Pt. 5:8 the devil is a d. that "devours." The d. here has nothing in common with the tauniu, still less with Tiāmat as H. Gunkel would have it, who maintains the Babylonian origin of Rev. …
… This special providence is all the greater the longer the just man's perseverance in good will be (v. also in this sense the Council of Trent: Denz-U, 832, and various passages of Sacred Scripture, e.g., Phil. 1:3-6; I Cor. 10:12 ff.; Jo. 17:11-16; Eph. 6:10-18; Hebr. 10:32 ff.; I Pt. 5:8 ff.; the petition of the Pater: "lead us not into temptation").
It then appears as a symbol of the forces of evil, the "leo rugiens" (1 Pt. 5:8), in opposition to the Good Shepherd in the well-known inscription of Veratius Nicator (Wilpert, Sarcophagi, I, p. 70, fig. 27). There it is together with the dragon, according to …
5:9
… Barnabae announces the final apostasy as imminent (4, 3: τὸ τέλειον σκάνδαλον ἤγγιες), "as Enoch says" (Ethiopic Enoch 89, 61-64; 90, 17) and Daniel (Dan. 7, 7 ff. 24), and recommends "resisting" (as I Pt. 5, 9) in the period of impiety (ἐν τῷ ἀνόμῳ καιρῷ) so that "the Black One" (4, 9: ὁ Μέλας), that is, the A., may not enter stealthily.
… Cor. 11:14). Against his seductions (II Cor. 2:11) and violence, against the "synagogues" of the followers of S. (Apoc. 2:9-13; 3:9), against the apostates who return to S. (I Tim. 5:15), the Christian must resist, fight with the weapons of the spirit (I Pt. 5:9; Iac. 4:7; Eph. 6:10-17). Christ has defeated him on the cross and he will be annihilated (Col. 2:15; II Cor. 10:5). God will crush the "ancient serpent" (Gen. 3:15) under the feet …
5:13
The Copts, along with some rare exegetes, say that St. Peter wrote his first letter there (cf. 1 Pt. 5, 13).
ELETTA. - Nell'intestazione di II Io. si legge: « Il presbitero a una E. Signora (ἐκλεκτῆ, κυρία) e si figli di lei ». Nell'epilogo: « Ti salutano i figli della tua sorella l'E. » (v. 13). L'interpretazione più comune vede nel termine E. un sinonimo di Chiesa.Also in 1 Pt. 5:13 the Church of Rome (Babylon) is called "co-e." In our case the collective sense results from the shift from "you" (singular) to "you" (plural) (vv. 5, 8, 10, 12). The children of the …
I. THE EVANGELIST. - The Evangelist's full name was "John surnamed M." (Acts 12:12, 25; 15:37). Sometimes he is called only "John" (ibid. 5:13), more often only "M." (ibid. 15:39; Col. 4:10; Philem. 24; 1 Pt. 5:13); he therefore had a Hebrew name and a Latin surname.
… imprisonment, if Onesiphorus (v.) must overcome great difficulty to track down the Apostle (2 Tim. 1:17), who finds himself abandoned (cf. 2 Tim. 4:9-15) and awaits death (2 Tim. 4:6 ff.; v. PAOLO APOST., I). It is generally held that the Babylon of 1 Pet. 5:13 is Rome, according to a metaphor not infrequent in rabbinic usage (texts in H. L. Strack-P. …
5:14
… The kiss of peace is of very ancient use, and several times in the New Testament (Rom. 16:16; I Cor. 16:26; II Cor. 13:12; I Thess. 5:26; I Pt. 5:14) the faithful are enjoined to give it to one another. …
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · Vulgata Clementina · original Douay-Rheims (Rheims 1582), transcription by EEBO-TCP (CC0) · La Sacra Bibbia, tradotta dalla Volgata da Antonio Martini (1769-1781) (LaParola (laparola.net), Martini OSIS text, Public domain (LaParola's electronic edition marks it 'Dominio pubblico')). Public domain.