Of the desire of riches, and of moderation in eating and drinking.
By seeking vertue, and laboring for necessaries, the flesh is subdued to the spirite. 8. Moderate riches are best, 12. with temperance in diette, 30. especially in drinking.
1Watching for riches consumeth the flesh, and the thought thereof driveth away sleep.Le vigilie dell'avarizia consuman le carni, e le sue cure levano il sonno.VVATCHING after honestie shal pine the flesh, & the thought thereof taketh away sleepe.Vigilia honestatis tabefaciet carnes, / et cogitatus illius auferet somnum. 2The thinking beforehand turneth away the understanding, and a grievous sickness maketh the soul sober.I pensieri dell'avvenire sturbano la quiete, come la grave malattia fa vegliar l'uomo.The thought of foreknowlege turneth away the vnderstanding, & greuous infirmitie maketh a sober soule.Cogitatus præscientiæ avertit sensum, / et infirmitas gravis sobriam facit animam. 3The rich man hath laboured in gathering riches together, and when he resteth he shall be filled with his goods.Faticò il ricco per adunare ricchezze, e nel suo riposo è ricolmo di beni.The riche man hath laboured in gathering of substance together, & in his rest he shal be replenished with his goodes.Laboravit dives in congregatione substantiæ, / et in requie sua replebitur bonis suis. 4The poor man hath laboured in his low way of life, and in the end he is still poor.Lavora il povero per bisogno di vitto, e se fa fine di lavorare diventa mendico.The poore man hath laboured in the diminishing of his liuing, and in the end he is made poore.Laboravit pauper in diminutione victus, / et in fine inops fit. 5He that loveth gold, shall not be justified: and he that followeth after corruption, shall be filled with it.Chi è amante dell'oro, non sarà giusto, e chi va dietro alla corruzione, di essa sarà ripieno.He that loueth gold shal not be iustified: & he that foloweth after corruption, shal be replenished of it.Qui aurum diligit non justificabitur, / et qui insequitur consumptionem replebitur ex ea. 6Many have been brought to fall for gold, and the beauty thereof hath been their ruin.Molti sono andati in precipizio a causa dell'oro, e la bellezza di lui fu la loro perdizione.Manie haue bene geuen into falles for gold, and their perdition hath come by the beautie thereof.Multi dati sunt in auri casus, / et facta est in specie ipsius perditio illorum. 7Gold is a stumblingblock to them that sacrifice to it: woe to them that eagerly follow after it, and every fool shall perish by it.Legno d'inciampo è l'oro per quelli, che a lui fan sagrifizio: guai a quelli, che gli van dietro; ma tutti gli imprudenti periranno per esso.The gold of them that sacrifice is a wood of offence: wo to them, that folow after it, and euerie vnwise man shal perish in it.Lignum offensionis est aurum sacrificantium: / væ illis qui sectantur illud ! / et omnis imprudens deperiet in illo.
8Blessed is the rich man that is found without blemish: and that hath not gone after gold, nor put his trust in money nor in treasures.Beato il ricco, che è trovato senza colpa, ed il quale non va dietro all'oro né sua speranza ripone nel denaro, e nei tesori.Blessed is the rich man that is found without spot: and that hath not gone after gold, nor hoped in money and treasures.Beatus dives qui inventus est sine macula, / et qui post aurum non abiit, / nec speravit in pecunia et thesauris. 9Who is he, and we will praise him? for he hath done wonderful things in his life.Chi è costui, e gli darem lode? perché egli ha fatto cose mirabili nella sua vita.Who is this, & we wil praise him, for he hath done meruelous thinges in his life.Quis est hic ? et laudabimus eum: / fecit enim mirabilia in vita sua. 10Who hath been tried thereby, and made perfect, he shall have glory everlasting. He that could have transgressed, and hath not transgressed: and could do evil things, and hath not done them:Egli fu provato per mezzo dell'oro, e trovato perfetto; ed avranne gloria eterna. Egli potea peccare, e non peccò, far del male, e nol fece:Who is proued therin, & perfect, shal haue eternal glorie. He that could transgress•e, and hath not transgressed: and doe euils, and hath not done:Qui probatus est in illo, et perfectus est, erit illi gloria æterna: / qui potuit transgredi, et non est transgressus; / facere mala, et non fecit. 11Therefore are his goods established in the Lord, and all the church of the saints shall declare his alms.Per questo i beni di lui sono stabili nel Signore, e le sue limosine saran celebrate da tutta la congregazione de' santi.therfore are his good thinges stablished in our Lord, & al the church of saintes shal declare his almes.Ideo stabilita sunt bona illius in Domino, / et eleemosynas illius enarrabit omnis ecclesia sanctorum. 12Art thou set at a great table? be not the first to open thy mouth upon it.Se' tu assiso a splendida mensa? non essere tu ivi il primo a spalancare la gola.Art thou set at a great table? open not thy iawe therevpon first.Supra mensam magnam sedisti ? / non aperias super illam faucem tuam prior. 13Say not: There are many things which are upon it.Non dire: molta è la roba, che è in tavola.Say not this: There be manie thinges which are vpon it.Non dicas sic: Multa sunt, quæ super illam sunt. 14Remember that a wicked eye is evil.Ricordati, che una mala cosa è l'occhio cattivo.Remember that a naughtie eie is euil.Memento quoniam malus est oculus nequam.
15What is created more wicked than an eye? therefore shall it weep over all the face when it shall see.Non v'ha di peggio di quest'occhio tralle cose create? per questo egli in veggendo, piange con tutto il suo volto.What is created worse then the eie? therefore shal it weepe at euerie face. When it shal see,Nequius oculo quid creatum est ? / ideo ab omni facie sua lacrimabitur, cum viderit. 16Stretch not out thy hand first, lest being disgraced with envy thou be put to confusion.Non essere il primo a stendere la mano, affinchè maltrattato dall'invidioso tu non abbi ad arrossire.stretch not out thy hand first, and so contaminated with enuie thou be ashamed.Ne extendas manum tuam prior, / et invidia contaminatus erubescas. 17Be not hasty in a feast.Nel prendere le vivande non urtare cogli altri.Be not oppressed in a feast.Ne comprimaris in convivio. 18Judge of the disposition of thy neighbour by thyself.Giudica del genio del tuo prossimo dal tuo.Vnderstand by thyself what thy neighbours thinges are.Intellige quæ sunt proximi tui ex teipso. 19Use as a frugal man the things that are set before thee: lest if thou eatest much, thou be hated.Serviti da uomo frugale di quelle cose, che li son messe davanti, affinchè non avvenga, che col molto mangiare tu ti renda odioso.Vse as a frugal man those thinges, that are set before thee: lest thou be hated when thou eatest much.Utere quasi homo frugi his quæ tibi apponuntur: / ne, cum manducas multum, odio habearis. 20Leave off first, for manners’ sake: and exceed not, lest thou offend.Sii il primo a finire per verecondia, e non essere smoderato per non disgustare veruno.Leaue of first, for maners sake, and exceede not, lest thou perhaps offend.Cessa prior causa disciplinæ: / et noli nimius esse, ne forte offendas. 21And if thou sittest among many, reach not thy hand out first of all, and be not the first to ask for drink.E se siedi in mezzo a molti, non istender la mano prima di quelli, e non essere il primo a chiedere da bere.And if thou be set in the middes of manie, stretch not forth thy hand before them: neither doe thou first aske to drinke.Et si in medio multorum sedisti, / prior illis ne extendas manum tuam, / nec prior poscas bibere. 22How sufficient is a little wine for a man well taught, and in sleeping thou shalt not be uneasy with it, and thou shalt feel no pain.Quanto poco vino è sufficiente ad un uomo bene educato! e in dormendo non ne sarai inquietato, e non ne sentirai incomodo.How sufficient is a little wine for a man wel taught, and in sleeping thou shalt not be pained with it, and thou shalt feele no griefe.Quam sufficens est homini eruditio vinum exiguum ! / et in dormiendo non laborabis ab illo, / et non senties dolorem.
23Watching, and choler, and gripes, are with an intemperate man:Le vigilie, la colica, e i dolori sono per l'uomo intemperante.Watching, & choler, & torment to an vnsatiable man:Vigilia, cholera et tortura viro infrunito, 24Sound and wholesome sleep with a moderate man: he shall sleep till morning, and his soul shall be delighted with him.Il sonno salubre è per l'uomo parco: egli dorme sino al mattino, e l'anima di lui sarà lieta con esso.sleepe of health is in a man of spare diet: he shal sleepe vntil morning, and his soule with him shal be deligted.somnus sanitatis in homine parco: / dormiet usque mane, / et anima illius cum ipso delectabitur. 25And if thou hast been forced to eat much, arise, go out, and vomit: and it shall refresh thee, and thou shalt not bring sickness upon thy body.Che se tu se' stato forzato a mangiar molto, vattene dalla conversazione, vomita, e ti troverai sollevato, e non cagionerai malattia al tuo corpo.And if thou hast bene forced with eating much, rise from the middes, and vomite, and it shal refresh thee, and thou shalt not bring infirmitie to thy bodie.Et si coactus fueris in edendo multum, / surge e medio, evome, et refrigerabit te, / et non adduces corpori tuo infirmitatem. 26Hear me, my son, and despise me not: and in the end thou shalt find my words.Figliuolo ascoltami, e non disprezzarmi, e da ultimo conoscerai quel, che siano le mie parole.Heare me my sonne, and despise me not: and in the end thou shalt finde my wordes.Audi me, fili, et ne spernas me, / et in novissimo invenies verba mea. 27In all thy works be quick, and no infirmity shall come to thee.In tutte le operazioni tue sii diligente, e non si accosterà a te nissun malore.In al thy workes be quicke, and al infirmitie shal not chance vnto thee.In omnibus operibus tuis esto velox, / et omnis infirmitas non occurret tibi. 28The lips of many shall bless him that is liberal of his bread, and the testimony of his truth is faithful.Colui, che è liberale nel dar del pane, è benedetto dalle labbra di molti e la testimonianza, che rendesi alla bontà di lui, è sicura.The lippes of manie shal blesse him that is magnifical in breads, and the testimonie of his truth is faithful.Splendidum in panibus benedicent labia multorum, / et testimonium veritatis illius fidele. 29Against him that is niggardly of his bread, the city will murmur, and the testimony of his niggardliness is true.Contro di chi è spilorcio nel dar del pane mormora tutta la città, e la testimonianza renduta alla spilorceria di lui è verace.In naughtie bread the cittie wil murmur, and the testimonie of the naughtines thereof is true.Nequissimo in pane murmurabit civitas, / et testimonium nequitiæ illius verum est.
30Challenge not them that love wine: for wine hath destroyed very many.Non provocare i bravi bevitori: perocché molti sono stati sterminati dal vino.Prouoke not them that loue wine: for wine hath destroyed very manie.Diligentes in vino noli provocare: / multos enim exterminavit vinum. 31Fire trieth hard iron: so wine drunk to excess shall rebuke the hearts of the proud.Il fuoco prova la durezza del ferro; così il vino bevuto fino all'ebbrezza manifesta i cuori de' superbi.Fire tryeth hard yron: so wine dronken in drunkennes shal rebuke the hartes of the proud.Ignis probat ferrum durum: / sic vinum corda superborum arguet in ebrietate potatum. 32Wine taken with sobriety is equal life to men: if thou drink it moderately, thou shalt be sober.Buona vita per gli uomini è il vino usato con sobrietà: sarai sobrio, se ne berai con moderazione.Equal life to al men, wine in sobrietie: if thou drinke it moderatly, thou shalt be sober.Æqua vita hominibus vinum in sobrietate: / si bibas illud moderate, eris sobrius. 33What is his life, who is diminished with wine?Qual vita è quella di chi sta senza vino?What is the life that is diminished with wine?Quæ vita est ei qui minuitur vino ? 34What taketh away life? death.Che è quello, che ci priva della vita? la morte.What defraudeth life? death.Quid defraudat vitam ? mors. 35Wine was created from the beginning to make men joyful, and not to make them drunk.Il vino da principio fa creato per giocondità, non per l'ubbriachezza.Wine was created for ioyfulnes, and not for drunkēnes from the beginning.Vinum in jucunditatem creatum est, / et non in ebrietatem ab initio. 36Wine drunken with moderation is the joy of the soul and the heart.Il vino bevuto moderatamente rallegra l'anima, e il cuore.Wine drunken moderately is the ioy of the soule, and the hart.Exsultatio animæ et cordis vinum moderate potatum. 37Sober drinking is health to soul and body.Il ber temperato è salute dell'anima, e del corpo.Sober drinking is health to soule and bodie.Sanitas est animæ et corpori sobrius potus. 38Wine drunken with excess raiseth quarrels, and wrath, and many ruins.Il troppo vino fa le contese, e l'ira, e molte rovine.Much wine drunken maketh prouocation, & wrath, & manie ruines.Vinum multum potatum irritationem, / et iram, et ruinas multas facit. 39Wine drunken with excess is bitterness of the soul.Il vino bevuto in copia è l'amarezza dell'anima.Much wine drunken is bitternes of the soule.Amaritudo animæ / vinum multum potatum. 40The heat of drunkenness is the stumblingblock of the fool, lessening strength and causing wounds.L'ubbriacchezza fa ardito lo stolta ad offendere, snerva le forze, ed è cagion di ferite.The couragiousnes of drunkennes, is offence of the vnwise, lessening the strength, and making woundes.Ebrietatis animositas, imprudentis offensio, / minorans virtutem, et faciens vulnera.
41Rebuke not thy neighbour in a banquet of wine: and despise him not in his mirth.In un convito dove si beve, non riprendere il prossimo, e noi disprezzare nella sua allegria:In a banquet of wine rebuke not thy neighbour: and despise him not in his mirth.In convivio vini non arguas proximum, / et non despicias eum in jucunditate illius. 42Speak not to him words of reproach: and press him not in demanding again.Non dirgli parola di ingiuria, e noi pressare col chiedergli il tuo.Speake not to him wordes of repoch: and presse him not in demanding againe.Verba improperii non dicas illi, / et non premas illum repetendo.
31:1
Haydock
Riches. Literally, "honesty" has this sense. (Haydock)
Worthington
The study of virtue and of the Scriptures removes temptations of the flesh. (St. Jerome, ad Rust.) (Worthington)
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Calmet
Hand. With too much anxiety. (Calmet)
Calmet
Greek, "the solicitude of watching will drive away slumber, and a grievous malady will moderate sleep," (Grabe; Haydock) or "sleep will alleviate a severe illness," as experience evinces. (Calmet)
31:4
31:5
Justified. He is exposed to various temptations, 1 Timothy 6:9.
31:7
Calmet
To it. Being a sort of idol, Colossians 3:5. (Calmet)
Woe. Greek, "and every," etc.
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St. Augustine
Nor, etc. Greek, (9.) who, etc. "Pride is the worm of riches." (St. Augustine)
St. Bernard
"In delights, chastity is endangered; and humility in the midst of riches." (St. Bernard, conv. Cler. xxx.)
Calmet
Not to transgress, on such occasions, is the greatest miracle. (Calmet)
Worthington
Man has free will, and those are happy, who, by God's grace, do not abuse it. (Worthington)
31:11
Haydock
In, etc. Alexandrian Greek, "and wisdom (Grabe substitutes the Church) shall proclaim his alms." (Haydock)
Calmet
God will bless his riches. (Calmet)
31:12
Be, etc. Greek, "do not open," (Haydock) shew not too much greediness.
31:14
Wicked. Jealous or avaricious, as if the person feared lest he should have to prepare the like sumptuous entertainment, Proverbs 23:1. Judas blamed the profusion of Magdalene, John 12:5.
31:15
Calmet
Face. Or portion set before him, 1 Kings 1:5. (Calmet)
Calmet
When. Greek, "wheresoever it, (Haydock) or he (Calmet) shall look, stretch not forth thy hand, and strive not with him in the dish. Judge," etc. Let the envious person (Haydock) or the master be served first. (Calmet)
31:19
Use. Greek, "in all act considerately. Eat like a man," etc., (Haydock) not like a beast.
31:20
Calmet
First. Yet not too soon, lest the others should seem to be gluttons. (Calmet)
31:21
Haydock
Of all. Greek, "of them. How," etc. (Haydock)
Calmet
Politeness is grounded on virtue. (Calmet)
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Haydock
Wine. Greek specifies nothing, and to eat much is unwholesome. (Haydock)
31:23
Haydock
Choler. Or the cholic. The intemperate, infrunito, (Calmet) Greek, "insatiable," cannot sleep. (Haydock)
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Calmet
Vomit. Some have omitted this term as indelicate; but the Scripture does not approve of intemperance, while it advises the preventing of a disorder. A man's stomach may sometimes be innocently overcharged. On such occasions, an emetic was prescribed. The ancients had not the same horror of it as moderns, Proverbs 23:8. (Calmet)
Pro. R. Dejot
Cicero, addressing Caesar, says, Cum te vomere post caenam velli dixisses. (Pro. R. Dejot.)
And thou. Greek, "hear," etc.
31:27
Quick. Intemperance and idleness are the great sources of illness.
31:28
Calmet
Bread. And other provisions; while the miser is contemned, Proverbs 22:9. (Calmet)
Worthington
Bread supports the body, and instruction the soul. If it be bad, it does the reverse. (Worthington)
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Calmet
Challenge. Not to fight, or rather (Haydock) to drink, Isaias 5:22. (Calmet)
31:31
Calmet
Rebuke. Or disorder. Greek, "prove," (Haydock) or "lay open." (Calmet)
Horace
Consilium retegis Lydo. (Horace, 3:ode 21.)
31:32
Taken. Greek, "is as good as life," etc.
Thou shalt. Greek, "what," etc.
31:33
With. Greek, "destitute of wine, (35.) and this was created to," etc.
31:35
And not. Greek, (36.) "sufficient wine taken in season is the," etc.
31:37
Haydock
Sober. Greek, (39.) "wine," etc. (Haydock)
Laertius i
Anacharsis said that "the vine bore three clusters; the first of pleasure, the second of drunkenness, the third of discontent." (Laertius i.)
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Curtius viii
Reproach. Alexander [the Great] transfixed Clytus for so doing. (Curtius viii.)
Drusius
Again. By the pernicious custom of drinking healths, which still prevails in some countries, (Calmet) and occasions people to get drunk. (Drusius)
Haydock
Such abuses ought to be discouraged by every one. (Haydock)
31:1
They that imploy al their studie to getre vertues, shal be more free from tentations of the flesh.
And from drawsines of mind: whereupon S Ierom admonisheth: Loue the studies of holie Scriptures, and thou vvilt not loue the vices of the fresh. Epist ad Rusticum Monach.
31:10
It is in mans freewil to transgresse, & therfore they are happie, that through Gods grace do not breake his commandments.
31:19
Prou. ••.
31:28
Concordance Prou. 22.
31:29
As bread is the chiefe sustenāce of the bodie, so doctrine is of the minde, which being good nourisheth, & if it be bad corrupteth them that receiue it.
31:36
Concordance Psa. 103.
31:37
Concordance Prou 31.
31:1
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Philippians 2
… For it is said, “The anxieties of wealth drive away sleep.” (
31:9
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Duties of the Clergy 2.14
… What is greater than the man that knows not how to be excited at the thought of money, and has a contempt for riches, and looks down as from some lofty vantage-ground on the desires of men? Men think that one who acts thus is more than man: “Who is this,” it says, “and we will praise him. For wonderful things hath he done in his life.”
31:20
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 16
… Twofold the war, in the body, and in the soul: twofold the storm: twofold the diseases; not only in this respect, but because they are both incurable, and bring with them great calamities. Not so, frugality: but here is twofold health, twofold the benefits. “Sleep of health,” we read, “is in moderate eating.” (
31:22
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 25
… These things I say, and shall not cease to say, not [as] preparing you to commit murder: nor as urging you to some crime short of that; but that you may not be confident, as if you were not to give account. “For” (it says) “he that taketh away a livelihood” ( Ecclus. xxxiv. 22 ) and asketh bread, it says.
31:1
For "honesty" in Greek is πλούτου, that is, riches; and thus often in this book Sirach understands riches by honesty: for these make those who possess them honest; indeed, honored in the house, in food, in clothing, in office, etc. Again, for "thought" in Greek is μέριμνα, that is, care, anxiety, solicitude, concerning which he spoke in the preceding chapter, in the penultimate verse, that it brings on premature, that is, swift and untimely old age. He therefore pursues the same thing here and teaches, says Jansenius, how harmful to man is that care especially which is in the avaricious, those eager for money: inasmuch as it takes away its vigor from the flesh and necessary sleep. Thus the sense is: Excessive wakefulness, which is undertaken for acquiring riches, and nocturnal vigil, which is often undertaken on account of wealth, wastes away the flesh of man, and makes the body weak and exhausted, and care for acquiring riches often takes away from man sleep necessary for life. Therefore, by indicating the harm of avaricious solicitude, he tacitly admonishes that the pursuit of riches ought to be moderated, and anxious solicitude ought to be laid aside, and we ought to be content with what is present, and commit our affairs to God. Secondly, Palacius takes "honesty" here in the moral sense, namely the honest good, that is, probity and chastity. This letter, he says, as it stands, provides many and beautiful teachings. The first is, that care for probity, and especially for chastity, consumes the flesh, and does not allow it to grow fat: for if the vehement care of a virtuous wife, how to please her husband, wastes away her flesh, how much more will not the care how to please God waste it away? The second is: Thought of probity takes away sleep: for intent thought prevents a pure heart from sleeping, and she said: "I sleep, and my heart watcheth;" and another rises in the middle of the night to confess to the Lord. But the Greek πλούτου signifies honesty, not moral, but physical, namely substance and wealth. The former sense therefore is the literal one. Whence the Zurich version translates: The pursuit of riches consumes the body with wasting, and their solicitude drives away sleep; others: To watch over riches wastes away the flesh, and solicitude for them takes away sleep; the Syriac: Wakefulness wastes away the flesh of the rich man, and care takes away his sleep. It is a metaphor from fire melting wax, as if to say: Just as fire melts and consumes wax, so constant wakefulness, the solicitude of acquiring, preserving and increasing wealth, wastes away (in Greek ἐκτήκει, that is, melts and consumes) the flesh, both on account of wakefulness and on account of solicitude. For, as Aristotle says, Ethics, book I: "An animal always wakeful labors," either in perceiving, or in moving, or in thinking, attending and applying itself to something; wakefulness therefore is labor; but labor consumes man, and any animal. Mystically, Rabanus: "Wakefulness of honesty is the cautious vigilance of the mind with the pursuit of virtues, which wastes away the flesh; because in the elect of God it mortifies carnal pleasures. For thought of it takes away sleep; because the intent solicitude which they have daily in the service of God drives away from them the weariness of sloth. Whence the Prophet, who felt himself making progress in the service of God, and growing in His love, says: How have I loved thy law, O Lord! it is my meditation all the day. I will exercise myself in thy commandments, and I will consider thy ways. Pierce thou my flesh with thy fear; for I was afraid of thy judgments," Psalm 118. First, Palacius and Lyra think that here two things are proposed which turn a man away from sin, namely, God's foreknowledge and infirmity, as if to say: To think that God sees, indeed foreknows, and before they happen, foresees all our actions, turns the sense away from worldly things and the alluring pleasures of this life; in like manner "serious infirmity makes the soul" luxuriating and flowing in luxury temperate and "sober," which the wine of human prosperity had made drunk. Second, Jansenius, as if to say: "The thought of foreknowledge," that is, the care and solicitude of the rich, that they foresee and provide for themselves with riches and all things in the future throughout their whole life and that of their children, "turns away" the mind of man from what is right, from God and the thought of salvation, and inebriateth it as it were with riches and immerses it; on the other hand "serious infirmity makes the soul sober," as if to say: Therefore solicitude is worse than serious infirmity, and therefore it itself is the greatest infirmity; because it makes the soul utterly intemperate and drunk, which infirmity makes temperate and sober. Third and genuinely, as if to say: "The thought of foreknowledge," that is, anxious thoughts, by which the rich and avaricious think constantly about the future events of their merchandise and things, so that they always increase their riches, never content with the present, but ever striving after the future; these, I say, thoughts turn away the sense, namely from rest and sleep, of which the discourse went before; because they do not allow a man to rest and sleep, "and," that is, thus or in like manner, "serious infirmity makes the soul sober;" "sober," that is, wakeful and deprived of sleep. It is a metalepsis and catachresis; for sobriety and abstinence cause wakefulness and make the sick man sleepless. For he compares anxious thoughts, namely the solicitude of heaping up riches, with serious infirmity, because as this, so also that shakes off sleep, and deprives man of due rest, as if to say: The solicitude of the avaricious is the gravest disease of the mind; because as disease afflicts and eats away at a man, and makes him sleepless; so likewise solicitude torments, gnaws and always makes him wakeful. That this is the meaning is evident first from what precedes and follows, which all censure the solicitude of enriching oneself and heaping up riches; second, from the Greek, which clearly has it thus: The solicitude of wakefulness (that is, wakeful) will interrupt slumber, and serious infirmity ἐκνίψει ὕπνον, that is, will wash away or digest, that is, will take away sleep; Zurich: Wakeful solicitude prevents (Vatable refuses) sleep, and grave sickness takes away sleep. For ἐκνίψει others read ἐκνήψει, that is, will make sober and wakeful; because biting care makes a man, although drowsy, wakeful, so that he is roused from sleep a thousand times and awakens. Moreover the Complutensian and Roman editions for ὕπνον read ὕπνος. For thus they have: Καὶ ἀξρώς νόσον βαρεῖα ἐκνήψει ὕπνος. Whence thus they translate: And serious infirmity sleep will digest, or will make moderate. By which it is signified that the solicitude of the rich is a worse disease of the mind than is serious bodily infirmity; because sleep diminishes and alleviates this, which the solicitous lack: for solicitude shakes sleep from the solicitous man, and therefore gives him no rest, but constantly pricks, afflicts, torments, eats away, consumes. Therefore of these two verses, the first and second, this is the meaning: Wakeful care of acquiring riches consumes the flesh, and to think about them intently and too anxiously takes away sleep; in like manner sleep is taken away by "the thought of foreknowledge," by which namely they think about future events, so that they might foresee them and avert them, if they are evil; or bring them about, if they are good; just as serious infirmity stirs up sleep.
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Mystically Rabanus: "The thought," he says, "which a man has in the fear of God, foreknowing that all things which sacred Scripture foretells about the future reward of the good and the coming punishment of the wicked are true, turns away the sense of man from all evil desire, lest he desire to have it in possession, or fulfill it in wicked longing, which he knows displeases his Creator. Similarly also grave infirmity of the body makes the soul sober from sins. Whence elsewhere it is written: The mark of the wound shall wipe away evils, and stripes in the more secret parts of the belly. For the mark of the wound shall wipe away evils, because the pain of scourges either washes away thought-out or perpetrated wickedness. Now the belly is usually understood to mean the mind; because as the belly consumes foods, so the mind by turning over burns up angers. Because indeed the belly is called the mind, that doctrine is taught by which it is written: The lamp of the Lord is the breath of man, which searcheth all the secrets of the belly. As if he said, the illumination of Divine light, when it has come into the mind of man, showing it to itself illuminated, reveals what before the coming of the Holy Spirit it could both carry in wicked thoughts and did not know how to weigh. The mark therefore of the wound shall wipe away evils, and stripes in the more secret parts of the belly; because we are struck outwardly, when we recall ourselves to the memory of our sins silent and afflicted, and bring before our eyes all things which have been done badly by us; and through that which we suffer outwardly, we grieve more inwardly for what we have done. Whence it comes to pass that among the open wounds of the body the secret wound of the belly washes us more abundantly; because the hidden wound of sorrow heals the wickedness of evil work. Hence also Paul says: When I am weak, then am I powerful. For when he endured outwardly the scourges of persecutions, inwardly he grew by the gift of spiritual graces." Which Rabanus transcribed word for word from St. Gregory, III part. Pastor. admonit. 13, toward the end. He taught that the condition of the rich and the poor is very different, and the labor which each expends to gather wealth; for "he labored," that is, he is accustomed to labor, "the rich in," that is, for "the gathering of substance;" so that namely he may gather substance and wealth: "the poor" truly labors "in," that is, on account of, "the diminution of food," namely on account of poverty, by which his food is diminished and he is destitute, as if to say, The poor man labors not so much that he may become rich, as that he may live, and by laboring draw out and prolong his life; but the rich man does not labor that he may procure food, because he abounds in it, but that having collected wealth he may add greater things, become wealthy and splendid. Again: "The rich in his rest shall be filled with his goods," that is, the rich man, when he ceases to labor and gather wealth, and rests content with what he has acquired, "shall be filled with goods," that is, shall live luxuriously and splendidly, shall delight and enjoy his riches. But the poor man, when he wishes to rest, or is forced on account of old age or sickness to cease from labor, shall become needy and be forced to beg. Whence the Greek texts have: The rich man labored in gathering money, and in his rest he is filled with his delights. The poor man labored in the want of food, and in his rest he becomes needy. Thus Lyra, Jansenius and others. Secondly, the Zurich version translated: The rich man labors in gathered wealth, and in rest is occupied with his riches; the poor man labors in scanty life, and becomes needy in rest. Which Vatable thus explains, as if to say, "By excessive anxiety both the rich and the wretched poor man is miserable. For he in time of rest and sleep, thinking of his poverty, becomes moreover afflicted: that one is tormented by care of his gains." All things indeed tend to this, that the misery of anxiety be signified, which is accustomed to be in gathering wealth. Finally, Palacius holds that it is signified here that the rich become very wealthy with little labor; the poor, however, with great labor scarcely obtain necessities for life. The poor man is admonished, he says, not to wish to become rich excessively, because the rich man is filled with goods by easy labor; but the poor man, who (even diminishing his own sustenance) wishes to become rich, finally becomes destitute. A certain rich man, when asked how he had become rich, replied excellently: When I was poor, I acquired riches with great labor; when I was rich, I prepared them with great ease. For by a single journey to the Indies the rich man prepares for himself more wealth than a wretched farmer does throughout his whole life. This is supported by that saying: "It is easier to make ten asses from one ass than to make one ass from half an ass." The same principle holds in spiritual commerce, as is evident in St. Paul, the Apostles and apostolic men, who by one heroic act accomplished more than we do by very many. Whence "poor," says Varro, "is said from paulula re (a small thing)," or "from paulo ære" (or from little money): rich, from divo, who, like God, seems to need nothing." Mystically, the rich are fervent and diligent Saints in accumulating good works and merits: these become very wealthy in virtues and merits with little labor; the poor, however, that is, the remiss and lukewarm, with great labor, which they undergo, and which is often produced by their own sloth and torpor, make little progress in holiness. Whence Rabanus: "The just man labors," he says, "in the congregation of spiritual substance, namely in meditating upon the knowledge of Holy Scripture, and in gathering the fruits of good virtues; for all these things after the end of the present life he shall receive eternal rest. On the other hand, the poor man, lacking knowledge and virtue, labors daily in earthly desires, for which at the end he shall not have abundance of heavenly joy, but shall endure the pains and sorrows of hell." Wherefore wisely St. Bernard, sermon 4 On the Advent: "True riches," he says, "are not wealth, but virtues, which conscience carries with it, so that one becomes rich forever." And St. Gregory, homily 15 in the Gospel: "Riches are deceptive," he says, "which cannot remain with us long; they are deceptive, which do not dispel the poverty of our mind; but true riches alone are those which make us rich in virtues. If therefore, brethren, you wish to be rich, love true riches." It is a meiosis, for little is said and more is signified: "Shall not be justified," that is, he does not become so just that he does not become unjust and wicked; for the desire of gold impels the avaricious man to usury, frauds, illicit contracts. Whence that common saying: "The rich man is either unjust, or the heir of an unjust man." Secondly, "shall not be justified" signifies not only the guilt of injustice, but also its punishment. For to be justified among the Hebrews, first, means to be or become just; secondly, to be pronounced just, declared, judged, absolved. He therefore who loves gold, "shall not be justified," that is, shall not be declared just; but shall be judged unjust, condemned and punished. Whence the Zurich version translates: The lover of gold shall not be held as innocent, that is, innocent, and consequently unpunished, but as guilty shall be sharply punished. For as the text explaining adds: "And he who pursues corruption," in Greek διαφθοράν, that is, corruption, namely gold and perishable and corruptible wealth, shall be filled with it. He who pursues corruptible wealth shall be filled with things quickly to be corrupted, and with them, nay through them and before them, shall shortly be corrupted and perish, so that with corruption and the corruptible thing, which he loved with such ardor, he shall be completely filled even to the neck. It hints that wealth is the ruin of many, both because on account of it many are killed by thieves and others who covet wealth, and because the labor and anxiety of acquiring, increasing and preserving wealth consumes and wears out man, and because wealth produces delights, luxury, gluttony and excess, which kills more than the sword. Whence the Zurich version translates: And he who pursues destruction shall be filled with the same. Thus Palacius: He who entirely loves gold, he says, preferring it like an idol to all other things, cannot be just while he loves thus. For no one can have two gods, and no one can serve God and mammon. And he who pursues these corruptible and consumable things shall be filled with corruption and decay. For the soul shall be subject to fire, the flesh to worms forever. But on the contrary, the soul which loves justice becomes just and is saturated with it; which adheres to divine immortality becomes one spirit with it, and therefore becomes altogether immortal. For he says: "He who believes in me (as he ought) shall not die forever," John XI, 26.
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First, Palacius understands by the falls of gold the precipices of gold, into which he rushes who covets it. For gold is, he says, as it were a certain very difficult mountain having many precipices, into which he who wishes to seize gold with his hands is wont to fall headlong; from afar the summit of the mountain is seen, where gold shines with beautiful appearance; but, while you run to overtake it, your body falls into precipices, where you perish. Therefore gold has a beautiful appearance, but conceals many precipices, into which you fall before you enjoy the gold. The apple was beautiful in appearance, which Adam ate; but he fell into death before he ate it. Thus the Parthians, when they had slain M. Crassus, the Roman general, insulted him: "You thirsted for gold, drink gold." Hence the avaricious man is called as it were eager for gold, because he is never satisfied with it, as St. Isidore says, book X of the Origins, letter A. Second and more plainly: "Many are given into the falls of gold," that is, into falls and ruins on account of gold, as the Greek texts have it, that is to say, Many have fallen into grave losses of body and soul on account of gold. See what is said in 1 Timothy VI, 10. It is a hypallage. Moreover the Greek texts now have it thus: Many are given into the fall of gold for the sake of it, and their destruction came to pass before their face, that is to say, Seeing and living, and therefore groaning and raging, they are destroyed; for destruction and harm is felt less when one perishes sleeping, or secretly and unknowingly, nor noticing, as when he is killed by ambush or poison; but it is felt much more when one perishes awake, seeing and knowing both the destruction itself and its cause, namely that he himself has created this evil for himself through the desire of gold. Whence the Zurich version translates: Many on account of gold are given to fall, and they have prepared destruction before their eyes; others: Many are ruined for the sake of gold, and their destruction happened before their face. Wherefore wisely Nazianzenus, in the Distichs: "Do not love," he says, "those riches which time destroys; for whatever time has built up, the same it also overthrows." Furthermore St. Bernard adds: "The love of riches," he says, "is insatiable and torments the soul far more by desire than it refreshes it by use; inasmuch as their acquisition is found to be full of labor, their possession of fear, their loss of pain." Aristotle, book X of the Ethics, asserts that excessive riches harm contemplation, and therefore the highest happiness. Certainly all experience that peace is not lightly disturbed by them. Anacreon, having received two talents from Polycrates of Samos, when he had not slept for two nights, from care of guarding or placing them; he returned them to the giver, adding that he did not value them so much as the trouble they had caused him. Horace beautifully, in the Satires 1: Or to keep watch in terror lifeless: and nights and days To fear evil thieves, fires, servants. are to be thought a poison? This one indeed makes toothless, that one blinds, this one devastates the brain, that one pierces the vital organs, these devour the genitals, one flays, another docks the tail. Is it not thus that riches collected by imprudent men through the ingenious force of avarice lacerate their possessors with many vices, deprave their lovers, while a magniloquent tongue wounds the mouth, envy the countenance, sloth the head, gluttony the belly, lust the genitals, infamy the body, and the lack of virtues devastates the whole? O evil good, so hateful! O blessed poverty! O foolishly beloved evil! O unhappy wealth! For the rest, a poor little skin is the richest to me, and a vile one pleases me more than a precious one. I would certainly prefer now to be a monkey without a tail, than a peacock with a tail." that is to say, Gold, which the avaricious worship as their own idol and divinity, and to which they sacrifice all their labor, thought, affection and cares, is wood, against which they themselves strike, dash and fall into a thousand evils and death itself. Whence the Zurich version translates: It is wood of offense to those sacrificing in it; woe to those pursuing it, every foolish person will be caught by it; others: It is wood of offense or scandal to those sacrificing in it, and every senseless person will be caught by it. But the "woe to those who pursue it" is not in the Greek. You will ask, what is this "wood of offense?" First, Rabanus refers "wood of offense" to the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which was an offense and occasion of ruin to the first parents, Genesis III, that is to say, Just as that tree destroyed Adam and Eve, so gold destroys the avaricious. Second, Palacius thinks there is an allusion to the brazen serpent, Numbers XXI, that is to say, Just as this serpent was an occasion and cause of health to those beholding it, so on the contrary gold is to the avaricious an occasion of death. But truly this brazen serpent was of bronze, not of wood, nor wood of offense, as is said here. Third, more plainly Jansenius understands by wood of offense a piece of wood which, like a stone in the way, is placed to pave the way, to mark it, to define it, or for other causes often fortuitous, against which travelers easily strike, just as against stones, unless they are watchful and careful. Therefore, just as there is a stone of offense and rock of scandal, so there is also wood of the same kind; which is especially the wood in the middle supporting an open mousetrap, which when a mouse enters, it overturns upon itself, and the mousetrap closes, presses down and kills it. Whence many think the name of scandal is derived; for this wood is to mice a scandal, ruin and destruction. Fourth, Palacius again more sublimely thinks there is an allusion to idols, which formerly idolaters, especially the poor, made from wood, just as from bronze or gold, as is evident from Isaiah XLIV, 13, Wisdom XIII, 11, that is to say. Just as wooden idols were to idolaters a scandal, offense and ruin; so is gold to the avaricious; to the avaricious, I say, who imprudently with blind cupidity
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gaze upon it, and therefore blind in the hidden dangers of roads, robbers, thieves, etc., throws himself into peril, indeed rushes headlong, and therefore perishes and falls. For the moderate rich man, who carefully and prudently pursues gold, will so far from perish in it, that through it he often escapes perdition and death, indeed redeems death and all evil with gold. Whence it follows: He has taught how harmful is the desire for gold and riches, which the avaricious labor under; whence now on the contrary he teaches how fruitful and glorious is the contempt of riches, so much so that it makes the rich man happy and blessed, that is to say, Blessed is the rich man, not he who covets riches, nor he who abounds in riches, nor he who places his hopes in them, and boasts and prides himself in them; but he who lives in riches "without blemish" and blamelessly, and who does not pursue gold, nor hopes and relies in it, but in God. He, I say, is happy and blessed: first, because he is whole and blameless; for a good conscience, integrity and justice is the happiness of this life. Second, because it is a great and rare good, and a gift of God, that a rich man does not set his heart upon his riches; but keeps himself from them untouched, free and exalted, so that he rules them as a master, not serves them as a slave. Third, because such a man, although he is rich in wealth, is nevertheless poor in spirit: but poverty of spirit is the first perfection and happiness of the Gospel, according to that saying of Christ: "Blessed are the poor in spirit," that is in mind and affection, "for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," Matthew V. "Great is the happiness of Christians," says St. Augustine, sermon 28 On the Words of the Apostle, "to whom it has been given to make poverty the price of the kingdom of heaven. Let not poverty displease you; nothing richer can be found in it. Do you wish to know how wealthy it is? It purchases heaven." Therefore in spirit and by choice the poor turn the want which they have loved into abundance, as St. Salvianus says. Fourth, because such a man tends rightly to eternal happiness in heaven, according to the promise of Christ already recited. "For blessed," says St. Isidore, book X of the Origins, letter B, "is said as it were well increased, namely from having what he wishes, and suffering nothing that he does not wish. But he truly is blessed who both has all the good things he wishes, and wishes nothing evil: from these two things man is made blessed." Note: It was the heresy of the Pelagians that a rich man cannot keep the precepts of God and be saved; wherefore in order that he be saved, it is required that he renounce riches and become poor, as St. Augustine relates, epistle 106 to Paulinus, and book II On Original Sin, chapter XI. Indeed, the sixth article of Pelagius, condemned in the Council of Diospolis, reads thus: "Rich men who are baptized, unless they renounce all things, if they seem to do anything good, it is not reckoned to them, nor can they have
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the kingdom of God." The same is evident from the little book On Riches, falsely ascribed to Pope Sixtus III, which is found in volume V of the Library of the Holy Fathers. For it is clear from its entire argument that this is the work of some Pelagian, which aims to prove that all the rich, even if they have a numerous offspring, if they wish to be saved, are bound to renounce riches and become poor. This was the error of Pelagius, as the doctors of Paris and Louvain rightly observed. Therefore, Sirach teaches the contrary here, namely that a rich man can be blessed and saved in his riches, if he has three conditions. The first is, if he lives "without blemish," that is without grave and mortal sin; the Zurich edition says, without crime, so that he observes the laws of God, as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job and the like did. The second is, "who went not after gold:" the Zurich edition, who did not follow gold, but God and His kingdom, according to that saying of Christ: "Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and his justice: and all these things shall be added unto you," Matthew VI, 33. Whence Palacius: If gold, he says, comes to you by right, you do not go after it; but if you seek gold unjustly, you go after it. If I acquire gold by a gracious gift, by hereditary right, by a just art, gold comes to me; but if I pursue it by fair means and foul, if on account of it I violate the sacred and divine things, or transgress the laws of the Church, I go after gold; because I set gold before me as it were a guide of the way and of life, and after it as a slave I follow and am borne with all my love, affection and effort. Thus the Jews were said to go after strange gods, when, abandoning God, they worshipped them; in a similar way the miser, when he worships gold as an idol, goes after it. If gold coming lawfully I embrace, I do not sin; but if by an unlawful manner I seek gold, plainly fleeing I pursue gold; and therefore I become miserable, who wished to be happy in seeking, says Palacius. The third: "Nor put his trust in money and treasures." This follows from the second; for he who, abounding in riches, does not set his heart upon them, but turns the eyes of his mind away from them and fixes them upon God, does not trust in them; but he trusts in them who, almost forgetting God, places his heart, and consequently his hope, in gold. For he hopes through gold to overcome all the inconveniences of this life and to obtain all its advantages, namely honors, a large household, a splendid table, the friendship of princes, victory over enemies, etc. Hence secondly by metonymy you may explain thus: "Nor put his trust," that is nor was he proud, did not exalt himself, did not boast and show off, "in money and treasures." For hope of great things puffs up the mind so that it becomes proud, and boasts and shows off. And, as St. Augustine says, sermon 3 On the Words of the Lord: "The worm of riches is pride;" for as a worm is born in an apple, so pride is born in gold. Hence Christ threatens the rich with "Woe," that is eternal damnation, Luke VI, 24. And Abraham gives the reason why the rich man is in hell at the feast, saying: "Son, remember that thou didst receive good things in thy lifetime," Luke XVI, 25. Christ finally, Matthew XIX, 24: "It is easier," he says, "for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven." Wherefore St. Paul warns the rich not to hope in the uncertainty of their riches, I Timothy VI. And St. Bernard, epistle 103: "Blessed," he says, "is he who went not after those things, which when possessed burden, when loved defile, when lost torment." Where in few words he touches upon three evils of wealth. Origen notes, book I on Job, that it is said: "Who went not after gold," but not after sheep, after cattle, after fields, as if to say, The rich man who goes not after gold is he who places his riches not in heaps of gold and silver, but in cattle and the fruits of the earth; although he does not deny that even he goes not after gold who, although he has it, does not apply himself to it avariciously, but distributes it liberally to the poor. For formerly the simple and innocent wealth of the ancients consisted in sheep, oxen, fields, which by their labor in cultivating them they prepared just food for themselves and theirs; as Job did, I, 3, Abraham and Lot, Genesis XIII, 5. Innocence therefore produced agriculture, but avarice produced treasures of gold and silver; although there can be excess even in fields and cattle, and an excessive desire to increase them, which therefore the rich man who wishes to be holy and blessed cuts off from himself; as Job, Abraham and the other Patriarchs cut it off. Wherefore under gold, understand sheep, oxen, fields and whatever is valued at the price of gold. Mystically, blessed is the rich man, that is, the holy man, who (as St. Ambrose says) is rich toward God, who cultivates virtue and holiness, who like a merchant labors in acquiring virtues, who seeks riches that never perish, who does not hope in his own possessions, but in the merits of Christ. This rich man is then blessed when he is without blemish, namely when he washes away even the light stains of venial sins, and declines them as much as he can. But the same man is blessed and tranquil; wherefore light stains, which disturb blessedness, will also disturb tranquility. The saint will therefore prudently avoid them, so that he may remain and persist blessed and tranquil. In Greek, among his people: because a rich man rarely lacks the blemish of injustice, pride, gluttony, etc.; more rarely is one found who is content with gold when it comes; most rarely, who does not hope in it and turn his mind away from it; therefore, as if speaking of something rare, wonderful and exceptional, he says: "Who is this, and we will praise him?" that is to say, Such men are few and rare, but great, exceptional and admirable. "For he has done wonderful things in his life." For first, it is wonderful and as it were a miracle, that contrary to the common sense and custom of men, he does not love riches inordinately; but in seeking, increasing and preserving them, he keeps his conscience unspotted and whole: for riches are the enticements of ambition, pride, gluttony, wrath, and other crimes: whence many rich men are proud, luxurious, wrathful, imperious; while the poor are humble, frugal, meek, submissive. "Why not," says St. Bernard, On Conversion to Clerics, chapter XXX, "should chastity be endangered in delights, humility in riches, piety in business, truth in much speaking, charity in this wicked age?" The same, book II On Consideration, chapter XII: "Great is he who, falling into adversity, does not fall away or falls little from wisdom: nor is he less great, to whom present happiness, if it has smiled, has not mocked. Although you will more easily find those who retained wisdom when fortune was contrary to them, than those who did not lose it when it was favorable. The second miracle is, that he did not go after gold, but gold went after him. For as a shadow follows the body, so honor follows the fugitive, and riches follow the contemner. Therefore, to despise gold while you have it is of a great and wonderful spirit. This man is richer than any rich man who swims in gold, and yet is not satisfied by it. Most excellently Seneca, book II On Poverty: "No one," he says, "is worthy of God except he who despises riches; this is what riches do, they puff up minds, they produce pride and arrogance, they contract envy, they so alienate the mind that we are delighted by the fame of money, even when it harms us." And in epistle 88, speaking against the Peripatetics, he shows that riches are evil. Therefore, in epistle 20, he says: "Great is he who is poor in riches; but more secure is he who lacks riches: for riches not only do not make a man good, but do not even make him rich; because they do not extinguish avarice. But true riches are a composed poverty according to the law of nature, which alone extinguishes avarice: for he is not poor who has little, but he who desires more; for each man lacks as much as he desires: therefore the shortest path to riches is through contempt of riches." And Epicurus was accustomed to say: "If you live according to nature, you will never be poor; if according to opinion, you will never be rich: for nature desires little, opinion desires immensely." Moreover, Boethius showed that riches are not good, book II of Consolation, from the fact that they shine only when we spend them; not when we accumulate them. Furthermore, whoever heaps up and magnifies riches, acts contrary to nature in many ways: first, because nature has subjected to our feet those things which are earthly and proceed from the earth: but we venerate them as idols, and place them above our head. Moreover, because true riches are made common by nature; but we, by heaping them up, strive to make them our own, and contrary to nature we take away from all the needy what is common to all. Furthermore, whoever is engaged in accumulating riches frequently, led by desire, does violence to their possessors. Finally, they use violence: because we are said to do violence to something when we detain it so that it does not reach its end: just as we do violence to heavy things when we hinder them from tending to the center: the end of riches and money is use and expenditure; therefore, while we heap them up, we detain them so that they do not attain their end, and therefore we do violence to them. For this reason Aristotle in the first book of the Nicomachean Ethics, book III, said that the highest good is not placed in riches, because a life devoted to money
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βιαία τίς ἐστιν, that is, in some manner it exerts force, or it is violent: and it is said to be violent for various reasons, as I have made clear, and especially the last. Finally it is a saying of Pindar: "Blessed is he who possesses both wealth and wisdom." St. Gregory Nazianzen divinely teaches that true riches, delights and honors do not consist in their pursuit, but in their contempt. This appears paradoxical, yet truly the matter stands thus. Whence, praising monks: "Their," he says, "riches are in poverty, possession in pilgrimage, glory in contempt, power in weakness, fruitfulness in celibacy (since those offspring are more excellent which exist according to God than those which derive their origin from the flesh): who regard it as having delights not to strive for delights, who are humble for the sake of the heavenly kingdom, who have nothing in the world and exist above the world, who even in the flesh live outside the flesh, who have the Lord as their portion, who labor in want for the sake of the kingdom, and reign because of want." True riches therefore are want, true glory is inglory. The third miracle is that he does not hope in his money, as the world does, but in the living and true God: and therefore for God's sake and love, he uses gold for His glory, by feeding the poor, Religious, God's ministers, sacred places, etc. There follow two other marvels, concerning which he says: "Who hath been tried," etc. "Such riches," says Origen, in book I on Job, "had that praiseworthy Job, chaste, pure, undefiled, uncontaminated. Concerning him, namely, and concerning those like him, it was said even unto eternity: Blessed is he that shall be found rich and just, who hath not gone after gold, nor hoped in the store of silver. For truly it is an inestimable and eternal blessedness that, when one hath become rich, he should not trust in gold, nor attend to the store of silver, but should lay up these things in the commandment of the Most High, and give them in alms to the poor, but sow and joyfully scatter them among the souls of the wretched, and through the mouths of the hungry, or through the mouths of the weak, through the destitute and miserable, according to that which was said: Sow to yourselves in justice, that you may reap the fruit of life," Hosea X, 12. Origen shows that St. Job did this, from his chapter XXXI. Some read more vigorously, it shall be to him unto eternal glory. See Francis Lucas here in annotation 274. The Greek texts have ἔσω or, as others, ἔσαι εἰς καύχημα, that is, it shall be, or let it be unto gloriation, so that God, Angels, and the rich just man himself may glory in him. "He is perfect," because trial and testing make him constant in it perfect. Thus the Roman, Latin and Greek texts. Many add, he was found perfect; the Zurich version, found whole; because the words of the Hebrews, being real, are often to be expounded by verbal or mental terms, so that the thing is said to be such or such, when it is found to be such, or is pronounced such, as I have shown in Jeremiah I, 10. Thus here he is said to be perfect who through the trial of gold is found perfect. WHO COULD TRANSGRESS, AND HATH NOT TRANSGRESSED; COULD DO EVIL, AND HATH NOT DONE IT. — More vigorously (although it comes to the same sense), the manuscript codices read these equally with the preceding verse by interrogation, and therefore for who, read who. For the Greek texts have τίς in these three verses, that is, who; whence thus they translate: Who hath been tried by it, and proved whole, and let this be to him for glory? Who could transgress, and hath not transgressed? and do evil, and hath not done it? The Zurich version: Who hath been tried by it, and found whole? let him be a specimen of glory. Who could sin, who hath not sinned? Who could do evil, who hath not done evil? that is to say, Rare is the rich man whose virtue tried by gold is found whole and perfect: wherefore whosoever he be, he is worthy of eternal glory with God and men. Rare is he who not only by free will, but much more by riches having the enticements of all sin, and being able to transgress all laws with impunity; yet hath transgressed none. For hence riches are called in Greek δυνάμεις, that is, forces, powers; and in Latin faculties, because they provide the faculty, power and strength both for virtues and for any vices whatsoever, according as the rich man has wished to use them for one or the other. For as is commonly said: "Gold is the magnet of the human heart." Fourth therefore is the wonderful thing and as it were a miracle that the rich man, tested by gold, is found perfect. Abraham was tested and tried, whether he loved his son rather than God: Job was tested and tried by calamities, whether on account of them he would curse God; thus the rich man is likewise filled with riches, that he may be tested whether he is captivated by confidence in them and love of them. It is wonderful for a young man to dwell among beautiful maidens, and not to be softened by their beauty. It is likewise wonderful to remain among gleaming riches, and not to be captivated by their gleam. Riches are called "a lie," are called "the deceitfulness of riches," are called "false vanities," are called "the bewitchment of worthlessness." How therefore wonderful to long remain among lies, and not to be deceived by them! to touch pitch and not to be defiled! Another miracle is to have been able to transgress, and not to have transgressed. For the poor man can often wish to sin: but he does not so have the power to do so. The rich man, however, who can do as he wishes, and to whom the faculty of sinning is always at hand, if he never commits crime, is that not wonderful? Note first, that riches are a temptation and a trial, as also is a beautiful woman. Whoever therefore desires to become rich, desires to expose himself to danger; would that he does not perish in it! Note second, that the rich man is perfect, if he lives without blame; for how would he who is imperfect not sin in such great license to sin? Note third, that riches are power, strength and faculty for sinning; they are also for doing good; but our misery is that we abuse them rather for evil. Thus Palacius. Elegantly from Rabanus and St. Bernard, Hugo: "Truly," he says, "voluntary poverty is a kind of martyrdom. For what is more wonderful, or what martyrdom more grievous, than to hunger amid feasts, to be cold amid garments, to be pressed by poverty amid riches, which the world shows, which the evil one offers, which our appetite desires? It is wonderful to touch fire, and not to be burned: to gather thorns, and not to be pricked: to carry stones, and not to be hurt. And riches are fire, and thorns, and stones." Wherefore truly the Philosopher: "What fire is to gold," he says, "that gold is to man; because as fire tests the purity of gold, so gold tests the purity of the heart." Among Maximus the Monk there exist these maxims of the wise, Sermon 12: Of Xenophon: "Poverty in itself is learned philosophy; for what this persuades by word, that compels by deed. Wealth is the covering of many evils;" Of Menander: "Blessed is he who has both riches and wisdom. For he uses them honorably, and as is fitting;" Of Democritus: "Many rich men are stewards, but not masters of their money;" Of Isocrates: "Be content with what is present, and seek what is to come;" Of Demonax: There are some who do not live in this present life, but with great effort prepare, as if they were about to live another life, not this present one; Of Philisthion: "Even if you were lord of ten thousand cubits of earth, yet when dead you will occupy only three or four." THERE SHALL BE ETERNAL GLORY FOR HIM: — because he looked upon this, and on account of this he despised temporal riches and glory. But how great is this reward? Who would not desire it, and for its sake despise all earthly and perishable things? For what and how great is eternity and eternal glory? "Eternity," says Richard of St. Victor, in his book On Eternity, "is duration without beginning and without end, lacking all mutability." And Gilbert the Universal: "Eternity is one singular and indivisible, simple and solitary abiding, in which there is neither comparison nor collection." Whence Boethius, book V of the Consolation of Philosophy, prose VI: "Now (a moment or point of duration) standing, not moving, makes itself eternity. Eternity therefore is the total and perfect possession of interminable life all at once." And St. Anselm: "Eternity of that thing is, which is nothing other than itself, immutable being and without parts," that is to say, Eternity is the duration of God, just as aevum is the duration of Angels, who have a beginning but lack an end, since God lacks both beginning and end. Hence Albert the Great in the Summa, part I, tract. V, Question XXIII: "Eternity," he says, "is said from ex, or extra, and terminus; namely because it is placed outside termination," that is to say, Exterminality or interminability. For eternity is an interminable age, lacking all end and termination. Others derive the name of eternity from the Greek ἀεί, that is, always, so that eternity is the same as sempiternity. Others derive it from aether; for in the aether and heaven all things are eternal, since under the sun all things are temporal. Better the grammarians: Eternity, they say, is said as if aviternality; for aevum is said from the Greek αἰών, as if ἀεὶ ὤν, that is, always existing; such however is eternity. Whence Varro, book V: "Aevum," he says, "is said from the age of all years; hence aeviternum, which was made eternal: this Chrysippus says is αἰών." But Isidore, book VII of the Origins, chapter I: "Eternal is (God), because he is without time. For he has neither beginning nor end. Hence also sempiternal, in that he is always eternal. By some however eternal is believed to be said from aether, because heaven is held to be his seat. Whence is that saying: The heavens of heavens are the Lord's. And these four things signify one; for one and the same thing is said, whether it be said eternal God, or immortal, or incorruptible, or immutable." Yet in reason prior is being immutable; because God is immutable, hence he is immortal and eternal. Finally, piously and learnedly St. Augustine, book XI of the Confessions, chapter XI, describes eternity and compares it with time: "O wisdom of God, light of minds, they do not yet understand how those things come to be which are made through you and in you, and they strive to understand eternal things; but still their heart flutters in the movements of past and future things, and still it is vain. Who will hold it and fix it, so that it may stand a little while, and may seize a little of the splendor of always-standing eternity, and compare it with times never standing, and see it to be incomparable; and see that long time is not made long except from many passing movements, which cannot be extended at the same time; but nothing passes away in the eternal, but all is present? and see that all the past is driven out by the future, and all the future follows from the past; and all past and future are created and run forth from that which is always present? Who will hold the heart of man, so that it may stand and see how standing it dictates future and past times, neither future nor past eternity?" And again, chapter XIII: "Your years neither go nor come; but ours both go and come, so that all may come. Your years all stand together, because they stand; nor are they excluded by coming from going, because they do not pass away; but ours will all be, when all will not be. Your years are one day, and your day is not daily, but today; because your today does not yield to tomorrow, nor succeeds yesterday. Your today is eternity; therefore you begot one coeternal with you, to whom you said: I have begotten you today."
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as if to say, Therefore from God he will obtain stable and eternal glory, and from men, especially from the faithful and saints, perpetual praise. For he sets in opposition the Church, that is the assembly of Saints, to the assembly of the impious, who praise the rich, not the just, sober and God-fearing; but the unjust, rapacious, gluttonous, prodigal, so that they may enjoy their wealth. "In the Lord" is the same as "from the Lord," "before the Lord," "through the Lord," "in the mind, memory, recompense, destination and decree of the Lord." Yet he says "in the Lord" more forcefully than "from the Lord," as if to say, In the very treasures of the Lord, in his very coffers, and thus in the very bowels of God, these goods of the rich almsgiver are kept safe, stable and faithfully. The Greek texts concisely have thus: "His goods shall be established, and his almsdeeds the Church shall declare." The Hebrews call almsgiving חסד chesed, that is piety, namely a pious work by which wealth and works are conferred upon the poor, the religious, temples and other pious things: just as St. Gregory distributed all the wealth of the Church upon the poor of Italy, indeed of the whole world. Thus also St. Bernard, in epistle 95, citing this sentence of Sirach, declares and celebrates the almsdeeds of the Archbishop of York. Note: "His goods are established," or, as it is in Greek, "shall be established," can be understood in two ways: first, concerning stability, that is the eternity of glory prepared for him by God in heaven, as if to say, His good works are stably preserved before God, so that after the death of Christ he may reward them with stable, indeed eternal glory. Whence the Zurich version translates: "For his virtues" (it seems to have read ἀρεταί for ἀγαθά) "shall be established; and the assembly of Saints shall declare his good deeds"; others: "His good deeds shall be firm, and his mercies the Church shall declare." Second, concerning the stability of goods, that is of wealth, as if to say, The rich man's goods, that is his wealth, through his sanctity and almsgiving shall be established, that is God will make them firm and stable for him: just as conversely from the unjust and impious he takes away wealth, according to that saying: "The third heir does not rejoice in ill-gotten gains." Whence learn morally here that almsdeeds and justice establish for the rich their wealth; but tenacity and injustice loosen, weaken and take it away. This wise merchants know, who secure their merchandise, ships and profits through almsdeeds and pious works. The same thing St. Paul teaches, II Corinthians IX: "God," he says, "is able to make all grace abound towards you: that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound in every good work." And soon after: "Now he that administers seed to the sower will both give you bread to eat, and will multiply your seed (of wealth and almsdeeds), and will increase the growth of the fruits of your justice." Third, Palacius takes any goods here; for thus he explains the previous member, as if to say, If the rich man does not transgress, his goods shall be established, namely temporal and spiritual goods. For just as Abraham, tested in his son, did not lose him, but received him more stably: so the rich man, tested in his riches, and blameless in them, does not lose them, but establishes them. For almsgiving entreats deliverance from all evil — therefore it will entreat that your spiritual and temporal goods do not slip away from you, but be established. In the second part the Author teaches us many things: first, that it is the proper duty of the holy rich man to make almsdeeds, so that it is wonderful that the rich man makes his riches continually flow from himself; but God makes them stable, and as it were brings the waters of the Jordan back into their channel; second, we are taught that the almsdeeds of the pious rich man do not go to one or another; but to the whole Church, which praises the benefits conferred upon it: therefore, if it can be done, to all per- let the alms of the rich man come, as God rains upon all; thirdly, the Author teaches that alms ought especially to be given to the saints: "Let the Church of the saints praise," he says, just as God bestows His benefits chiefly upon the pious; fourthly, he teaches that it is the duty of him who receives a benefit, namely, to praise and declare the benefit received. Thus Palacius. A notable example exists in St. Gregory of Nazianzus, who in oration 19, on the funeral of his father, which the whole Church attended, celebrates the generous alms of that father and likewise of his mother: "Who," he says, "toward the poor, that is, those endowed with equal honor by nature, was either more compassionate in spirit or more liberal in hand? For thus indeed, without doubt, as a steward of others' goods, reckoning from his own possessions, he relieved the poverty of the poor as much as he could; not only expending what was superfluous, but also what was necessary for this purpose, which is the clearest sign of a man most kindly disposed toward the poor." What he relates concerning his mother Nonna is consonant: "She was so prompt and eager," he says, "to do well by all, that she could not be satisfied with this work, and she not only deemed all her riches, which she had at first or acquired afterward, less than her desire, but would have readily and willingly sold herself also and her children, as I have often heard from her, if it could have been done, so that they might be spent for the use of the poor." Many such examples exist, as of St. Martin, in Sulpicius, of Paula the Roman in St. Jerome, epistle 27, of St. Paulinus in St. Gregory, book III of the Dialogues, of St. Benedict; John of Alexandria and others. Most excellently St. Ambrose, book II of the Duties, chapter XXVIII: "This is the greatest incentive to mercy," he says, "that we sympathize with the calamities of others, that we help the necessity of others as much as we can, and sometimes more than we can; for it is better for the sake of mercy to incur causes of envy, or to suffer envy, than to feign harshness." Thus Ambrose spoke, and acted; for he ordered all his possessions and the sacred vessels of the Church to be melted down and distributed to the needy. The whole Church,—that is, all the faithful of the Church, indeed all parts of the Church, as if to say, gives alms liberally to all; therefore by all she will be celebrated as liberal. What then is this "Church," except the temples which they build and adorn? the monasteries and hospitals which they found? the religious whom they support? the widows, orphans and wards whom they provide for? the sick whom they visit and to whom they show tender care? the naked whom they clothe? the hungry whom they feed? and all the needy to whom they give aid? for their house and fortune is as it were the bosom of Abraham on earth, where all the poor find their rest. He passes from riches to delights, as if they were related and neighboring; for from riches one goes to delights. Just as therefore he has hitherto taught that the appetite for riches ought to be moderated: so now he teaches that the craving for delights ought to be restrained by temperance; for intemperance harms health, propriety, reputation and conscience. First therefore he gives this precept of honesty and temperance to be observed at table, saying: "If thou sittest at a great table,"—that is, a magnificent and splendid one,—"open not thy mouth first upon it," so that with open throat thou dost not open thy gullet, by which from an uncontrolled appetite for foods and delights thou immediately before others, even thy elders and superiors, headlong seize the dishes, snatch the foods, tear them, rend them and thrust them into thy gaping jaws: for this is both unseemly, immodest, uncivil and rustic; and both a sign of an intemperate spirit and gullet; but wait until he who presides at the table, or those more worthy than thou, unfold their napkins, divide the foods, and distribute thy portion to thee. For the order of propriety, reverence for elders, and temperance in foods demands that thou show thyself to rule thy gullet, to revere thy elders, and to observe the order of— and keep your heart. Understand this, unless you yourself are the presiding officer or more worthy at table: to open your mouth, then, denotes gluttony; to be first, however, denotes the arrogance of the guest. Now to first is not in the Greek; for thus the Complutensian edition has it: At a great table when you sit down, do not open your throat over it. Therefore eat in such a way that you nevertheless restrain your greed, do not lose your composure, check your hunger; eat in such a way that by the very speed and haste of eating your mind is not distracted, nor wholly fixed on the dishes, but gives part of its attention to reading or pious meditation; eat in such a way that those standing by note nothing immoderate in you, see nothing base, observe nothing sordid; eat in such a way that you are aware of your tutor, namely your guardian Angel, assisting, and God present. Mystically Rabanus: "He teaches us," he says, "to be careful and cautious in meditation on the law of God. A great table is the abundance of divine Scriptures; sitting at which we ought not to be rash, so as to seize something unworthily without a teacher and without prior instruction; but rather following the well-trodden life of the Saints, instructed by their disciplines, let us hold the rule of truth." Again St. Augustine, sermon 45 On the Saints, reads thus: "Have you sat at a great table? Know that you ought to prepare such things." And he expounds this concerning the Martyrs: "What is," he says, "a great table, except that from which we receive the body and blood of Christ? What is, know that you ought to prepare such things, except what Blessed John expounds, epistle I, chapter III: As Christ laid down His soul for us, so also ought we to lay down our souls for the brethren. In like manner adapt the other precepts which he subjoins to the table mystically to the spiritual table of the Eucharist, doctrine and Holy Scripture: although it is more true that St. Augustine in the place cited should rather cite chapter XXIII of Proverbs, verses 1 and 2, according to the Septuagint: for there is found know that you ought to prepare such things; of which no mention is made here. Thus it should be read with the Romans and Greeks. Therefore Rabanus and Dionysius wrongly for thus many read feigned, and thus expound it, as if to say: Do not say detracting from your host and the banquet: The things set on the table here are feigned and false; not true and precious as they present themselves, for example pheasants and swans, which are shown here, are not real, but counterfeit: meat pies, which are boasted to be from wild boar or venison flesh, are from pork or beef, etc. Mystically, do not say that something in Holy Scripture is feigned, false or doubtful. Again Lyra and others everywhere wrongly read if for thus; which Lyra first expounds thus, as if to say: If many dishes are set on the table, beware lest you murmur and blame the master for luxury and ostentation, because he has prepared too magnificent a table, but receive with a grateful and modest spirit what has been set before you. Secondly, Palacius, reading by interrogation: "If there are many things which are upon it?" thus expounds it, as if to say: When you sit at table, do not ask whether many foods are to be set on the table? Remember that the eye of your host is irritable even at a banquet and will be evil, and will be irritated against you as if you were illiberal, one who does not know how to use little; for nothing has been created more tender, or more irritable, or more impatient than the eye, and therefore "it will weep from his face," that is from his aspect, when namely it sees you asking whether there are many foods, when perhaps he has few. Do not therefore ask whether there are many foods, lest you irritate an eye so irritable in itself; and cause him to weep whom you ought to have gladdened. Thus Palacius. Thirdly, better Jansenius expounds to if by inasmuch as, so that it be a particle confirming, answering to the enclitic γε, which is in the Greek, as if to say: Do not say: Inasmuch as there are many things upon it, therefore I ought to eat many things. But for if it should be read with the Romans thus. The Greek agrees, which has thus: Do not say: Many things indeed are, which are upon it; understand: Therefore I will devour much, and fill myself with them. For the preceding and following things pertain to gluttony and greed. Whence the Zurich edition, connecting this verse with the preceding one, thus translates it clearly, If thou hast sat down at a magnificent table, do not open thy throat wide upon it, that thou mayest say there are many things set before it; but remember what an evil eye is, that is to say, if the multitude of dishes allure thee to voracity, restrain it by the memory of infamy and envy. For "an evil eye" is the eye of the covetous and envious man, according to that in chapter XIV, verse 8: "The eye of the envious is wicked." For the covetous man grieves while he sees and envies the guests eating and consuming much of his provisions, or cutting up and dividing them, which he himself would wish to be preserved whole and untouched, so that from them he might furnish other banquets with new guests. For the covetous often set the same dishes before various guests, that they may display their magnificence, and therefore leave them untouched, so that they may be preserved whole for other banquets. See the sayings in chapter XIV, verse 8. Exaggerating this covetous malice and envy, he adds: "More wicked than the eye," etc. Otherwise Lyra, who understands these things of the eye of the glutton; for this is evil and wicked: "For," he says, "it is greater than the belly; because it frequently desires more than the belly can receive." Thus the eye of children is greater than their belly; because they wish to have all things which they see. Some again, together with Lyra, thus expound concerning gluttony, that is to say, Gluttony is not to be indulged, because the eye, that is the cupidity of the mind, which is excited by the sight and appearance of pleasant and delightful things (whence we say to direct the eyes of cupidity toward something), is depraved, and once incited cannot easily be checked and restrained again. "From every face it shall weep," that is, it will bear it ill, if the dishes be not prepared as delicately as appetite desires: therefore restrain the eye, that thou mayest restrain gluttony. To this our Pineda adds, Ecclesiastes chapter II, verse 10, number 4, who thus expounds: "What created thing is more wicked than the eye? therefore from every face of it it shall weep, when it shall see," that is to say, Whatever falls upon the face and into the eyes, the heart immediately demands, and the eyes languish; unless thou immediately grant it, they grieve grievously and continually weep. But since it cannot come to pass in human affairs that what thou seest thou canst obtain as easily as thou canst behold it; it is necessary (as Diogenes elegantly said to Dio Chrysostom, oration 4 On Kingship), "that he who is agitated by various cupidities, should more frequently and more continually rejoice and be affected with afflictions, than hunters with captured and lost prey." Others better understand here concerning malice and covetousness. Whence Jansenius, reading for his part thus, thus expounds, that is to say, Among created things nothing is worse than an evil and envious eye; and therefore on account of its great malice it shall even shed tears, and shall be grievously tormented from every face which thou showest to it. But their codices, all of them, even those corrected at Rome, read "thy" not "his." Moreover the Greek texts have neither word; and for "face" they read προσώπου, which signifies both person and face. Whence Hugo thus expounds, that is to say, "From every
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in the face," that is before all men and Angels, "he shall weep" on the day of judgment. Others more properly, as if to say: The eye of the avaricious man, seeing and envying many things of his being consumed by his guests, weeps and is tormented by any person, even the most beloved, and by every face of his guest. For if he sees him abstaining and sad, he is afflicted by this sadness; but if he sees him eating liberally and cheerful, he is tormented by avarice and envy. Whence the Zurich Bible translates: for what is more wretched than the eye created? Indeed, for whatever reason (Vatable, on any matter offered; others, in all ways) he weeps. This sense can easily be fitted to our Latin Vulgate. For "face" here, as also elsewhere often, is not taken actively, so as to be that of the avaricious man who looks; but passively, so as to be that of the guests, which is looked upon by the master. And consequently the pronoun "his" also is not taken actively, but passively: his therefore, that is things set before him, his face and his livid eyes striking him, his avarice tormenting him, as if to say: The avaricious and envious man is tormented by every face of the guests set before him; for any appearance of things strikes and torments his avarice and lividity. Thus in Leviticus XIII, 55, and Numbers XI, 6, it is said: "If the leprosy has changed his eye, that is "his eye, or his face;" that is, as our translator renders it, "his color." It is a metonymy; for a power is taken for the object, namely the eye for the color, which is seen by the eye. St. Ambrose offers a pleasant example, in the book On Naboth, chapter IV: "I have found," he says, "the faith of a man, if ever an egg were set before him, he would complain that a chick had been killed; for he said a chick could have been hatched. Secondly, "face" can be taken properly and actively, so as to be that of the avaricious man himself looking, as if to say: The avaricious man, from envy and grief, while he sees many things of his being consumed, is so tormented and grieves that he pours forth abundant tears, which irrigate his whole, that is his entire face. The avaricious man grieves entirely and profusely, when he sees his guests rejoicing and eating pleasantly. Or "from every face of his," that is from every turning of his face, that is wherever he turns his face, he is tormented and weeps, when he sees his things and those dear to him being consumed. Which sense returns almost the same as the former. And that this last sense is the genuine one is indicated also by the Greek corrected at Rome, which for what follows: "When he shall see it, stretch not out thy hand," thus read: Wherever he shall look (although the Complutensian reads, thou shalt look), stretch not out thy hand, as if to say: To whatever dish he turns his face, and which he inspects more intently, beware lest thou touch it, tear it, divide it; because this look is a sign that it is loved by him before others; for where the eye is, there likewise is the heart and love: wherefore he will grieve that it be eaten and taken from him, and therefore will be tormented and will weep. Note here: "When he shall see it," most Bibles with Rabanus, Lyran, Hugh and Dionysius join with "from every face of his he shall weep;"; the Greek however and some manuscripts, which Francis Lucas cites in the Notes to this passage, refer it with Jansenius to what follows: "Stretch not out thy hand." But the Bible corrected at Rome indicates that it can be referred to either; for thus they read and punctuate these two verses: What is more wretched than the eye created? therefore from every face of his he shall weep, when he shall see it, stretch not out thy hand first. Whence it is clear that "when he shall see it" can be referred both to "he shall weep" and to "stretch not out," according to the senses already given. Morally, learn here how evil, that is malicious, envious and spiteful, is the eye of the avaricious man. St. Chrysostom depicts this very graphically, homily 10 on 1 Corinthians: "And what, he says, is more shameless than those eyes? what more impudent? Do not look upon his face and eyes, for they are those of a man: for human eyes do not look thus. The avaricious man does not look upon men as men, does not look upon heaven as heaven, nor does he look upward to the Lord; but he thinks all things to be money. The eyes of men are accustomed to look upon afflicted men, and to grieve and have pity; but these robbers see the poor, and are carried away. The eyes of men do not look upon the property of others as if it were not their own, but even look upon their own property as if it belonged to others, and do not desire what has been given to others, but pour out their own upon others as well: but these men are not satisfied unless they have received the property of all; for they do not have human, but bestial sight. The eyes of men cannot bear to see their own body naked; for it is their own, even if, as regards the person, it belongs to others; but these men are never satisfied unless they have stripped all things bare, and hidden all things in their homes: nay, they are never filled." The same, homily 64 on John: "Avarice, he says, is a grave disease; it blinds the eyes and stops the ears, and makes men more savage than any beast." Moreover, that avarice is envious, and envy avaricious, I shall show presently in Proverbs XXVIII, 22. Finally, what created thing is more evil than the evil eye? See the problem concerning the best and worst, proposed by Rabbi John to five of his disciples. For he asked: "What thing seems to you to be the best?" First, Rabbi Eleazar, son of Hyrcanus, answered: "The upright eye;" secondly, Rabbi Joshua said: "A good companion;" thirdly, Rabbi Joseph said: "A faithful neighbor;" fourthly, Rabbi Simeon judged that nothing is more expedient for man than "to consider the outcome of a matter;" fifthly, Rabbi Eleazar, son of Arach: "To me indeed, he said, the best thing seems to be a good mind;" and the master Rabbi John gave him the palm. Then he asked the same question again: "What thing seems to you to be the worst, and to be most carefully avoided?" First, Rabbi Eleazar, son of Hyrcanus, answered: "The evil eye is the worst thing, or at least the herald of the worst thing;" secondly, Rabbi Joshua: "I indeed, he said, think that what is attributed to the evil eye should be attributed to the faithless companion;" thirdly, Rabbi Joseph pronounced "the unfaithful neighbor the worst thing;" fourthly, Rabbi Simeon asserted: "The worst thing is not to repay a loan when you have received it," according to that Psalm: "The wicked man shall borrow, and shall not pay back; but the just man shows mercy, and gives;" fifthly, Rabbi Eleazar, son of Arach: "The worst thing, he said, is an evil and perverse heart." The master Rabbi John, assenting to him, said: "Eleazar has hit the mark; for whatever was said by the others, he has embraced both briefly and wisely." Thus it is related in Pirke Avoth, that is in the Apophthegms of the Hebrew Fathers, chapter II. There Rabbi Joshua: "The evil eye, he said, and perverse thought, and hatred conceived against others, lead a man to destruction." This is according to the second convivial precept or admonition; the third follows: He commanded that no one should first open his mouth like a wolf over the dishes; here consequently he commands that no one should first stretch out his hand upon them: for this is wont to follow from that, just as external gluttony follows from internal gluttony (whose sign is a gaping throat). He adds the reason: Lest you stir up and provoke the avarice and envy of the avaricious and envious host against you, so that he marks you with some ignominy and defiles you; namely, by striking you with an evil eye, or by reproaching you with words as if you were gluttonous, shameless, bold, less generous, etc., and therefore you are ashamed and blush before the guests. To this applies that saying of the Comic poet: "It is fitting for him who eats at another's table to be modest." Morally, learn here how great an evil envy is, so that nothing is more evil than it. See St. Basil, homily On Anger and Envy, and oration 10 On Envy and Hatred, where he aptly and elegantly compares the envious, first, to vultures and flies: "And indeed, he says, just as vultures are borne with greater force toward things that smell badly, passing over many meadows and many pleasant and fragrant places; and as flies, neglecting the healthy parts of the body, hasten to sores: so also the envious do not even look upon the splendor of life and the greatness of right deeds, but are borne in a wonderful manner toward withered things." Secondly, he compares them to rust- genie, demon and viper: "For just as rust," he says, "is the proper disease of grain, so envy is of friendship. And as it is good for no one to envy, so envy is peculiar to the demon; and just as rust consumes iron, so envy consumes the soul that labors from it; indeed much more so. For as they say the viper, having eaten through the maternal womb, is brought forth into the light, so also malevolence is wont to destroy the soul that brings it forth. The envious man awaits one sole recreation of evil, namely if he should see someone falling from among those whose goods he grieves over. This is the aim of hatred, to see someone wretched from happy, miserable from blessed." Third, he compares them to the panther, a most savage beast: "Panthers," he says, "have a certain natural anger against man, and are accustomed especially to leap upon the eyes. Hence those who mock that mad beast are wont to show it an image from paper as if a man; but that beast, with excessive force and no consideration made, thinks it to be a man, tears the paper as if it were a man, and thus shows how great is its hatred toward man: so also the demon shows in the image how great is his hatred toward God, when he is unable to touch God himself." Furthermore, I have indicated elsewhere the ways of overcoming envy; now learn them from the example of one St. Mechtildis: "Mechtildis, greater than all envy, overcame the envious by charity, confounded them by virtue, overwhelmed them by authority, prostrated them by humility, as she would have done if anything were being plotted against her," says Engelhardus in her Life, cap. V.
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The Complutensian edition and Lyra add, with wine; others, of wine, that is to say, Do not press and burden the stomach with excessive wine; but both the Roman and Greek codices delete this. For the excess of wine will be treated in verse 30 and following. Whence Jansenius thinks that here the matter concerns excess of food, that is to say, Do not gorge yourself with excessive food, so as to burden the stomach. But the Greek texts have an elegant paronomasia, μὴ συνθλίβου αὐτῷ ἐν τρυβλίῳ, that is, do not be pressed together with him in the dish; others, do not collide with him in the dish; the Zurich edition, do not extend your hand wherever he looked, nor bring it together with him into the dish; for τρυβλίον is a dish, a plate, a small pot, a cup. The reason is, because honesty and propriety in eating at a banquet requires that one guest not press another, especially the master, in a narrow dish, while he takes food from it, but should await his turn, so that when he has received his portion from it, the others then take theirs in order, each in his turn. Those who act otherwise imitate pigs, which, being gluttonous, devouring and gulping together in the same trough, press one another so as to snatch the food from others; whence it happens that they not infrequently overturn the trough, and deprive both themselves and their companions of food. Finally, in general, "do not be pressed together at a banquet," so that namely you wish to sit in some more honorable or convenient place, where you both press others and are pressed in turn by them. For this is equally unseemly and troublesome to you as to others, and takes away or hinders the pleasantness and delight which could be drawn from the banquet for all. But that common saying is true: "Half the meal belongs to him who sits well." Wherefore the rule for banquets is: "Let the host take care that the guests do not sit too tightly and narrowly, and therefore let him not invite more than the banquet hall can hold." The reason is, both because tight seating is very troublesome to guests; and because from it a foul odor arises, which afflicts the guests, according to that saying of Horace, epistle 5 to Torquatus: "But too tight banquets press with foul-smelling goats," that is (as Lambinus interprets), although you may bring more companions with you; but this is to be feared, lest from the multitude of guests sitting tightly together there arise a grave and foul odor, especially where those well-fed will individually exhale the heavy odors of wine and food. For a foul odor is understood by the name of goat: for goats and he-goats going in herds to pasture press themselves together, and from this exhale a foul and goatish odor. This is the fourth rule for banquets; the fifth follows: that is to say, Know and measure the feelings of the mind, and the inclinations of your neighbor from your own feelings and inclinations: wherefore just as you grieve and are tormented if someone at your table is insolent and bold, so as to tear apart all the dishes; so as to want to criticize all, to dominate all, even the master himself: so likewise know that your neighbor grieves and is tormented if you do the same or similar at his table, or if others do. Therefore just as you would wish others to be honest, temperate and modest at your table: so likewise be such yourself at another's table. The Greek texts inculcate the same thing in several ways; for thus they have: Consider what belongs to another from yourself, and think about every matter; the Zurich edition: Judge the feeling of another from your own, and weigh every matter. This saying could, secondly, be referred more remotely to envy and the evil eye, which was treated in verse 15, that is to say, Do you wish to know whether your neighbor, for example, who invited you to the banquet, harbors envy and hatred against you inwardly, or rather love and benevolence? explore your own mind, whether namely you have a benevolent mind toward him, or an averse and malevolent one: if you discover that your mind toward him is benevolent, and you wish him well; know that he likewise in turn has a benevolent mind toward you, and wishes you well: but if on the other hand you feel that you are averse in mind from him, and hate him, know that he too is averse from you, and hates you. For just as love is a magnet of love, and love brings about love: so conversely hatred is a magnet of hatred, and hatred begets hatred; for it cannot happen that these affections of love and hatred are so hidden in the mind that they do not at some time reveal themselves through external signs, and thus become known to another: whence it comes to pass that they excite a similar reciprocal affection in him. Therefore the counsel of the wise is: "Do you wish to be loved by all? you first love all. Do you wish that no one turn away from you, and pursue you with hatred? you first neither turn away nor hate." Hear the Poet: "That I may prove myself an Orestes, let someone prove himself a Pylades to me." This does not happen by words: Mark, that you may be loved, love. But the first sense is more fitting; and therefore genuine, and that which follows indicates it: To frugi is not in the Greek, which reads thus: use as a man those things which have been set before you, and do not devour them, lest you be held in hatred, that is to say, Eat as a man, honestly, modestly and soberly; not however dishonestly, immoderately and intemperately devour like a wolf or beast. Tigurina, set before you (Vatablus, proposed) to you so that as a man you may eat, and do not gorge yourself, lest you come into hatred both of your host and of the other guests. This is the sixth table precept, commanding frugality, namely that one should use the dishes frugally, and not tear apart, distribute and devour everything, but only a few things which suffice for sober refreshment: spare the rest; so that the host may use them for other purposes. Note that which is set before you: for he admonishes first, lest we snatch at all things which are set before our hands, and attempt to seize them from others as it were: then lest we take what is set before another, but what is before us; moreover lest we thrust our hand in every direction into the dish, so that we may select the more delicate things for ourselves. To this pertains that precept of table civility: "Do not choose from the whole dish, as gluttons are wont to do, but take what happens to be set before you." And that of Homer: "If also that should be notably elegant, let it pass to another, and take what is nearest." As therefore it is the mark of intemperance to thrust one's hand into all parts of the dish; so it is scarcely becoming to turn the dish over, so that the more refined things may come to you. If someone else should offer a more elegant food, having made a small excuse accept it, but having cut off a portion for yourself offer the rest to him who offered it, or share it with the one sitting nearest. Altogether therefore food ought to be grasped and handled decently and with a certain reverence as it were. Thus you will eat as a man: for to devour is bestial, and foreign to the nature of man, who of all animals, as he partakes of reason, so also partakes of order, honesty, shame, modesty, benevolence and temperance. Excellently Musonius in Stobaeus: "Since," he says, "ἀμετρία, that is excess, is vicious in no respect, then in food especially it shows its nature, while gluttons and gormandizers transform men into swine or dogs, as far as gluttony goes, forgetful of all honesty in their hands, sight and eating, such madness does the love of desires generate in them. But what is more shameful than to conduct oneself regarding food in such a way that one is the image of a brute animal rather than of a prudent man?" A remarkable follower and herald of this frugality among philosophers was Socrates, whose axioms on it are extant in Laertius, book II, chapter V: "Those who live frugally have far more pleasure and less torment than those who indulge their inclination. He is most like the gods who needs the fewest things: since the gods need nothing. The best seasoning of food is hunger, inasmuch as it sweetens food best, and costs nothing." Wherefore he himself, preparing a frugal meal for his guests, his wife being concerned about something better: "Be of good cheer," he said, "for if the guests are frugal and temperate, they will be pleased with this: if not; we ought to have no concern about such things. Others live to eat, I eat to live." This is the seventh admonition, namely that a guest should beware lest he be the last in eating, but rather let him cease eating first, and this "for the sake of discipline," that is, of honesty, modesty and shame, which discipline teaches; namely that he may show himself to be well instructed, rightly educated and of good character. For in banquets the good or bad education is shown most of all through continence or gluttony, and through civil or uncivil manners and gestures. The reason for the precept is: because if he be excessive and too prolonged in eating, he will offend the host and the guests, and indeed also God and the angels. In Greek, μὴ ἀπληστεύου, that is, be not insatiable. Whence the Zurich version: for the sake of modesty cease first, and do not show yourself insatiable, lest you offend anything. To this point tend the golden precepts of continence, which St. Martin, bishop of Dumio, wrote in a little book to Miro, king of Galicia: "Eat short of indigestion, drink short of drunkenness. Neither cling to present delights, nor desire those absent. Let your food be easy for you: approach it not for pleasure, but for nourishment. Let hunger excite your palate, not flavors. Redeem your desires with little, you who ought only to care that they cease; and as if composed to a divine example, hasten to bring yourself back from body to spirit, as much as you can." To this point tends that saying of Ovid: And do not presume long upon the feast, but cease short, And take somewhat less than what you wish to be. Thus "Blessed Posthumius never left the table with a full belly, nor ever satisfied his thirst, saying it was not fitting if the will of the flesh were satisfied," says the author of his Life, which is found in the Lives of the Fathers, book I. To this point tends the Arabian proverb: "Eat turn by turn (that is, little but often), and you will grow fat." Which the French say: Often and little eating makes a man grow fat. St. Jerome gives this precept to Eustochium (epistle On the Custody of Virginity): "Let your food be moderate, and never let your belly be full. For there are many who, though sober with wine, are drunk with abundance of food." And soon after: "Let daily fasts be yours, and refreshment fleeing satiety. It profits nothing, having passed two or three days, to carry an empty belly, if it be equally overwhelmed, if fasts are to be compensated: immediately the mind filled grows sluggish, and the watered earth germinates the thorns of lust." He commanded that he cease eating first; here he commands that he not begin first, as if to say: In a banquet begin to eat after others, and cease before others, so that in beginning you be last, in finishing first, and complete your meal with little. Therefore be neither first in eating nor in drinking; for it is customary at table that eating goes first, then drinking follows: for this is taken as a vehicle of food, namely that it may carry and convey the food through the veins and individual members. Wherefore physicians teach that it conduces to health that one not drink at the beginning of a meal, but eat well; so that in the stomach he may lay a solid foundation of ci- of them, which then by drinking with drink he may irrigate: just as ballast is laid in a ship as the foundation and balance of the ship. Yet the same authorities recommend that the meal should begin with more liquid foods for easy passage of food and for loosening of the belly. For this reason in antiquity they began supper (which for the ancients served in place of lunch: for they did not eat twice, but once a day, namely they supped in the evening; therefore they did not lunch, as is evident from Athenaeus, in the Banquets of the Wise) with eggs, and ended with apples. Whence the proverb, From egg to apples, that is, Throughout the whole banquet, throughout the whole conversation, throughout the whole work. For this reason at banquets of honorable men at the beginning the host breaks up and distributes to each the foods; these having been eaten, he himself first asks for drink and will provide it to the guests, to whom then one by one the drink is brought in order by servants: for this is what honesty, modesty, and proper order demand. See Clement of Alexandria, book II of the Pedagogue, chapter 1, where he gave many precepts on how one ought to conduct oneself in eating, and taught that not only voraciousness and gluttony, as most alien from all divine and human reason, but also all uncivil, indecorous, illiberal, rustic and bestial movements and gestures of the body in taking food ought to be avoided. The Greeks now do not have "the wine," nor "the pain"; for thus they read, "for it is sufficient for the educated man to have little, and he will not pant in his bed," that is, as the Complutensian edition has it, "he does not pant"; the Roman edition, "he does not labor with asthma"; the Zurich edition, "for little is sufficient for the temperate man, so that he does not pant in his bed, nor feel pain." For he calls educated, in Greek πεπαιδευμένον, one well instructed, well-mannered, sober and temperate. He commends sobriety both in food, and more in drink (because in drink, especially if savory and delicate, one exceeds more easily than in food) from its effect, namely health, which it preserves and increases, that is, Little food and drink is sufficient, indeed expedient for a man for a healthy and pleasant life: for this produces easy and comfortable sleep, which restores all the body's strength and spirits. On the other hand, more abundant and excessive food and drink, especially in the evening (for in former times they supped only, as I said a little before) does not allow a man to sleep and rest at night; but he "labors," that is, is tormented, tortured and pained in stomach and head, so that the excessive burden of food weighs down both, and from this, but more from drink, vapors and fumes ascending into the brain, he may alleviate, digest and consume them. Thus Rabanus: "It is manifest," he says, "that sparse and thin food is useful both to body and soul, and on the other hand excessive food or drink generates sickness and diminishes the sense of the soul." Sobriety therefore is the mother of health as much as of holiness, of chastity as much as of wisdom: just as on the other hand gluttony and drunkenness is the mother of diseases and vices, of lust and of the most pestilential mouse, to whose slightest bite's sharpness he suffered nothing of sense; because the mass of fat neither permitted sense to be felt, nor motion to come to aid. Does not the thickness of hunters insensibly suffer a lethal blow? To these things the fox of ancient learning added the opinion: Cursed be such fat, which is stupefying of sense, dissolving of motion, filled with filth, weighed down with painful burden, deprived of the joy of generation, and bereft of the exultation of life. For many things are suffocated by fat, and are deprived of the prolific power. I am certainly glad henceforth, conscious of you, and the experience of myself is very dear to me." Whence, collecting the moral of abstinence, she adds: "Henceforth I shall serve Nature according to the saying of the wise with moderation, which for many is a great mother of health, and is content with little. Nor shall I obey the intemperance of gluttony, which is the source of infirmity, the penalty of lust, the path of folly, the gate of death, and is never content with any feasts. For since food is ordained by natural law for salvation and life, the fool uses it immoderately for his own destruction and death. Therefore, having dismissed the teacher, learned in these things, the disciple departed." "Therefore sparse temperance is always happier than profuse luxury," says St. Leo, sermon 8 On the Fast of the Seventh Month. For which reason the same man wisely concludes elsewhere from these sayings: "That which will become a burden must be subtracted from pleasure," concerning which Sirach adds: "Wakefulness, choler and torture to the unwise man." Beautifully Horace, book II of the Odes, ode 16: One lives well on little, to whom his ancestral Salt-cellar shines on a meager table: Nor do light sleeps fear, or sordid desire Take away. Mystically, for man to get through this life "a little wine," that is, a few temporal things suffice. Which, taken moderately and accepted for use without attachment of mind, at the time of sleep or death do not disturb the mind, nor trouble it with the sting of a depraved conscience or the pain of sin. Therefore the perfect do this in life, exercising and preparing themselves, I say, to take sleep, in which whatever is mortal perishes: whatever is weak and harmful fails, so that what is robust and beautiful may rise in glory. They do this so that they may prepare themselves for the journey, and send ahead all things that they can into the eternal city, so that there they may find riches and delights that will never perish. 23. WAKEFULNESS, CHOLER AND TORTURE FOR THE GLUTTONOUS MAN. — In Greek ἀπλήστου, that is, insatiable, unsatisfiable, a glutton, who gorges himself and takes in more than he can digest. Robert Holcot, in Wisdom cap. XVIII, lecture 203, near the end: All these things, he says, gluttony does for the gluttonous man. Now he is called gluttonous as if without frumen, that is without taste: for frumen is that part of the throat which perceives taste. But the glutton swallows morsels without taste, in the manner of a wolf devouring: or he is called gluttonous as if without fruno, which is the preparation by which hides are dressed: or it is said from frenzy, or from the forehead, or from the bridle. Whence the verse: Forehead, frenzy, frumen, frumia, bridle you shall give. But concerning the etymology of gluttonous I have spoken in cap. XXIII, 6. The antistrophe to this maxim is this: Hunger costs little, disgust much. For what great disgust will rich tables bring you? Small dishes remove prolonged hunger. See St. Chrysostom, homily 13 on I Timothy, on those words: "She that liveth in pleasures is dead while she liveth," where he graphically depicts the damages of intemperance. Cyril illustrates this maxim with an apt fable of the fox and the pig, lib. IV Apolog. moral. cap. IV. A lean fox, he says, seeking care for the renewal of her skin, looked for a teacher. There met her a fat and thick pig, but in his hind parts with a vile opening of skin defiled; and she said to him: "What is it, brother, that I see you not only foul with filth, but also in your hind parts so corroded? Certainly the skin from fullness is quite wonderful, but no less from filth or ulcer." But he, with face confused in shame, answered: "Namely, dearest, this is the deed 24. SLEEP OF HEALTH IN THE TEMPERATE MAN: HE SHALL SLEEP UNTIL MORNING, AND HIS SOUL SHALL BE DELIGHTED WITH HIM. — The Greeks transpose these, for they postpone the former verse to the latter, in this way: sleep of health in the temperate intestine; he rose earlier (Complutensian, morning, for in Greek it is πρωί) and his soul with him; labor, wakefulness and choler, and torture with the insatiable man; others, wakeful labor and choler and griping accompany the insatiable man; the Zurich clearly: the viscera of the temperate enjoy healthful sleep, the same man rises in the morning and is master of his mind: but wakeful labor and choler and wrenchings exercise the insatiable man; the Arabic: wakefulness, and labor, and torment of the viscera commotion (disturbance) with him who is devoted to the belly: sleep of health with the continent man. He opposes the advantages of temperance and of the temperate to the damages of intemperance and of the intemperate: which by these first, produces wakefulness; then because the burden of food, in which the intemperate is weighed down, does not allow him to sleep and rest; then because vapors and fumes of undigested matter continuously rising from it and striking the brain, impede his sleep. Second, that it produces choler; then because sweet foods turn into bile, as physicians teach; then because abundance of foods and wines inflames heat and blood, which inflamed ignites food and turns it into choler; for choler is an inflammation of blood and chyle. But choler, being sharp and burning, vehemently pierces the body, tortures, inflames it, and creates burning fevers, and stirs up quarrels in brawls and fights and slaughters. Third, that it produces torture, that is, griping, namely distension of the belly, flatulence and phlegms: into these the undigested food turns, because natural heat does not suffice to properly complete and digest so great an abundance of foods.
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and to digest it. In this matter let the gluttonous take note that the execution of that judgment is already being fulfilled in themselves, which we read defined concerning that Babylon, their mother, in the Apocalypse XVIII: "As much as she hath glorified herself, and lived in delicacies, so much torment and sorrow give ye to her." For the foods which the throat has swallowed with pleasure during the day, the stomach cannot digest at night so as to convert them into chyle and blood; wherefore it converts them into flatulence and phlegm, which produce eructations, distensions, asthma, colic, catarrhs and other diseases. Therefore in the evening, avoid heavy suppers; be sober; remember, if you do otherwise, that you will pay for a brief and slight pleasure of the gullet with long and harsh torture throughout the entire night and torment. St. Ambrose, in the book On Elias and Fasting, chapter VIII, understands the torture of hell, which the rich man endured after death, buried in hell, where his gluttonous tongue was tormented in flame; likewise concerning the torture of anxieties, which those who prepare feasts undergo, and he himself depicts these graphically. To this pertains the Hebrew proverb in the Gemara: "A full belly, every kind of evil." For those whose art is fattening, neither can they live long, nor be healthy, and their mind, wrapped as it were in mud by excessive blood and fat, so that while awake they think of nothing refined, nothing heavenly, but always of the belly's greed: thus when overcome by sleep, stupefied by immoderate eating and drinking, they are tossed about by absurd nightmares, so that they are deservedly bereft of human reason; whereas on the contrary, the dreams of those living sparingly, continently, severely and soberly are usually pleasant, so that when they awake, they remember them, and even while sleeping, as the Wise Man says: "His soul shall delight with him." There is an elegant fable among Aesop concerning flies on the harm of gluttony: "In a certain cellar," he says, "with honey poured out, flies flew in and ate; but with their feet entangled they could not fly away. When however they were suffocating, they said: Wretched us, because we perish for a little food." The fable signifies that for many, gluttony is the cause of many evils. The precept of the School of Salernitan physicians is: From a long supper the stomach receives the greatest pain: That you may be light at night, let your supper be brief. Horace, book II of Satires, satire 2: The other (living frugally), when sleep, swifter than speech, has given rest to his limbs, rises vigorous to his appointed duties. Epictetus: "Consider this," he says, "while feasting, that you have two guests to receive, body and soul. Then whatever is bestowed on the body will suddenly flow away: but whatever is given to the soul will be preserved forever." Clement of Alexandria: "Pleasure," he says, "has often brought harm and trouble to men: but grave affections, forgetfulness, and foolishness in the mind are produced by excessive abundance of food." Musonius, book I On Foods: "The foundation," he says, "of wisdom is continence concerning food and drink." On the contrary, as Horace says in the place cited above, A body laden With yesterday's vices weighs down the mind as well, And pins (Lambinus reads, crushes) to the earth the divine portion of air. Excellently Climacus in the Melissa of Antony, part I, chapter XIV: "He who is devoted to the belly," he says, "and strives to overcome the spirit of fornication, is like one extinguishing a fire with oil." The same, ibid. chapter XXXIX: "When the belly is burdened the heart is depressed; but if care is taken of it, the mind exults." And St. Chrysostom, ibid.: "A gross belly," he says, "does not produce a subtle mind. To devour much pertains to the leopard, the bear and the lion: pains of the feet, heaviness of the head, dimness of the eyes, ailments of the hands, tremors, paralysis, vertigo, and long and dreadful fevers are usually produced from voraciousness and repletion. For not to be satisfied with food is health, as the sons of physicians declare. Let want and hunger be your seasoning. The taste of condiments is confined to the palate; afterwards however it is indifferent what is taken in, nature altering everything even to foulness." In the same place Philo: "Continence," he says, "is followed by health and strength; incontinence however by weakness and sickness near to death." In the same place, chapter XXXVIII, St. Basil: "No insult of demons," he says, "dares to attack the one who fasts, and the guardians of our life, the angels, remain more eagerly with those who have been purified through fasting." Finally the Comic poet: "Temperance," he says, "is the sanctuary of virtue." I shall say more on this matter in the next work on Proverbs XXIII, 3, toward the end. Therefore a sober and sparing supper brings about, first, easy and pleasant sleep, free from gloomy, horrible and dreadful sleeplessness, which is produced by excessive abundance of food; secondly, a balance of humors, so that neither choler, nor melancholy, nor phlegm, nor blood may predominate; but these four humors may have among themselves the proper proportion and equilibrium, in which the health of the body and right well-being consist; thirdly, the quietness of the stomach and intestines (and consequently the quietness and delight of the soul), because these properly digest and distribute a small amount of food, and therefore are not agitated by flatulence and griping pains. This is what he says: "The sleep of health (that is, healthy sleep, preserving and increasing health) shall be to the frugal man," that is, to one who is economical and sober. Wherefore such a man "shall sleep until morning," because food will not burden him, nor disturb him, so as to force him to rise before the proper time: and when he shall have been awakened at the appointed time, "his soul shall be delighted with him," that is to say, he himself shall rejoice with himself, because by his sobriety at yesterday's meal and supper he shall have preserved the health both of his body and of his mind and judgment, which the drunken lose; and also of his conscience, because he shall not have injured it through gluttony and intemperance. Wherefore immediately, being well disposed, cheerful and vigorous, he shall rise, so that he may perform his accustomed prayers, studies and business, being in full possession of himself, active and cheerful. Therefore he opposes sleep to wakefulness, health to choler, delight to torture. He speaks beautifully when he says: "His soul shall be delighted with him:" because, just as a harpist is delighted seeing and playing a harp harmoniously composed, for it produces that harmonious sound; but he grieves and is saddened if he sees it out of tune, for it produces a harsh and discordant sound: so likewise the soul, while the body is in a temperate state, rejoices and is delighted; because through it he is able to sing, read, pray, study, etc., rightly: but he grieves and is afflicted if the body is intemperate with wine and excess, and therefore unfit for the offices of the mind. For the body is as it were a harp, and the soul is as it were a harpist. Moreover, sleep is of such utility for the digestion of food, the restoration of strength, the diminution of cares, the alleviation of sickness, that the Gentiles did not hesitate to assign divinity to it, for they worshipped as divine powers all things from which they received benefit, and one of them thus sang, Ovid in book II of the Metamorphoses: "Sleep, rest of things, most peaceful sleep of the gods, Peace of the mind, whom care flees, who soothe bodies wearied by hard service, and restore them to labor." And Orpheus also calls sleep the king of the blessed gods, and of all mortals, men and living creatures. Thus Seneca sings in the Hercules Furens: "And thou, O sleep, tamer of evils, Rest of the mind, the better part of human life." Tertullian writes in his book On the Soul, chapter XLIII, that sleep is a recreation of bodies, a restorer of strength, a tester of health, a peacemaker of labors, a physician of toils, to which, by rightfully enjoying it, the day yields, the night makes law, taking away even the color of things. "Sleep seems to be," says Cicero, "a refuge from all labors and anxieties," book I of On Divination. Hear Francis Valesius in his book Sacred Philosophy, chapter LXXIII: "To an intemperate man," he says, "there will happen wakefulness, choler and torture; but sleep of health to the sparing man." Nothing is more known by experience than that he who has filled himself with food to satiety cannot sleep, but either watches the whole night, tossing himself hither and thither, and cannot remain in one place: or sleeps a heavy sleep with many horrible nightmares; and it is not long, but frequently interrupted, and sometimes with choler and torture, that is, with anxiety of the stomach and vomiting of corrupted food, or with nausea and foul-smelling belchings (this condition is called by Hippocrates dry choler) and with griping of the intestines: the former indeed on account of corrupted foods which still act in the stomach; the latter on account of those which have descended into the intestines. But he who has supped sparingly or without satiety sleeps until morning, and his soul is delighted with him, that is, he derives great pleasure from sleep, and awakes brisk and ready; which indeed is the best sign of well-accomplished digestion, and therefore of good health.
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For these reasons therefore he commands one to be sparing, and moreover to be swift in all works. The same author teaches a little earlier from Hippocrates that the chief method of preserving health consists in diet, that is, in moderation of food and drink. For no error in diet is committed which does not equally harm both parts of man. For drunkenness, as it weighs down the head, so it harms the mind: excessive intake of food and drink, as it fills the body with moisture, so it makes man lustful: idleness makes the body full of excrement, and the mind soft and sluggish: excessive abstinence from food weakens and debilitates bodies, but makes the mind fearful: the drinking of wine (to which water would have been beneficial) stirs up many fluxes and brings on anger: the drinking of water (to which wine would have been needed) produces indigestion and sadness. If therefore, just as for preserving bodily health the humours ought to be well-balanced, so for the health of the soul the affections ought to be so; and any error in diet disturbs both in some way; it is clear that a suitable regimen of diet is necessary for the health of the whole man, that is, of both body and soul. Especially since such an error not only disturbs both by itself, but also disturbs each through the other. For whenever the fluids are disturbed, it happens that the affections are disturbed; and whenever the affections are disturbed, the humours also are disturbed. Wherefore it was most truly said by Galen that a part of medicine is the philosophy of morals, not only that which pertains to the constitution of the state, but that which accommodates itself to the ordering of the morals of individuals. For this regulates the affections, which is indeed one part (and not the greatest) of the whole regimen: since this, as all physicians agree, consists of six things, food and drink, movement and rest, sleep and wakefulness, air, affections of the soul, and the excretion or retention of certain things. Thus Valesius. Finally, the aphorism of Hippocrates is to be impressed upon us, book I, chapter XVII: "Where food beyond what is natural," that is, more than is proper, "has been taken in, it produces disease." For it has always been beneficial never to eat to satiety, often to eat below it: for in this way digestion becomes better, and fewer excretions are produced. The same author, book VI of the Epidemics, part V, aphorism 20: "The pursuit of health," he says, "is not to be satisfied with foods, and to be diligent in labours." The same author asserts that want is the mother of health. Hence in the Decretals, distinction last, On Consecration, we read that some suffering from articular disease and gout, when reduced to a simple table and poor foods, recovered. It is clear that those who use the vilest foods are more robust, healthier and more vigorous, such as are farmers, craftsmen, servants. St. Jerome: "The abundance of feasts," he says, "both breaks the body and the soul." Democritus said that "a dry soul," that is, a sober one, "is the wisest." The same said "it is better to die than to cloud the soul through intemperance." Learn morally here how great is the intemperance and harm of gluttony. Excellently St. Basil, homily 1 On Fasting: "The belly," he says, "is a glutton, never making an end of demanding. When it is filled with foods, it discourses on temperance: but when it has dispersed the bloating, it is seized with forgetfulness of its doctrines." The same, On Reading the Books of the Gentiles: "Gluttons," he says, "pay no lighter penalties than those who are tormented in hell, as those who openly strike fire, and carry water in a sieve, and pour it into a perforated vessel, and make no end of their labours." Hence also St. Gregory Nazianzen, in a poem On Various Kinds of Life, calls the belly saturated with food a sepulchre. For he carries about a living sepulchre, who bears a body distended and buried in food and wine. The same in Tetrastichs: Wine, lust, envy and demon are equals: These deprive of mind those whom they hold. Do thou heal these with prayer, with tears shed, with fasting. The same, in Distichs: "Contumely and insolence," he says, "are born of satiety." Wherefore wisely St. Jerome admonishes St. Paulinus, epistle 13: "Banquets," he says, "as certain chains of pleasures, do thou flee." See more in Damascenus, book I of the Parallels, chapter LXXVII.
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Again St. Bernard, On the Inner House, chapter XLVI: "No tax collector is so wicked as the belly." The same, in a letter to Robert his nephew: "Sweet wine and fatty foods make war on the body, not the spirit. Pepper, ginger, cumin, sage and a thousand species of seasonings delight the palate indeed, but they inflame lust. For one conversing prudently and soberly, salt with hunger suffices as seasoning for everything." The same, On Enduring Persecution, chapter XII: "The pleasure of the throat, which is so highly valued today, scarcely occupies the width of two fingers; and for so small a part, so slight a pleasure is prepared with such great care, and then produces such great trouble!" The same, sermon I On the Advent: "Fullness," he says, "and abundance of temporal things causes forgetfulness and want of eternal things." 25. And if thou art forced (burdened) in eating much, RISE FROM THE MIDST, VOMIT: AND IT SHALL REFRESH THEE, AND THOU SHALT NOT BRING INFIRMITY UPON THY BODY. — Thus the Roman and Complutensian editions, although the Greek corrected at Rome omit τὸ ἔμεσον, that is, vomit: as if it only advises to rise and walk about to digest the food. For rise from the midst, in Greek it is ἀνάστα μεσοπορῶν, which the Complutensian translates, rise through the midst (of the tables and guests, passing through); the Roman edition, however, reading through α, and with the accent on the penultimate μεσοπωρῶν, translates, rise in the midst of fruits, namely at the end of the table, when fruits and delicacies are being served, as if to say, Rise without waiting for the end of the second course; others, rise as if departing from the middle of dinner; the Zurich edition: If foods trouble thee, rise up, walk about, vomit so that thou mayest rest, and contract no sickness for thy body. It does not advise vomiting as something absolutely good, but conditionally; if, namely, thou hast filled thyself excessively with food, to avoid the greater evil of plethora and repletion. Whence Jansenius rightly says: It certainly does not counsel that one should gorge oneself much to provoke vomiting, as some advise impiously, but that if through the wickedness and violence of some one has burdened oneself much, one should rise timely from the table, lest one suffer anything indecorous at table, or excessive repletion afflict and harm the body for a long time; and thus in a secret place without offending others one should rather vomit the excess than have the stomach afflicted for a long time with danger of a chronic disease. By this counsel it sufficiently indicates how greatly one must beware of excess, so that to cure it such a foul and unworthy, indeed plainly canine, remedy must be used. For it is more shameful to provide the cause of this shamefullness than to admit this shamefullness in oneself to avoid a great evil. Therefore it is also sufficiently indicated how gravely they sin who, after they feel themselves burdened, rising from the table vomit the excess, so that soon returning to the table they may be able to gorge themselves again with new food and drink. The same things are advised by Hippocrates, Galen and other physicians. Hear Francis Valesius, Sacred Philosophy, chapter LXXIII, at the end: If ever, he says, thou art forced, as happens at banquets (although a temperate and strong man, and one who does not labor under rustic shame, ought not to suffer this) to eat much, it is most advisable first to set aside the multitude of food, then to go to sleep, so that the remainder may be digested: afterwards to exercise, so that excrement may be expelled. But the best method of emptying the stomach is by vomiting; the second after this is by evacuation. For vomiting ejects from the very mouth of the stomach, before the foods have descended, and helps most quickly and greatly, without harm to other parts: evacuation from the intestines, which have already descended. One should therefore use vomiting, if only a man is able to do it, immediately: but if someone is of those who vomit with great difficulty, one should use evacuation of the bowels somewhat later, namely then, when one begins to feel griping or distension of the lower belly.
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Therefore most excellently, and according to the precepts of Hippocrates and Galen (as one may see in book VII of the Method of Healing), Ecclesiasticus commanded: "If thou be forced to eat much, rise up in the midst (by these words he signifies that this ought to be done immediately, before the abundance of food brings any harm), and vomit, and it shall refresh thee (that is, it shall relieve thee), and thou shalt not bring infirmity upon thy body." Therefore Sirach suggests four remedies for excessive repletion: first, to rise up; second, to walk; third, to vomit; fourth, to exercise the body. For one may see some so attached to the table and to cups that they cannot move from their place or rise up: or, when they have risen, they immediately fall back, rush hither and thither and collide, so that they become a laughing-stock to all. Others, when fully gorged like full sacks, or like logs and stumps, are carried away and removed from the table. Concerning whom Cicero, in book II of On Ends, says: "The intemperate, he says, who vomit upon the table, and who are carried away from banquets, are carried away, and raw the next day they gorge themselves again, who, as they say, never see the sun setting nor rising, who, having consumed their inheritances, are in want." Therefore when vomiting is honorable, when it is unbecoming and dishonorable, see Plutarch discoursing upon it, in the book On Health. The same in the Symposium, saying that one should philosophize at a banquet, he recommends vomiting to him who wishes to live skillfully, if wine has affected the head: and thus Agur is called by Solomon "the son of one vomiting," Proverbs XXX, 1, because from vomiting, with head relieved and clear, he rushed forth to speak; our Salazar thinks the same in that place. Furthermore Celsus, book I, chapter III, from Asclepiades: Vomiting, he says, is more useful in winter than in summer: for then there is more phlegm, and heaviness of the head is greater. It is useless for those who are thin and weak of stomach: it is useful for all those who are full and bilious, if either they have filled themselves too much, or have digested poorly. Therefore when bitter belching with pain and heaviness of the chest occurs, one must have recourse to this remedy. Tropologically Rabanus: If thou hast committed many sins, he says, and hast heaped them up in the stomach of thy mind, vomit them forth through confession, and thus thou shalt relieve and heal thy conscience. Thus also Origen, homily 2 on Psalm XXXVII: "See, he says, what divine Scripture teaches us: that sin ought not to be hidden within. Perhaps indeed, just as those who have undigested food shut up within them, or a phlegmatic humor, pressing heavily and painfully upon the stomach, if they vomit, are relieved; so also those who have sinned, if indeed they both hide and retain sin within themselves, are pressed inwardly, and are almost suffocated by the phlegm or humor of sin: but if the sinner himself becomes his own accuser, while he accuses himself, and confesses his sin, at the same time he vomits forth the offense and digests every cause of the disease." Secondly, Palacius mystically refers these things to the rich, to whom this counsel is given here, that if they have devoured much wealth, they should vomit it forth upon the poor: thus also, he says, the soul of the rich man will rest from scruples, and will escape the punishments inflicted upon the avaricious. 26. HEAR ME, MY SON, AND DESPISE ME NOT: AND IN THE END THOU SHALT FIND MY WORDS. — That is, as the Zurich version has it, for what I say thou shalt at length experience. He draws attention to the precept, which has great importance for maintaining health, which he adds, saying: 27. IN ALL THY WORKS BE SWIFT, AND NO INFIRMITY SHALL COME UPON THEE. — "No infirmity" in Hebrew is the same as "none." For swift in Greek it is ἐντρεχής, that is diligent, strenuous, keen, swift, running (for τρέχω means I run), likewise dexterous, skillful, circumspect, industrious and acute. First, Palacius refers this admonition to verse 25, as if to say: In every work be swift, that is, easy, diligent, strenuous, so that thou mayest know how to rise easily, to walk, to vomit, and thus to be freed from infirmity, which will come upon thee unless thou vomitest. But, as he himself admits, this precept, although it is said on the occasion of banquets, is nevertheless general in itself, and pertains to all works. Whence Secondly, Francis Valesius, in the book of Sacred Philosophy, chapter LXXIII, understands by swiftness the exercise of the body, which greatly helps in maintaining health: "And no, he says, infirmity shall come upon thee." Which is not to be understood as if one could not be afflicted with any disease at all, but that one will not be very liable to any diseases; but will rarely and lightly be troubled by them, unless by chance he be harmed by causes which physicians call "non-necessary," such as the sword, or fire, or the casting of a stone, or the collapse of a house, or contagion. The sense therefore is, as if to say: If thou be swift, and exercise thy body, thou shalt rarely be seriously ill.
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Hippocrates agrees with Sirach, in book VI of the Epidemics, section IV, saying: "The exercise of health is to take food short of satiety, and to be diligent in labors." For what else do you interpret by what Sirach says—that one should be sparing—than to use food short of saturation? To be swift in undertaking labors, what else is this than to be diligent in labors? Understand exercise not as excessive, but as moderate and proportioned to each person's constitution and strength, and suited to eating. For, as the aphorism has it: "Neither satiety, nor hunger, nor anything else that exceeds the measure of nature, is good." Wherefore just as in food, so also in motion and exercise many exceed. Furthermore, just as idleness harms the body, so also does exhaustion; forbidding which Hippocrates wrote: "When the body has begun to grow weary, rest is immediately the remedy." Therefore swift here is called not one who is precipitous, but one who is expeditious, diligent and brisk. For this briskness, and the swiftness consequent upon it, both sharpens the mind and the body, enlivens and vivifies them; for it stirs up the vital spirits and diffuses them swiftly throughout the whole body, which enliven and strengthen each member; and thus from them they exclude all weakness and infirmity, so that they seem not so much to move and progress as to fly like birds or Angels, as one may see in young Italians. Valesius adds. For otherwise Hippocrates' aphorism has it: "Where there is hunger, one should not labor." Whence one converting it thus may say: Where one must labor, hunger is not to be endured, but food is to be taken. And by the same reasoning you will gather: Where there is idleness, food is not to be taken, except most sparingly; and where much food is to be taken, man is not to be exercised in any way, but much; because, as the same author says in the book On Diet, a man eating and not laboring cannot be healthy. He indeed added there the cause of all those things which we have said, in these words: For food and labors have contrary powers to each other. But mixed together among themselves they contribute to health; for labors are accustomed to consume those things which are present; but food and drink fill those things which have been evacuated. And so the measure is that each be accommodated to the other; because having contrary powers, neither ought to overcome the other, neither food ever, nor labor; for they mutually correct each other: the one, when it fills; the other, when it empties. Therefore if for someone labor is necessarily required more than usual, more food is to be added than customary; if one is to eat more, exercise is also to be increased more. Wherefore lest you have need of excessive motion, it would be more prudent to use food sparingly. Yet not always, when you have increased the customary amount of food, is it sufficient to increase exercise, nor when there has been great satiety; because, although food and labor are contrary, yet neither is each conveniently applied after the other; but (as Hippocrates says) labor ought to precede food, not follow it. Nor is anything more dangerous than to exercise vigorously on a full stomach, or indeed with the whole body full or impure, before a great part of the abundance or of the bad humors has been deposited by manifest evacuation; because exercise draws throughout the habit of the body those things which are hidden within the belly and cavities. From a full belly therefore crude matter draws into all other parts; wherefore it makes obstructions and many fluxes of the head, and lungs, and liver, and all the viscera into those very parts, and into the bladder, and into the joints, and the whole body; whence innumerable diseases are born. Therefore it is to be cared for most and first that you never take food except sparingly, so that from it you may sleep peacefully and long, and from sleep awakening briskly, you may exercise yourself diligently, so that you may escape all infirmity. Thus far from Hippocrates through Valesius. The same is the opinion of all the wise concerning labor and exercise. Hence Plutarch, in the book On Health: "Health is not sold," he says, "by idleness and inertia, which two are the greatest evils accompanying diseases; and if anyone thinks he will prepare himself good health by quiet and abstinence from actions, he does the same as if someone should constitute himself to preserve his eyes by despising nothing, or his voice by not speaking." And a little later: "Thus Cyrus, in Xenophon, says he ἐξπονεῖν, that is, to work out food
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Third, for swift some translate circumspect, so that, namely, in all your works you may be circumspect and cautious, lest you do anything that may offend and harm; "and all infirmity shall not come upon you," that is, you will not easily fall into sickness. Thus Palacius. This providence and circumspection guards against anyone burdening himself excessively with food, drink, exercise, and against incurring those things which are harmful to health, through which he might contract infirmity. Adam had this providence in paradise: through it he would have escaped all diseases and lived a healthy, pleasant and long life. The philosophers taught this same precept, whose axiom is: "Deliberate slowly, execute swiftly." Indeed, the greatest matters, and especially the most serious wars, are most easily accomplished by swiftness. That famous saying of Julius Caesar is celebrated, when he had conquered Pharnaces in the first encounter: "I came, I saw, I conquered;" which Charles V, using this, accomplished the dangerous German war swiftly and, having defeated the heretics, thus changed it: "I came, I saw, Christ conquered." The same Julius used to say that those deeds which are fraught with danger and are great ought to be done immediately; and that one ought not to deliberate about these, because swiftness avails greatly for accomplishing them. Thus Plutarch in the Apophthegms of the Romans. To this pertains that precept of Aristotle, lib. III Ethic.: "We ought to deliberate slowly, Fourth, for swift in Greek is ἐντρεχής, which others translate as skillful, cautious, provident, circumspect, vigilant. For this providence and circumspection guards against anyone burdening himself excessively with food, drink, exercise, and against incurring those things which are harmful to health, through which he might contract infirmity. Adam had this providence in paradise: through it he would have escaped all diseases and lived a healthy, pleasant and long life. He admonishes therefore that in all things which are incumbent to be done, man should not be sluggish, lazy and negligent, but diligent and strenuous; and thus he promises that it will come to pass that any infirmity will not easily befall him, signifying that most diseases arise from and are nourished by idleness. For idleness nourishes melancholy and enervates the strength of the body; whereas on the contrary diligence in action, which is joined with promptness and alacrity of mind, drives away sadness and preserves health. The sense therefore is, as if to say, "Be swift," that is diligent and brisk in your works, and no infirmity shall come upon you; because diligence, labor and exercise guard health; but sluggishness, idleness and laziness generate diseases. before kings shall stand, and shall not be before the ignoble." He admonishes therefore that in all things which are incumbent to be done, man should not be sluggish, lazy and negligent, but diligent and strenuous; and thus he promises that it will come to pass that any infirmity will not easily befall him, signifying that most diseases arise from and are nourished by idleness. from hell am I snatched, and shall I seek a truce? Have I hidden fire in my bosom, and with my side already burned, must I deliberate long whether I should awake, whether I should shake it off, whether I should cast it away?" See more in Jerome Platus, On the Good of the Religious State. To this pertains that saying of Tertullian, lib. On Penance, cap. IV: "I consider it audacity," he says, "to dispute about the good of a divine precept. For not because it is good ought we therefore to obey; but because God commanded it. In the exhibition of obedience, the majesty of divine power comes first; the authority of the one commanding comes before the advantage of the one serving."
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Ponder and weigh that passage of Isaiah, cap. XL, 31: "But they that hope in the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall take wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint." See the remarks there. It is an ancient saying: "In strength be like a dolphin," so that just as this creature in swimming is swiftest and by its speed outpaces the other fish, so likewise you be swift in carrying out the purpose of virtue, so that when the occasion is given you complete it forthwith in deed. Hence of the Bridegroom Christ the Lord it is said, Cant. II, 8: "Behold he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping over the hills; my beloved is like a roe, or a young hart." In which therefore exulting, Habacuc, cap. III, vers. 18: "I," he says, "will rejoice in the Lord, and will joy in God my Jesus. God the Lord is my strength; and he will make my feet like the feet of harts, and he will make me to walk upon high places, a conqueror singing psalms." See what I have noted there. Thus the Blessed Virgin, having received through the Angel the announcement of the incarnation of the Word, leaping forth "went into the hill country with haste, and saluted Elisabeth," Luke cap. I, vers. 39. Where St. Ambrose: "She knows not," he says, "slow proceedings; the grace of the Holy Spirit knows them not." St. Bernard, epist. 233 to Guarinus: "The spirit," he says, "conquers the years, and though the body now grows cold, holy desire burns in the body, and though the limbs grow weak, yet the vigor of purpose endures unimpaired, nor does the ready spirit feel the weakness of wrinkled flesh. Why indeed should he fear the ruins of an aged dwelling, who sees the spiritual edifice rising higher day by day, advancing into eternity?" Whoever therefore wishes to be strong in spirit and to escape its defects and diseases, let him be ἐντρεχής, that is a swift runner, so that like a hart he may hasten to every good, and say with the Bride, Cant. I, 4: "We will run after thee to the odor of thy ointments." For Christ "hath exulted as a giant to run the way," Psal. XVIII, 6. Whence concerning the Apostles and preachers of the Gospel, followers of Christ, Isaiah says, cap. LX, vers. 8: "Who are these that fly as clouds?" And Paul: "I," he says, "so run not as at an uncertainty." And: "So run that you may obtain," I Corinth. cap. IX, vers. 25 and 26.
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This swiftness is required both in other matters and especially in God's calling to the perfect life, for example to the state of Religion, namely that he who is called should obey God calling swiftly; because if he delays, the devil, parents, companions and others will strive to turn him from this intention. Whence St. Ambrose, lib. I De Pænitentia, cap. XVI: "Every," he says, "endeavor grows sluggish through delay, and therefore the Lord, so that the devotion of his disciples might be heaped with present fruit, said: Because whosoever shall have left all things, and followed God, shall receive a hundredfold, both here and in the future. He promised here first, so that he might remove the disgust of delay." But St. Bernard urges more sharply to this swiftness in Declamat.: "How many," he says, "does the accursed wisdom of the world trip up! Do not," he says, "act precipitously, consider for a long time, look more carefully. What you propose is great, and you have need of much deliberation. Try what you can do; consult friends, lest it happen that you repent after the deed. This is the wisdom of the world, earthly, accursed, animal, diabolical, hostile to salvation, suffocating life, mother of lukewarmness, which is wont to provoke vomiting in God. When you do not doubt that the word is from God, what need is there of deliberation? The Angel of great counsel calls, why do you await alien counsels? From the mouth of the well
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St. Ambrose, in the book On Naboth, chapter IV, reads "to his goodness, that is to his beneficence) his citizens bear witness, is 'faithful,' that is true, certain, stable, lasting and enduring, so that it can be destroyed and abolished only through contrary acts of liberality continued for a long time. To this he opposes 'most wicked in bread,' that is stingy in giving bread, who shares his things sparingly and sordidly, both with guests and with the poor; to whom therefore 'the whole city will murmur, and testimony,' which 'to his wickedness,' that is to his avarice and sordid stinginess, 'his' the citizens bear witness, especially the poor, is true;" in Greek ἀκριβές, that is diligent, exact, certain, stable and lasting, so that it can be destroyed and extinguished only through many acts of liberality long repeated. Whence the Zurich version translates: 'The lips shall praise him that distributes bread, and the testimony of his honor is certain; against the wicked bread the city will murmur, which is the right testimony of his malice; others: 'He who is splendid in food, and the lips of men bless him, and the testimony of his honesty is faithful to him; he who is wicked in food, the city murmurs against him, and the testimony of his wickedness is exact.' A splendid example of the former is in the Life of St. John the Almsgiver, to whom God, Angels and men blessed on account of his liberality. An example of the latter is found there in Peter the Publican, to whom on account of his avarice all the poor detracted, until corrected by a vision from God he changed his ways, and from a miser became liberal. Furthermore Palacius thus explains: The eighth precept is that, if you have received someone at a meal, you receive him splendidly and sumptuously: thus it will come about that the lips of many praise you; and this praise of your truth is faithful and firm. On the contrary, if you receive guests sordidly and sparingly, the city will murmur against you, and this reproach is truly a reproach. Bread, for the Hebrews signifies the whole meal, as that teaches concerning the brothers of Joseph, who had heard that they would eat bread there, Genesis XLIII, 25. Whence splendid in breads is he who prepares a meal largely and splendidly: understand according to the dignity of the guest; on the contrary the most wicked in bread is the most stingy and sordid. Note most carefully the word 'testimony of his truth.' Plainly all the works of virtues are worthy of praise; but the work of charity is the work of 'truth,' and its 'testimony' is faithful, not false, not deceptive. For charity is true virtue, without which there is no complete virtue. Therefore he who prepares a meal splendidly for a pious friend shows charity; for the discourse is about meals of the pious, such as Tobias prepared for friends. This charity in meals is truth, truly showing a man to be pious. You understand now from the contrary sense, how much to be condemned it is from sordid stinginess to receive the pious maliciously at a meal. How great therefore is that charity, which even amid feasts pours forth the rays of its benevolence! Thus Palacius. To these things St. Thomas, II-II, Question CXVII, article 4, teaches that it is the part of the liberal and splendid to give much, but to receive little; and to this he cites that saying of the Poet: 'If anyone in this world wishes to be pleasing to many, let him give, receive, seek, much, little, nothing.'
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Moreover this splendor of magnificence most befits a king and prince, who is on earth as it were a certain sun of beneficence. Whence Agapetus the Deacon, Admonitions to the Emperor Justinian, no. 51: 'It is truly the part of the sun,' he says, 'to illuminate the orb with its rays; but the virtue of a prince is to have mercy on the needy. Now the emperor is clearer to them who is pious. For that one (the sun) yields to the succeeding night, but this one (the pious emperor) does not yield to or indulge the rapacity of the wicked in anything, but by the light of truth he convicts the hidden things of iniquity.' And no. 53: 'By as much as you excel others in power, so much also strive to shine forth in deeds before others. Hold it most certain that honest works are demanded of you by God, which correspond in proportion to the greatness of your power. So that therefore you may be declared victor by God as it were by a herald, with the crown of unconquered empire placed upon your head, acquire also a crown from the merits of the poor.'
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Mystically Rabanus: "This sentence," he says, "seems according to the historical sense to exhort us to the generosity of almsgiving; since, according to the Apostle Paul: He that soweth sparingly, shall also reap sparingly; and he that soweth in blessings, shall also reap of blessings life everlasting, II Cor. IX; for God loveth a cheerful giver. But spiritually, he who faithfully distributes the bread of the word of God to his neighbors, and hideth not the testimony of truth before benevolent hearers, shall receive praise of blessing from many, and shall draw from the Lord himself the grace of eternal reward. Hence also it is written in Proverbs: With the fruit of a man's mouth his belly shall be filled, and with the offspring of his lips he shall be satisfied, Prov. XVIII. But on the contrary, let us hear what follows from the perverse doctrine of heretics: In the most wicked bread the city shall murmur, and the testimony of his wickedness is true. In the most wicked dogma therefore of heretics, who adulterating the word of God, are nourished not with the bread of life, but with the bread of falsehood, whatever their pestilent speech brings forth; since it is true the testimony that is written of them: A false witness shall not be unpunished; and he that speaketh a lie, shall perish." (Appropriately and in fitting order Sirach passes from banquets to wine; because wine is the honor or dishonor of a banquet and of banqueters, and drinking together is frequent in banquets; for which reason a banquet is called by the Hebrews משתה miste, by the Greeks συμπόσιον, that is, a drinking together.) 30. PROVOKE NOT MEN THAT ARE DRUNKEN WITH WINE: FOR WINE HATH DESTROYED MANY. — τὸ diligentes can be taken in two ways: first, as a participle from the verb diligo, so that it is the same as loving. Whence Rabanus reads, delighting in wine. Now "diligentes in vino," that is, loving wine: is a Hebraism, For the Hebrews construct verbs of contact, whether real or mental, such as diligo (for he who loves by his love as it were touches the beloved), with the preposition ב, that is, in. Second and rather, τὸ diligentes can be taken as a noun signifying diligent, assiduous, strenuous ones, as if to say, Those who are diligent and strenuous in drinking wine, who assiduously apply themselves to emptying cups, who exert strenuous effort not in books, but in draining goblets; provoke not to drinking, nor contend with them in cups, to see who can drink more, as drunkards do; but rather turn them away from wine, distract and hinder them, add not oil, but rather subtract it from the fire. To this sense the Greek favors, which has, ἐν οἴνῳ μὴ ἀνδρίζου (the manuscript reads, μὴ σοφίζου, that is, be not wise in wine: that is, show not thyself skilled in drinking and in Bacchic matters, or show not thyself learned and erudite while drinking), that is, as the Complutensian: In wine act not manfully; the Roman: In wine be not strong; the Zurich: Prove not thyself a man in wine. For many are men in wine, in war and work women, to whom Isaiah threatens woe, cap. V, 11: "Woe to you that rise up in the morning to follow drunkenness, and to drink even till the evening, that you may be inflamed with wine!" And vers. 22: "Woe to you that are mighty to drink wine, and stout men at drinking!"
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FOR WINE HAS DESTROYED MANY, — that is: Drunkenness overthrows many, which diminishes the senses; it stirs up anger, quarreling and slaughter, inflames lust, lays bare the secrets of the soul through rage or love, "says Rabanus. To this pertains that proverb of the Hebrews: "Wine enters, the secret exits." For wine lacks a key; and what lies hidden in the mind of the sober man, swims upon the tongue of the drunk. And that saying: בכיס בכוס בכעס, that is, in purses, in cups, in fires; namely in anger, supply, the mind and soul of man appears. For if you entrust to someone purses swollen with gold, you will test his faith; but in cups and wine there is truth. For, as Euripides says: "Bronze is the mirror of form, wine of the mind." Finally, concerning the fires of anger the Poet says: Often anger has revealed the hidden mind of men. 31. FIRE PROVES (and in proving bends and ignites it, which is a metalepsis) hard iron: thus wine will REPROVE the hearts of the proud WHEN DRUNK IN DRUNKENNESS. — St. Ambrose, in the book On Elijah, chapter XII, reads: "Just as fire softens hard iron, so also by the burning of wine even the heart of proud men melts." The sense is, says Rabanus: "Just as fire by its heat softens the hardness of iron and causes it to glow; so wine drunk in drunkenness dissolves the hearts of the proud from their steadfastness, and inflaming them with its ardor suddenly provokes them to perpetrate crime, and gives their proud intention greater boldness for the commission of evil," as if to say: Just as there is no iron so hard that it is not subdued and inflamed by fire; so there is no heart so strong and proud that immoderate wine does not demonstrate to it the harms of its drunkenness, says Palacius. A clear example is in the proud Holofernes, who, weakened and inflamed by wine, was slain by Judith. Moreover, the Greek texts add certain things, and those vigorous ones, for thus they read: κάμινος δοκιμάζει στόμωμα ἐν βαφῇ, οὕτως οἶνος καρδίας ἐν μάχῃ (The Complutensian and Zurich editions read ἐν μέθῃ, that is in drunkenness) ὑπερηφάνων. Which the Complutensian translates: A furnace proves (and in proving makes) the joining of metal in the dye, so wine in the heart of the proud in drunkenness; that is, says Palacius: Iron becomes harder if, when ignited, it is repeatedly dipped in water; so the heart of the proud becomes prouder if it repeatedly becomes wet and floats in wine. The Roman: A furnace proves the edge of iron in the dye, so wine the hearts in the contention of the proud; στόμωμα indeed is iron with an edge (which the French call acier) or steel tempered and strengthened, namely the edge, sharpness and strength of iron; such indeed is steel. See Pliny, book XXXIV, chapter XIV. The Italians call it la tempora, that is the strong tempering of iron, as of knives, swords, axes, etc., as if to say: Just as fire proves and makes the tempering of iron; so wine proves and makes the tempering of the heart hard, and therefore contentious and warlike. The Zurich edition: As a furnace proves the hardness of the point when it is dipped; so wine the hearts in the struggle of the proud. Which Jansenius thus explains, and adapts to the Latin Vulgate: It seems, he says, that the Wise Man had regard to this, that when the edge of a point is to be prepared, iron or steel is dipped into water several times, and thus is hardened, tempered and sharpened; and therefore by the dipping of iron into water fire proves, shows and exhibits to men a sharp sword and hard iron: which if it were not dipped into water, would not have such hardness; so also wine shows and exhibits to men the hearts of the proud, while those are made wet by drunkenness, and as if immersed in wine. For those hearts, inflamed by wine and made wet by drunkenness, become far harder than they were before, and more ready to harm and injure; just as iron, although hard by its nature, becomes harder if, when ignited, it is immersed in water; and the edge of a sword, when ignited, if dipped in water, becomes sharper and more apt for harming. From these things therefore it is permitted to understand the fitness of the comparison, because wine is compared to fire inflaming and kindling, wine inflaming men and kindling their souls. The hearts of the proud are compared to hard and sharp iron, which are hard and sharp for harming, and which become harder through wine, and are more fitted for anger and harming. To water, into which iron is dipped, drunkenness is compared, through which the hearts of men are made wet and overwhelmed. In the Greek there is a beautiful paronomasia: for βαφῇ is opposed to μέθῃ, that is dipping to drunkenness, or, as others read μάχῃ, that is to contention. The Vulgate Interpreter therefore either did not read τὸ ἐν βαφῇ, or, if he read it, takes it concerning the immersion of iron
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not into water, but into fire; for in fire it is dipped, becomes red and is colored. For baptism is of iron fire (just as mystically Christ and the Holy Spirit baptize the iron hearts of men with fire, Matt. III, 11); whence he translates: "Fire proves hard iron," making no mention of immersion in water, according to the sense given at the beginning. 32. WATER EQUAL TO LIFE FOR MEN, WINE IN SOBRIETY; IF YOU DRINK IT MODERATELY, YOU WILL BE SOBER. — The sense is: Wine, taken soberly, brings an equal and suitable life to man; but you will take wine soberly if moderately. Or: "If you drink it moderately, you will be sober," that is, in possession of mind, mentally sound, vigorous, keen and sharp. For wine taken in moderation sharpens the intellect. Palatius somewhat differently, as if to say: If you lack wine, you live a sad life; if you use immoderate wine, your life will be immoderately joyful. So that therefore you may live an equal life, that is neither sad nor excessively joyful, use wine moderately. Hence in banquets the master of the feast, or president of the banquet, would prescribe a certain measure of drinking, for example four or five cyathi, which it was not permitted to exceed. The highest measure, which was sometimes allowed to heavy drinkers, was ten cyathi, according to the Greek song: "Drink five, three and a half and four." For these joined together make the sum of ten cyathi. Thus Turnebus, IV Adversaria, cap. XXX, and others. The Greek texts more briefly have it thus: Ἐπίσον ζωῆς οἶνος ἀνθρώπῳ, ἐὰν πίνῃς αὐτὸν ἐν μέτρῳ αὐτοῦ. Which the Complutensian edition translates thus: An addition to life is wine for man (as if to say, Wine adds, increases and produces life for man), if you drink it in its measure; the Roman: Wine equal to life for man (as if to say, Wine equals, is equivalent to, is equivalent in value to the life of man, because it preserves it), if you drink it in its measure; the Zurich: Wine is suited to human life, when drunk temperately; others: Wine is equal to life for man, if you drink it in its measure; because wine vivifies and gladdens man equally as life itself does. Otherwise, indeed contrarily, St. Ambrose reads it, lib. De Elia, cap. XII: "Equal," he says, "life for men, wine in drunkenness; drink it moderately, that you may be sober." And thus he explains it: "All," he says, "seem equal to themselves in wine, none inferior. The poor man does not yield to the rich, since he does not know himself to be poor. The weak man does not yield to the strong, to whom all strength in drinking belongs. The beggar does not yield to the wealthy, the ignoble to the honored; but when they drink, they have as king him who has surpassed the others in drinking." But the Vulgate reading is to be retained, and the Greek agrees with it, and what follows. Furthermore Hippocrates, Galen, Dioscorides, and other natural philosophers and physicians teach with one voice that wine wonderfully conduces to human life. For wine, they say, both strengthens and nourishes most quickly, in that it requires minimal change to be assimilated; wine moistens and heats the solid parts, confirms the strength of the body, produces the goodness of humors and heat, aids the digestion and distribution of food, promotes urine and sweats, heats the condition of the body, and is the supreme remedy against the hardness and coldness of old age. For just as fire softens iron, so wine softens and tempers the bodies of the aged. Whence wine is called "the milk of the old." Beyond this it brings on sleep, fosters spirits and blood, mitigates and breaks the acrimony of bitter bile, kindles and preserves natural heat, adds strength to the limbs, stops vomiting, resists putrefaction, is the best antidote to hemlock and poison. Indeed it also sharpens mind and intellect, cheers and uplifts it, whence that saying: "Wine is a great horse for the Poet." And: The Muse of wine stirs the wit of poets: Nor do they sing songs without wine, with wit made by wine. And: What full cups have not made eloquent? See Plutarch, lib. VII Sympos. problem. 9 and 10. There exists this riddle of wine, which pertains to this: I give strength, and take it away, and the origin of my name is from strength: I sharpen wit, I free hearts from fear. The earth gives me birth: the sun cooks me with ruddy fire; Soon swollen vessels cover me, presses vomit me forth. 33 and 34. WHAT IS LIFE TO HIM WHO IS DIMINISHED BY WINE? WHAT DEFRAUDS LIFE? DEATH. — Thus the Roman edition. First, Lyra and others explain it of the intemperate and drunken man, as if to say: How miserable is the life of the drunkard, who shortens and diminishes it by constantly drinking wine, and so deprives himself of the use of reason, that for the greater part of the day, in which he either sleeps or is drunk, he is not in possession of mind and himself? as if to say: Such a life is not human, but piggish and bestial, and therefore is rather death than life; because he brings upon himself death both of nature, of grace and of glory. "For death of nature defrauds the life of nature, death of sin the life of grace, death of hell the life of glory," says Lyra; whence the Zurich edition translates: What kind of life is that of him who is overcome by wine? To this is added the exposition of Rabanus, who does not place the mark of the second interrogation before it, but after death. For he reads: "What does death defraud of life?" And thus he explains it, as if to say: Why is drunkenness and excessive wine-drinking committed, by which, as it were, death defrauds life, that is, diminishes and shortens it? "Wine," he says, "death, that is, drunkenness the destroyer of life, he calls, because the liveliness of sense is thereby diminished, and sickness of body is generated therefrom." As if indeed rebuking death itself, why it defrauds life, he interrogates; because excessive drinking he condemns as the deceiver of man. Secondly, take these things simply and genuinely of the abstemious man, and of him who lacks wine either on account of poverty, or on account of frugality, or some other cause, as if to say: How miserable is he who lacks and is destitute of wine, so that he cannot use it soberly for health and gladness, and thus for prolonging life! how miserable is the life which is spent without wine! Indeed this seems to be death rather than life: for it is a defraudation and diminution of life and health, and consequently is a slow kind of death; just as by death life is snatched away, so by the defect and lack of wine healthy and glad life is defrauded and snatched away: which is equal to death. That this is the sense is evident from what preceded: "Wine is equal to life to men in sobriety;" and from what follows: "Wine was created for gladness, the exultation of soul and heart," etc. Whence the Greeks more briefly connect these with those, and thus read: What kind of life would there be, if wine were lacking? the same was created for men for gladness. Thus Jansenius, Palacius, Emmanuel Sa and others. Most excellently St. Chrysostom, homily 1 to the People: "Wine," he says, "is the best medicine, when it has the best measure." And in homily 71: "Wine," he says, "was given that we might delight, not that we might be dishonored; that we might laugh, not that we might be laughed at; that we might be well, not that we might be sick; that we might correct the health of the body, not that we might prostrate the virtue of the soul. Why do you afflict yourself with contumely through immoderation? Hear Paul saying: Use wine in moderation," etc. Pseudo-Augustine in the book On the Teachings of Salvation: "Wine," he says, "God gave us for the gladness of the heart, not for drunkenness. Let us drink therefore not as much as gluttony demands, but as much as necessity requires, lest that which was granted for the healing of our body, we turn to its destruction." But most absolutely in the homily On Chastity and Sobriety: "Wine in moderation," he says, "restores a weak stomach, repairs failing strength, warms one chilled by cold, applied to wounds it heals, joined also to various antidotes and medicines it works health, removes sadness, destroys languors of the soul, infuses gladness, makes honest conversation among guests. But taken somewhat more, it is converted in a certain way into poison." And below: "A rustic saying indeed, but a sound one: Wine as a medicine, taken more than is right, is known to be poison." This is what Solomon says, Prov. cap. XXXI, 6: "Give strong drink to the sorrowful, and wine to those who are bitter of soul. Let them drink and forget their want, and remember their sorrow no more." Where I shall say more on this matter in the next work. Mystically, if these things are true in corporeal wine, surely they are truer in spiritual and heavenly wine, namely the Eucharist; for he who lacks it, lacks spiritual life and gladness, according to that saying of Christ: "Unless you shall eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life, and I will raise him up in the last day," John VI, 54. Whence Zacharias exulting over it, cap. IX, 17: "For what," he says, "is his good, and what is his beauty, but the corn of the elect, and wine springing forth virgins?" See the sayings there. Likewise in the wine of doctrine, illumination, charity, fervor and divine consolation, which wisdom, that is Christ, mingles for his own, Prov. IX, 2, to which Isaiah invites the faithful, cap. LV, vers. 1: "Come," he says, "buy without money and without any exchange wine and milk." Of which also the Psalmist, Psal. XXXV, 9: "They shall be inebriated," he says, "with the abundance of thy house, and thou shalt make them drink of the torrent of thy pleasure." 35. WINE WAS CREATED FOR JOY, AND NOT FOR DRUNKENNESS, FROM THE BEGINNING. — Zurich: Wine was created for cheering men, not for making them drunk. He teaches two things: The first is that wine is a creature of God, and therefore is a good thing. For the Manichees erred, teaching that wine was produced by the devil. So also the Encratites or Severians, whose parent was Tatianus, a disciple of St. Justin Martyr, taught that wine should be abstained from, because the vine and the earth had produced it from Satan, as testified by St. Augustine, in the book On Heresies, heresy 24; but the Cathars, that is, the purifiers, although they ate grapes, nevertheless did not drink wine, saying "wine is the gall of the devil," as testified by Philastrius in their heresy. Following these, Mahomet in the Quran forbade the drinking of wine to all his followers. Refuting all these, St. Chrysostom, homily 1 to the People: "Wine," he says, "is God's, but drunkenness is the work of the devil; wine does not cause drunkenness, so do not accuse God's creature, but reprove the madness of your fellow servant." Secondly, what is the use and purpose of wine, namely that it was created for this reason, that it might cheer men who have fallen through sin into so many miseries and sorrows, not however that men should gorge themselves with it and become drunk. From the fact that he says wine was created from the beginning, Jansenius thinks wine was produced before the flood from the origin of the world. But it is more true that the use of wine began with Noah after the flood; for he is first read to have planted vines in a vineyard, and to have cultivated them, and to have pressed wine from the grapes, so that he might ease and strengthen his own and other men's troubles, sorrows, labors and infirmities after the flood (whence at that time the life of men decreased by five hundred years; for men before the flood lived nine hundred years, but after it only four hundred), and might restore, refresh and cheer the forces of aging and failing nature, as I said on Genesis IX, 19. Whence learned men think Noah was called by the Gentiles Janus with two faces; because he saw and joined two ages: Janus, because he found wine; for indeed iain and ien, whence Janus, in Hebrew is the same as in Greek οἶνος, in Latin wine. Whence this name passed into other languages; but Athenaeus, book II, thinks οἶνος is called from ὄνειν, that is, to help, to be useful, as if οἶνος were ὄνεσις, that is, wine is great usefulness; or, as Eustathius, Iliad I, and Plato in the Cratylus, οἶνος is called from οἶεσθαι τὸν νοῦν, that it brings and fills the mind with great opinions, things and hopes, according to that of the Comic poet: "The mind is watered with wine, so that it may bring forth something right or opportune." Whence also Plato, book I of the Laws: "The more abundantly," he says, "anyone drinks of it, the more is he filled with hope, and the more courageously does he think of himself, and he is filled with a certain presence and liberality as if wise, all fear is driven out, so that he may boldly say and do anything." For this reason Athenaeus, book II, said wine is the best gift of the gods, if they use it rightly: if not, it is the greatest evil. Famous is that saying of Anacreon: "When I drink wine, cares sleep;" and that of Zeno: "Just as lupines, most bitter, become sweet when soaked by frequent sprinkling of water; so sad and bitter souls, watered with wine, are softened and become mild." But Clement of Alexandria, book II of the Pedagogue, chapter II, permitting a more liberal drinking of wine to elderly Christians, adds that wine is used by some in place of medicine for health alone, by others however so that they might relax and cheer themselves. For wine clears the clouds of the mind, and indeed makes him who drinks it kind and merciful to himself, then pleasant to his companions, and milder to his servants, and more delightful to his friends. This from Clement; finally the Poet: Wines prepare the spirits, and make them apt for heat, Care flees and is diluted by much unmixed wine. Then come laughter, then the poor man takes on horns, Then pain and cares, and the wrinkle of the brow depart. Then opens minds, in our age most rare, Simplicity, God striking out the arts. Whence Plato in the Alcibiades calls truth "the daughter of wine;" others call wine "the mirror of the mind, character and talent." Hence at dinner the first cup is drunk for health, the second for cheerfulness, the third for sleep. Finally Zerubbabel proposed this problem to his companions, what was the strongest thing? and the first answered: "Strong is wine;" the second: "Stronger is the king;" the third: "Stronger are women; truth conquers all things," to whom King Darius gave the laurel, Ezra, book III, chapter III, verse 11 and following. For this reason the Psalmist, Psalm CIV, 15: "That thou mayest bring forth," he says, "bread out of the earth, and wine may cheer the heart of man." Finally in the fable of the trees, Judges IX, 13, the vine, when it was chosen by the other trees as king, said: "Can I forsake my wine, which cheers God and men, and be promoted among the other trees?" From which Solomon, Ecclesiastes X, 19, concluded: "They make bread and wine for laughter, and the living enjoy themselves." Aristotle observes something remarkable from wine: "Wine," he says, "is the most useful of foods and drinks, and the most pleasant of medicines, and the most agreeable of all seasonings to our appetites, if it is properly tempered by occasion even more than water. If water and wine are mixed together, it is beneficial; and what is drunk pure among the use of diluted wine renders the diluted wine itself less harmful. Therefore in daily sustenance we ought to accustom ourselves to drink two or three cups of water. These things both soften the use of wine, and render the drinking of water familiar to the body, so that when it needs to be drunk, we are not offended by the strangeness of the thing and refuse it." He then adds cases in which water ought to be drunk, not wine, as the common people wrongly judge and do: "For there are not lacking those who, at the very time when water ought most to be drunk, turn to wine; as when they are burned by the heat of the sun, when they have shivered, when they have spoken vehemently, when they have thought about something with greater mental strain. Finally, from exhaustion and mental strain they think wine ought to be drunk, which nature itself seems to require some good affection for the body, and after labors a change. But nature does not require pleasure (if indeed you wish this to be understood as a good affection), but a change which is constituted in a middle place between pleasure and pain. Wherefore in these cases something ought to be taken away from food, and wine ought either to be abstained from entirely, or used diluted meanwhile with much drinking of water. For since wine is by nature impetuous and sharp, it intensifies and exasperates the disturbances of the body, and irritates the affected parts, desiring mitigation and smoothing. Which thing water can accomplish most excellently. For if we also drink warm water while not thirsty from exhaustion, mental strain and heat, we feel the internal parts to be relaxed and soothed. For the moisture of water is placid and quiet; whereas the moisture of wine has much impetuosity, and a force by no means friendly or equal to recent affections." Soon he adds: "But there is no body so strong that when disturbed and inflamed, wine applied to it does not bring some harm." St. Isidore, book XX of the Origins, chapter III: "Wine is said to be named from this, that its drinking quickly fills the veins with blood. Others call it Lyaeus (for λύειν means to loosen) because it loosens cares. The ancients called wine poison. Whence St. Jerome, On Preserving Virginity, said that young women ought to flee wine as poison, lest they drink it on account of the heat of their age burning fiercely and perish. Hence it is that among the ancient Romans women did not use wine, except for the sake of sacred rites, on certain days." Furthermore, St. Ambrose, book On Elijah, XII, thus reads and connects: "It is the exultation of soul and heart, if you drink moderately; but immoderation of drinking stirs up anger, and brings about many ruins. For (as the same one a little before), "just as continence is the mother of faith, so drunkenness is the mother of faithlessness. Into what crime does it not hurl her? Men sitting at the doors of taverns, having no tunic, nor money for the following day, judge concerning emperors and powers, indeed they seem to themselves to reign, and to command armies. They become rich through drunkenness, who are in truth poor. They give gold, they distribute money to peoples, they build cities, who do not have wherewith to pay the innkeeper the price of their drink. For wine ferments in them, and they know not what they say. They are rich while they are drunk; soon, when the wine is digested, they perceive themselves to be beggars. In one day they drink the labors of many days." He then adds greater damages of quarrels and fights: "From drunkenness they rise to arms, weapons succeed to cups. For wine blood is shed, and wines themselves have shed blood. How strong men seem to themselves in wine, how wise, how eloquent, how even beautiful and comely, when they cannot stand! The mind staggers, the tongue stammers, pallor suffuses the bloodless face, the stench of drunkenness becomes a horror. Barbarians rush into iron, the common people into quarrels; if any of them is struck with a fist, you would see the faces of the wounded shedding wine's tears, reciting miserable conclusions." Whence, chapter XIV, he infers that the power of wine is greater than that of poison. See the same, chapter XVI, where among other things he says: "The drunk lose their voices, vary in color, their eyes burn, they pant with their mouth, they growl with their nostrils, they burn in fury, they lose their senses." And soon: "Waking they dream, sleeping they quarrel. Life to them is a dream, sleep to them is death." 36 and 37. THE EXULTATION OF THE SOUL AND HEART, WINE DRUNK IN MODERATION. SOBRIETY IS HEALTH TO SOUL AND BODY. — "Exultation," not formal, but causal, that is to say, Wine causes the soul and heart to exult, and through these the whole body, recreating it and through it the soul, strengthening it, cheering it. He adds: "Sobriety is health to soul and body;" because the sober drinking of true wine or its substitute confers health on soul and body. For many nations, especially those of the north, on account of the coldness of their region, lack true wine; but these use beer or a similar drink, as it were wine in shadowy form and domestic to them. For beer is as it were the wine of Ceres, of wheat and barley. Similarly the Indians and Brazilians drink wine expressed from the palm or another tree rather than the vine; others express potions from apples, cherries and other fruits, which have almost the same sweetness and appeal as wine. Certainly among the Orientals most sweet and delicate drinks are made both from the dates of the palm and from other fruits, which the Hebrews call by the general name sicera, because they have the power of intoxicating like wine.
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The Greeks have: The exultation of the heart and the gladness of the soul is wine drunk in due season, as much as is sufficient; the Zurich version: The drinking of wine that is just and opportune produces gladness and cheerfulness of the soul, and at the same time health of soul and body, the drinking that is sober. For the Greeks add two words which the Latin lacks, namely ἐν καιρῷ αὐτάρκης, that is, wine in due season sufficient. By which he signifies that for sober wine drinking two things are required: first, that it be drunk in its proper time, that is, opportunely, for example at breakfast and dinner, not inopportunely, as those whom Isaiah reproves did, chapter V, 11: "Woe to you that rise up in the morning to follow drunkenness!" Second, that it be drunk as much as suffices for the body and health, not so as to fill it— Epistle to the Ephesians, from our body makes a sweet-sounding lyre, and the four qualities or humours of which it consists, he compares with the four strings of a single lyre. And he adds that the harmony of this lyre is effected by wine; for if it be taken moderately and soberly, it composes the discords of the humours, and renders the soul fit for divine things and the praises of God. tis, he says, from wine, and that from its force; hence vintage, which is the demia of wine or the demia of the vine." Although others perhaps better derive wine from the Greek οἶνος, both from the Hebrew iain or ien, as I said above, and St. Isidore, book XX of the Origins, chapter III: "Wine is said to be named from this, that its drinking quickly fills the veins with blood. Others, because it dissolves cares, call it Lyaeus (for λύειν means to dissolve). The ancients called wine poison. Whence St. Jerome, On Preserving Virginity, said that young women ought to flee wine as poison, lest on account of the heat of their age burning hot they drink and perish. Hence it is that among the ancient Romans women did not use wine, except for the sake of sacred rites, on certain days." Furthermore, St. Ambrose, book On Elijah, XII, thus reads and connects: "The exultation of the soul and heart is, if you drink moderately; but immoderation of drinking stirs up anger, and effects many ruins. For (as the same a little before), "as continence is the mother of faith, so drunkenness is the mother of faithlessness. Into what crime does not this precipitate? Men sitting at the doors of taverns, having no tunic, nor money for the following day, judge concerning emperors and powers, nay they seem to themselves to reign, and to command armies. They become rich through drunkenness, who are in truth poor. They give gold, they distribute money to peoples, they build cities, who have not wherewith to pay the innkeeper the price of their drink. For wine ferments in them, and they know not what they say. They are rich while they are drunk; soon, when the wine is digested, they perceive themselves to be beggars. In one day they drink the labours of many days." He then adds greater damages of quarrels and fights: "From drunkenness they rise to arms, missiles succeed to cups. For wine blood is shed, and wines themselves have shed blood. How strong men seem to themselves in wine, how wise, how eloquent, how even beautiful and comely, when they cannot stand! The mind staggers, the tongue stammers, pallor suffuses the bloodless face, the stench of drunkenness becomes horrible. Barbarians rush into iron, the common people into quarrels; if any of them be struck with a fist, you would see the faces of the wounded shedding wine's tears, reciting miserable epilogues." Whence, chapter XIV, he infers that the force of wine is greater than that of poison. See the same, chapter XVI, where among other things he says: "The drunk lose their voices, they vary in colour, their eyes burn, they pant with their mouth, they growl with their nostrils, they burn in fury, they lose their senses." And soon after: "Waking they dream, sleeping they quarrel. Life to them is a dream, sleep to them is death." St. Augustine, however, or whoever is the author (for it is not clear from the style that it is St. Augustine's), in the treatise On Sobriety and Virginity, which is found in volume IX, cites this sentence in the way our Vulgate edition has it, and then recounts the damages of drunkenness, and among other things, chapter I: "Drunkenness, he says, is the mother of all shameful deeds, the matter of faults, the root of crimes, the origin of all vices, the disturbance of the head, the subversion of sense, the tempest 38 and 39. MUCH WINE DRUNK CAUSES IRRITATION, AND ANGER, AND MANY RUINS. BITTERNESS OF SOUL, MUCH WINE DRUNK. — "Bitterness," namely causal, because it causes it, inasmuch as the head and brain, which is the workshop and as it were the pottery of the soul, it burdens with thick, crude and bilious vapors, pierces, afflicts, torments, irritates, exacerbates; for bile is bitter, that is sharp and biting. Whence it comes to pass that the drunkard burning with wine, and irritated and inflamed by bile, provokes others to quarrels and fights, exacerbates and irritates them. Whence the Greek texts alone have: Bitterness of soul is much wine drunk in irritation and contention, or ruin; for the Greek word ἀντιπτώματι signifies both; the Zurich Bible: Wine copiously drunk creates harshness of mind with quarrels and stubbornness. Wherefore some wish wine to be called in Latin from vis (force), because it brings force to the mind, and thence to others; or because its force is great for good and for evil, according to the different use of it. Varro: "Force of the tongue, tempest of the body, shipwreck of chastity. Drunkenness is loss of time, voluntary infamy, shameful languor, debilitation of a sound mind, turpitude of morals, disgrace of life, infamy of honesty, corruption of the soul." And finally concluding he says: "Wine as a medicine taken more than is right is known to be poison." St. Chrysostom, homily 1 to the People: "The drunkard," he says, "is a dead man animated, is a voluntary demon; a disease having no pardon, a ruin lacking excuse, a common reproach of our race, heaven is made invisible to drunkards."
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St. Basil, homily On Drunkenness: "Drunkenness," he says, "is a voluntary demon, implanted in our souls from pleasure. Drunkenness is the mother of malice, the enemy of virtue; it renders a strong man slothful, makes a temperate man wanton, is ignorant of justice, extinguishes prudence. For as water is adverse to fire, so immoderate wine suppresses reason." And further below: "Drunkenness is the destruction of reason, the ruin of fortitude, untimely old age, momentary death. What, I ask, are drunkards but idols of the Gentiles? They have eyes, and see not; they have ears, and hear not; they have hands affected by paralysis, feet weak and easily stumbling, etc. Who, tell me, is a chariot of unbroken horses carried so headlong as to throw off its master? What ship so destitute of a helmsman, so tossed and shaken by waves, that it is not safer than a drunkard?"
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The same, Admonition to his spiritual son: "Drunkenness is nothing other than the most manifest demon. How is a drunkard held in less regard than a demon? When he thinks he is drinking, he is being drunk. Just as a fish, when it hastens with greedy jaws to swallow food, suddenly finds an enemy between its jaws: so the drunkard receives wine within himself as an enemy, which impels him to every most foul deed." According to that of the Poet: And Venus in wines, fire in fire was. For wine is the kindling of lust. See the same in his Ascetical works, discourse 18, which is on gluttony and drunkenness. 40. THE BOLDNESS OF DRUNKENNESS, THE RASH OFFENSE, DIMINISHING STRENGTH, AND CAUSING WOUNDS. — That is to say, the boldness and audacity which drunkenness produces causes the drunkard to offend rashly and stumble into many stumbling blocks, falls, dangers, quarrels, etc. The same diminishes the strength of man and causes wounds and bloodshed. Whence the Greek texts more clearly have: "It multiplies the rage of the fool unto offense, diminishing strength, and producing wounds," that is, drunkenness multiplies the fury of the imprudent man unto offense, diminishing virtue, and acquiring wounds; the Zurich version: "Drunkenness increases the spirit of the foolish until he offends, enervates strength, and produces wounds." According to that of the Poet: "Hope makes them firm, thrusts the unarmed into battle." But that saying of the Greeks, "Satiety begets insolence," that is, satiety produces ferocity. And that of Anacharsis in Laertius: "In the vine three clusters are born, the first of pleasure, the second of drunkenness, the third of madness, fury and violence." Note here five effects and harms of drunkenness. The first is boldness and animosity, because it fills the head with fumes, the veins with blood, the liver with bile; the second is imprudence, because it robs man of reason, mind and prudence, so that a wise and prudent man becomes foolish, imprudent, indeed irrational, like a beast, and thus worse and more brutish than a beast, as St. Basil says in the place cited above; the third is offense: for he who is imprudent does not look around at the dangers of slipping, and therefore unwarily stumbles into them and falls; the fourth is that it weakens man, because it burdens and overwhelms the stomach, head and natural heat; the fifth is that it produces quarrels, blows and wounds, and especially that it causes the drunkard boldly to provoke others to fighting, and burdened with crapulence and deprived of strength by those whom he had provoked, to be harmed, wounded, killed. Therefore wine taken moderately makes one strong, prudent, cheerful, causes one not to offend, adds strength, and therefore avoids wounds: wine taken immoderately produces all contrary effects, so that the very thing which was given to him for joy becomes to him a scourge and torment; and (as Rabanus says) "it turns to the detriment of his health what was given to him for the nourishment of life." Where note morally that God's decree and judgment is just, that the good things which He created for our benefit, if we abuse them, turn to our harm and scourges, so that they become our torturers, which we have set up as it were as idols. Such are wine, riches, honors, wife, children, and the rest, says Palacius. Moreover Plutarch in his Symposiacs writes that bread mixed with honey is especially effective in calming drunkenness; because the vapors which ascend from the stomach to the head and disturb it are compressed by this food. 41. In the banquet of wine do not rebuke thy neighbor: AND DO NOT DESPISE HIM IN HIS GLADNESS. — That is to say, in a banquet in which wine is drunk abundantly, do not censure thy neighbor, nor despise him, so as to speak of him or to him contemptuously or act so, when he himself is in his gladness, namely happy and cheerful; because if thou dost this, thou wilt take away from him this gladness, which is fitting for such a place and time, and convert it into bitterness and anger, so that he will quarrel with thee, and from words descend to blows; especially because wine kindles blood and anger, but diminishes reason and prudence. Wherefore no one easily bears to be reproved in a banquet, but returns like for like. In Greek it is: "in a drinking party," that is, in the drinking of wine do not rebuke thy neighbor, and do not despise him in his gladness. For the Greeks call a banquet a "drinking party," that is a joint drinking; because in most banquets more is drunk than eaten. The Zurich version: "Do not reprove another in a drunken drinking party, nor censure anyone in his gladness." For then is the time of joy, honor, praise and exultation; from which therefore sadness, reproof, contempt, censure, injury ought to be absent. Thus Ham despised and mocked Noah his father when drunk and naked, and therefore was cursed by him; but Sem and Japhet, because they covered his nakedness, were blessed by him, Genesis IX. 42. SPEAK NOT WORDS OF REPROACH TO HIM: AND DO NOT PRESS HIM IN ASKING AGAIN,—so that you may exact and demand again the debt which he owes you; for it is inopportune in such a place and time. Or "do not press him," by offering him frequently to drink equal draughts, so that you force him to repeat the emptying of the cup, as a wicked man has the habit of a drunkard, who are harsh torturers of themselves and others in drinking. The Interpreter reads ἐξ ἀναίτησιν, that is in asking again, and thus the Greek and Roman texts read. Whence some translate: Speak not a word of reproach to him, and do not press him by asking again. But the Complutensian and Zurich editions read ἐν εὐκαιρίᾳ αὐτοῦ, that is in his meeting. Whence the Complutensian translates: Do not press him in his meeting, that is in meeting and contradicting him; Zurich: Speak not a reproachful word to him, nor press him when he meets you; when namely he encounters you and meets you, as drunkards are wont to do from the petulance which wine and drunkenness produce; for from that they attack, thrust, press, vex any who meet them, etc., like unruly calves and horned bulls. Wherefore Chilon, according to Plutarch, in the Banquet: "When invited to dinner, he did not agree beforehand until he knew the names of the guests: for he said that those with whom it would be necessary to sail together or serve as soldiers, one must also endure their troublesome company and sharing of quarters. But to mix oneself voluntarily with any guests whatsoever is not the part of a sound man." Indeed, David also, in Psalm C, 5, says: "A proud eye and an insatiable heart—with such a one I will not eat. My eyes are upon the faithful of the earth, that they may sit with me." And St. Augustine, as Posidonius testifies, excluded detractors from his table. [MISSING LATIN #193] [MISSING LATIN #194] [MISSING LATIN #195] [MISSING LATIN #196] [MISSING LATIN #197] [MISSING LATIN #198] [MISSING LATIN #199] [MISSING LATIN #200]
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… Jesus, utterly poor (Mt. 8:20; Lk. 9:58), glorifies and demands poverty (Mt. 19:21; Lk. 12:33; 18:22) in exchange for the Kingdom (Mt. 13:44, 46), since wealth, the fulcrum of earthly power, is the effect and cause of sin (Mt. 6:24; Lk. 16:9-13; cf. Sir. 31:8-9). Mt. 5:3 (not Lk. 6:20) has the determina-
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · Vulgata Clementina · original Douay-Rheims (Douay 1609-10), 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.