Sermons on the Song of Songs66 Sermon LXVI. Concerning the errors of heretics with respect to marriage, to the baptism of infants, to purgatory, to prayers for the dead, and to the invocation of the saints
Sermon LXVI. Concerning the errors of heretics with respect to marriage, to the baptism of infants, to purgatory, to prayers for the dead, and to the invocation of the saints
' Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the irines.'—Cant. ii. 15.
With these foxes I am still busied. They are those who wander out of the path and lay waste the vineyard. They are not content with quitting the road [of right], but turn the vineyard into a desert by their wicked falsehoods. It is not enough for them to be heretics; they must, as if to fill up the measure of their wrongdoing, be hypocrites also. These are they who come in sheep's clothing to strip the sheep and despoil the rams. Does it not seem to you that this is what they have done when, on the one hand, they rob the people of their faith, and, on the other, deprive the priests of their people? Who are these robbers? They are sheep in appearance, but foxes in cunning, and in their actions have the cruelty of wolves. They are men who desire to seem good, but are not; who desire not to seem evil, but are so. Evil they are, yet they wish to be thought good, lest they should be left alone in their evil; and they fear to appear evil, lest they should not thus have sufficient power for evil. For open malice has always been less dangerous; nor is a person who is good ever deceived, except by a pretence of goodness. They study, then, to appear good in order to do injury to the good, and shrink from appearing evil that they may thus give their evil designs fuller scope. For they do not care to cultivate virtues, but only to colour their vices with a delusive tinge of virtues. Under the veil of religion they conceal an impious superstition; they regard the mere refraining from doing wrong openly as innocence, and thus take for themselves an outward appearance of goodness only. For a cloak to their infamy they make a vow of continence. They think that infamy consists only in having wives, whereas it is marriage alone that is pure. Coarse they are, and stupid, and altogether contemptible; but, I assure you, not on that account to be disregarded; for they succeed in doing much evil, and their word eateth as doth a cancer (2 Tim. ii. 16, 17).
2. Nor has the Holy Spirit overlooked such as these, since He has plainly prophesied of them long since by the mouth of the Apostle: Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving (1 Tim. iv. 1-3). It was evidently of those people that He spake. They forbid mar- 3. They talk also with hypocrisy, and with a vulpine cunning pretend that they speak from mere love of chastity, whereas they have no other purpose than to foment and multiply impurity. It is so evident that this is their intention that I wonder how any Christian man could ever be persuaded that it was otherwise, unless, indeed, he were so wanting in insight as not to perceive that he who condemns marriage loosens the reins to every kind of uncleanness; or so full of wickedness, and absorbed in diabolical malignity, as to shut his eyes to what he cannot but perceive, and rejoice at the destruction of men. If you take away from the Church marriage, which is honourable and undefiled (Heb. xiii. 4), will you not fill the Church with persons guilty of every kind of uncleanness? Choose, then, which alternative you prefer; either that all these monsters of wickedness are saved, or that the number of the saved is reduced to the few who have kept continence unbroken; in the one case you include too few, in the other case too many. Neither of these alternatives is suited to the Saviour. What shall infamy be crowned? Nothing is less suitable to the source of purity. Or, on the other hand, shall men be universally condemned, with the sole exception of the very few who have preserved their continence? That is not to be a Saviour. Continence is rare upon the earth; and if it were not for a very few persons that fulness of grace would have expired altogether. And how have we all received of that fulness (John i. 16) if a share of it is vouchsafed to those only who are continent? There is no reply that can be made to that argument, nor yet, I think, to the other 1 I do not know how St. Bernard could have spoken thus, if these heretics of Cologne had been Henricians, and the name of their master Henry. It is true that the doctrines of these people and those of the Henricians were similar, as appears from his Letters 240, 241. Among these heretics of Cologne Eberwin distinguishes two classes, which distinction St. Bernard just touches upon at the end of Sermon LXV.
4. Certain persons among them, differing from the rest, declare that marriage is permitted, but only to those who are virgins. But I do not perceive on what ground of reason they make this distinction, except it be that they contend with each other to tear and rend asunder, each at his own pleasure, as it were with the teeth of serpents, the Sacraments of the Church, which are, so to speak, the bowels of their mother. For as to what they allege, that our first parents were virgins when their marriage took place: what is there in that fact, I ask, to prejudice the liberty of marriage, so that it may not be entered into between those who are not virgin? But I know not what declaration they whisper that they have found in the Gospel, which they wrongly imagine favours their absurd folly. I believe that it is the word which Our Lord spake after He had recalled that testimony in the book of Genesis: God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him: male and female created He them; He then added: What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder (Gen. i. 27; Matt. xix. 6). These, they say, were both virgins whom God joined together, and it was then not lawful to separate them; but no union of those who are otherwise [than virgin shall be presumed to be from God. But who has told you that God joined those two together, because they were virgins? This the Scripture does not assert. But were they not virgins? replies the objector. They were; but it is not the same thing to unite those who were virgins, and to unite them because they were virgins. Again, although they were virgins, you will not find the fact even expressly stated [much less given as the reason for their union]. Their diversity of sex is expressly stated, not their virginity, since it is declared: Male and female created He them. And rightly so, for the marriage relation requires, not necessarily virginity of body, but difference of sex in the two persons who enter into it. With entire iitness, then, did the Holy Spirit, in the record of the institution of 5. But now listen to another Scripture which ought to confound you entirely, or correct you, and which, at all events, crushes and pulverizes your heresy. The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband Irveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will: only in the Lord (1 Cor. vii. 39). It is St. Paul who allows to a widow to marry whom she will, and you, on the contrary, prescribe that none but a virgin shall marry; nor may she marry whom she will, but only a man who is likewise virgin. Why do you restrain the Hand of God? Why do you restrict the abundant benediction bestowed on marriage, and narrow to the virgin alone that which is vouchsafed to all her sex? St Paul would not permit this unless it were lawful. But it is too little to say that he permits it; he also desires it to be done. will therefore, he says, that the younger women marry (1 Tim. v. 14), and there is no doubt that he speaks of widows. What can be plainer-than this? That therefore which he permits, because it is lawful, he also desires, because it is expedient. That, then, which is permitted, and is expedient, shall a heretic presume to forbid? He will convince men of nothing by this prohibition, except that he is a heretic.
6. It remains that we should correct those people a little on the other points included in the Apostolic prophecy. For they abstain, as is there predicted, from various kinds of food which God has created to be received with thanksgiving, and thus prove themselves to be heretics, not simply because they abstain, but because they abstain in an heretical spirit. For I, too, sometimes abstain from food; but my abstinence is a satisfaction for sins, and not due to superstition and impiety. Shall we blame St Paul when he kept under his body, and brought it into subjection (1 Cor. ix. 27)? I will abstain from wine, because in it is excess (Eph. v. 18); or, if I THE ERRORS OF HERETICS WITH RESPECT TO MARRIAGE 403 am weak, will use a little, according to the counsel of St. Paul (1 Tim. v. 23). I will abstain from eating flesh, lest it should too much pamper my flesh, and with it the lusts of the flesh. I will study to take even bread by measure that I may not, through fulness of stomach, stand wearily and reluctantly to pray to God, and that I may not be open to the reproach of the Prophet that I have eaten my bread in fulness (Ezek. xvi. 49). I will not accustom myself to drink immoderately even of pure water, lest it may excite in me feelings corrupt. It is quite otherwise with the heretic. He turns from milk, and all that is made of it; in fact, from everything which is the result of that function. That would be acting rightly and Christianly, if it were done, not because it was the result of that function, but from a motive of prudence.
7. But how does it come about that everything thus resulting is avoided in this manner? That minute scrutiny of kinds of food, so significantly expressed, is to me a cause for suspicion. If you bring forward this as a medical rule, I do not blame this care for the physical health, provided it be not excessive; for no one ever hated his own flesh. If as a part of the discipline of abstinence, that is, of the school of spiritual medicine, I even approve it as a virtue, by which you bring the flesh under due rule, and restrain its desires. But if, by the madness of the Manichean, you set bounds to the beneficence of God, so that the food which He has created and given to men to be partaken of with thanksgiving you, as a rash and ungrateful critic, pronounce unclean, and abstain from it as from an evil thing, then, far from praising your abstinence, I hold in execration your blasphemy, I hold you to be yourself impure, in considering that anything is impure in itself. To the pure all things are pure, says an excellent judge of things; and nothing is impure except to him who regards it as such; but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving he adds, is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled (Titus i. 15). Woe to you who reject food which God has created, judging it impure and unworthy to pass into your bodies; wherefore the Body of Christ, which is the Church, has rejected you yourselves as defiled and impure.
8. I am not unmindful that they boast that they, and they alone, are the Body of Christ; but that is not astonishing, since they persuade themselves also that they have the power to consecrate daily at their tables the Body and Blood of Christ, to nourish them to become His members and His Body. For they boast that they are successors of the Apostles, and call themselves Apostolicals, though they are not able to show any sign of their apostolate. How long shall the lantern remain under a bushel? Ye are the light of the world, was said to the Apostles, and therefore are they set upon a candlestick, that they may enlighten the whole world. Let these successors of the Apostles be ashamed to be the light, not of the world, but of a bushel, and to the world to be but darkness. Let us 1 See the Letter of Eberwin, p. 3.
9. See now those detractors, those dogs. They make it a cause of ridicule against us that we baptize children, that we pray for the dead, that we entreat the suffrages of the Saints. They hasten to proscribe Christ in people at every age and of either sex; in children and in adults, in the living and in the dead; forbidding [the new Birth in Him through Baptism to infants because of the weakness of their age, and to adults also because of the difficulty of continence. They deprive the dead of the succour of the living, and the living of the suffrages of the Saints who have died. But God forbid that it should be so. The Lord will not give up His people, who are as the sand of the sea; nor will He who redeemed ail be contented with a small number, and those, heretics. For His Redemption is not small, but great and abounding. What is the pettiness of their number to the greatness of the price He paid? Those who attempt to empty it [of its efficacy], deprive themselves of it. Of what importance is it that an infant is not able to speak for himself, while the voice of the Blood of his Brother, and of a Brother so great and prevailing, cries to God from the ground for him? The Church, which is his Mother, arises and lifts up her voice on his behalf also. And what of the child himself? Does it not seem to you that in his inarticulate infantine cries he opens his mouth, gasping, if I may so speak, for the Saviour's fountains of grace, and crying out to God in his plaints, Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me (Is. xxxviii. 14). It demands eagerly the help of grace, because it suffers violence from nature. It cries because it is innocent and unhappy, because it is ignorant and small, because it is weak and doomed to suffer. All these things thus cry out together: the Blood of a Brother, the faithfulness of a Mother, the abandoned condition of the unhappy child, and the misery of it as abandoned; and these cries rise up to the Father; and He, because He is the Father, is not able to deny Himself.
10. I,et no one object to me that a child has not faith, for its Mother [that is, the Church communicates to it her own, wraps it in this faith, so to speak, as in a cloak, in the Sacrament of Baptism, which she bestows upon it; so that it becomes worthy to receive and to develop that faith in its purity, if not by its own active powers, yet with its passive assent. Is it not a short and narrow cloak which 1 A traturcu Other readings are: ab origine and a peccato.
11. They do not believe that there remains a purgatorial fire after death; but that the soul, when released from the body, passes at once either to rest or to damnation. Let them, then, ask of Him, who declared of a certain sin that it should not be forgiven, ' neither in this world, nor in the world to come 9 (Matt. xii. 32), why He said this, if there were no forgiveness at all in the world to come. But it is not wonderful that those who do not acknowledge the Church should make light of the Orders of the Church; that they should not receive her Institutions; that they should despise her Sacraments, 1 The readings vary here. In the Jumieges MS. it is, with the Vulgate, 'in fide et diUctione, cum sanctificatiotu ei sobrietate*; in the Colbertine, % in fide cum sobrietatein that of St Germain, and in the earliest editions, * in fide cum lenifa/e.' (Mabillon prefers the last.)
12. There are many other erroneous and evil opinions which are urged upon this foolish and undiscerning people by those spirits of evil, who speak lies in hypocrisy; but it is not needful to make reply to all. For who is acquainted with all these errors? Besides, the labour of doing so would be unending; nor is it in the least necessary. For as for those people, neither are they convinced by reasons, because they do not understand them, nor corrected by the weight of authorities, for they do not receive them; nor are they influenced by persuasions, because they are entirely perverted. It has been shown by experience that they prefer to die rather than be converted. Of these men the end is destruction; at the last the fire awaits them. Long ago the type of them was shown forth in the foxes to whose tails Samson applied the fire (Judg. xv. 4, 5). Often the faithful have laid hands on some of them, and brought them into public notice. When they have been questioned upon those points of their belief on which they were suspected, they, according to their custom, refused entirely to give any answer; and when examined by the judgment of water, they have been found liars. But when they have been discovered, and were not able to make denial, nor received the 1 The ancients did not reject the proof by water, as is shown in a singular letter from Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims, to Hildegar of Meaux. The method of performing this purgation is described in the Analecta, Bk. i., where it is said to have been instituted by Tope Eugcnius II.
13. Some persons are astonished that they go to their death, not only patiently, but, as it seems, even with joy; but such persons do not consider how great is the power of the devil, not only over the bodies, but also over the hearts of those whom, when once permitted, he has taken possession of. Is it not more astonishing still that a man should lay violent hands upon himself than that he should endure violence willingly from another person? But we know by experience that the devil has frequently exerted that power, namely, over many whom he has caused to drown or to hang themselves. Thus Judas hanged himself (Matt, xxvii. 5) doubtless by the instigation of the devil. Yet I find it still more strange, and a greater cause for wonder, that he should have been able to put it into the heart of Judas to betray his Lord (John xiii. 2) than that he should have caused him to hang himself. There is nothing resembling the constancy of the martyrs in the obstinacy of these men, because in the former it is piety, in the latter hardness of heart, that causes a contempt of death. Also the Psalmist has said, perhaps with the voice of a martyr: Their heart is curdled like milk; but I have meditated on Thy law (Ps. cxix. 70, Douay), to show that although the suffering seemed the same, yet the intention was very different; for whilst the one was hardening his heart against the Lord, the other was meditating on His holy law.
14. This being the case, there is no need, as I have said, to say much against men who are foolish and obstinate in the extreme; it suffices to take note of them that they may be avoided. Wherefore, that they may be discovered, they must be obliged either to send away the women, by retaining whom in their houses they give scandal to the Church, or to leave the Church. It is much to be lamented that not only secular princes, but also, as it is said, certain of the clergy, and even of the order of Bishops, whose special duty it is to seek them out, support them for the sake of gain, and for the presents 1 St. Bernard does not in any way contradict here what he had said in Sermon LXIV., n. 8, that heretics 'should be taken not by arms, but by arguments'; that is to say, if they remain quiet, and do not attempt to subvert others.
2 St. Augustine expresses the same opinion in his Opus Imperfectum contr. secund. Juliani responsiotu 6k. i.; and in Lib. de PatienticL, cap. 17. It is following this Father that the Second Council of Orange, in its Can. 17, says: It is worldly cupidity that produces the constancy of the Gentiles; but the love of God produces the constancy of Christians.' OF THE WONDERFUL EXPRESSION OF THE LOVE OF THE BRIDE, WHICH IS CALLED FORTH BY THE AFFECTION OF HER BRIDE- GROOM CHRIST.
' My Beloved is mine, and I am His.1—Cant. ii. 16. T T ITHERTO we have had the words of the Bridegroom. May He now be present with us, and aid us worthily to expound the words of His bride, to His glory and to our salvation. For they are such as cannot be considered and discussed by us in a manner that is worthy of the subject unless He Himself shall be the guide of our words. For as they are sweet in the grace which they contain, so they are fruitful in senses and deep in mysteries. To what shall I liken them? They are as food which surpasses all other by a threefold excellence; delicious in taste, solid in nutriment, and efficacious as a remedy. It is thus with each word of the Bride. By the sweetness of its sound it charms the feelings; by its richness in teaching it nourishes and fertilizes the mind; and by the depth of the mysteries it contains it exercises and awes the spirit, and at the same time remedies in a wonderful manner the pride and inflation caused by knowledge. For if any one of those who perhaps seem to themselves learned, wishing to penetrate into these things with too curious a scrutiny, finds the powers of his intellect overpowered and baffled, and brought, as it were, into captivity, will he not be humbled and obliged to take these words for his own: Such knmvledge is tor* wonderful for me: it is high, I cannot attain unto it f (Ps. cxxxix. 6). And without going any farther, with what a marvel of Sweetness is the beginning of this sentence filled! For see what a declaration the Bride makes as a commencement: My Beloved she says, is mine, and
1. Capite nobis vulpes parvulas, quae demoliuntur vineas. Ecce ego ad vulpes istas. Ipsae sunt quae praetergrediuntur viam, et vindemiant vineam. Non sunt contentae deserere viam, nisi et desertare vineam possint, addentes praevaricationem. Non sufficit haereticos esse, nisi et hypocritae sint, ut sit supra modum peccans peccatum. Hi sunt qui veniunt in vestimentis ovium ad nudandas oves et spoliandos arietes. An non tibi utraque res impleta videtur, ubi et fide plebes, et plebibus sacerdotes depraedati inveniuntur? Quinam isti praedones? Hi oves sunt habitu, astu vulpes, actu et crudelitate lupi. Hi sunt qui boni videri, non esse; mali non videri, sed esse volunt. Mali sunt, et boni videri volunt, ne soli sint mali; mali videri timent, ne parum sint mali. Etenim minus semper malitia palam nocuit, nec unquam bonus, nisi boni simulatione deceptus est. Ita ergo in malum bonorum boni apparere student; mali nolunt, ut plus liceat malignari. Neque enim est apud eos virtutes colere, sed vitia colorare quodam quasi virtutum minio. Denique superstitionis impietatem nomine religionis intitulant. Innocentiam definiunt, tantum in aperto non laedere, innocentiae proinde solum sibi vindicantes colorem. In operimentum turpitudinis, continentiae se insigniere voto. Porro turpitudinem in solis existimant reputandam uxoribus: cum vel sola sit ea, quae cum uxore est, causa, quae turpitudinem excusat in coitu. Rusticani homines sunt et idiotae, et prorsus contemptibiles: sed non est, dico vobis, cum eis negligenter agendum. Multum enim proficiunt ad impietatem, et sermo eorum ut cancer serpit.
2. Denique non neglexit Spiritus sanctus, qui de his quondam tam manifeste vaticinatus est, dicente Apostolo: Spiritus autem manifeste dicit, quia in novissimis temporibus discedent quidam a fide, attendentes spiritibus erroris, et doctrinis daemoniorum, in hypocrisi loquentium mendacium, et cauteriatam habentium suam conscientiam, prohibentium nubere, abstinere a cibis, quos Deus creavit ad percipiendum cum gratiarum actione. Istos prorsus, istos dicebat. Hi nubere prohibent, hi a cibis abstinent quos Deus creavit, de quibus postea videbimus. Nunc autem videte, si non proprie daemonum et non hominum ludificatio haec, secundum quod praedixerat Spiritus. Quaere ab illis suae sectae auctorem; neminem dabunt. Quae haeresis non ex hominibus habuit proprium haeresiarcham? Manichaei Manem habuere principem et praeceptorem, Sabelliani Sabellium, Ariani Arium, Eunomiani Eunomium, Nestoriani Nestorium. Ita omnes caeterae hujusmodi pestes, singulae singulos magistros, homines habuisse noscuntur, a quibus originem simul duxere et nomen. Quo nomine istos titulove censebis? Nullo; quoniam non est ab homine illorum haeresis, neque per hominem illam acceperunt. Absit tamen ut per revelationem Jesus Christi, sed magis et absque dubio, uti Spiritus sanctus praedixit, per immisionem et fraudem daemoniorum, in hypocrisi loquentium mendacium, prohibentium nubere!
3. In hypocrisi plane hoc et vulpina dolositate loquuntur, fingentes se amore id dicere castitatis, quod magis causa turpitudinis fovendae et multiplicandae adinvenerunt. Res tamen tam in aperto est, ut mirer quomodo unquam homini Christiano persuaderi potuerit, nisi quod hi adeo aut bestiales sunt, ut non advertant, qualiter omni immunditiae laxat habenas, qui nuptias damnat; aut certe ita pleni nequitia, et diabolica malignitate absorpti, ut advertentes dissimulent, et laetentur in perditione hominum. Tolle de Ecclesia honorabile connubium et torum immaculatum; nonne reples cam concubinariis, incestuosis, seminifluis, mollibus, masculorum concubitoribus, et omni denique genere immundorum? Elige ergo utrumlibet, aut salvari universa monstra haec hominum, aut numerum salvandorum ad continentium redigi paucitatem. Quam parcus in uno! quam largus in altero! Neutrum horum competit Salvatori. Quid? coronabitur turpitudo? Nihil minus decet honestatis auctorem. Damnabitur universitas praeter pauculos continentes? Non est hoc esse Salvatorem. Rara in terris continentia, neque pro tantillo quaestu ad terras plenitudo illa semetipsam exinanivit. Et quomodo de illa omnes accepimus, si solis indulsit continentibus participium sui? Non est quod ad hoc respondeant. Sed neque ad illud credo. Si honestati in coelis est locus, non sit autem honesto et turpi consortium, sicut non est societas luci ad tenebras: profecto neminem immundorum locus in loco salutis manet. Si quis aliter sapit, arguet illum apostolica vox, absque omni ambiguo asserens: Quoniam, qui talia agunt, regnum Dei non possidebunt. Qua jam exiet de caverna haec insidiosa vulpecula? Puto in fovea deprehensam, in qua sibi duo quasi foramina fecerit, unum quo intret, alterum quo exeat. Nam consuevit ita. Vide ergo quomodo utrobique illi interclusus sit exitus. Si solos in coelestibus collocat continentes, perit ex maxima parte salus; si omnem spurcitiam pariter cum continentibus collocat, perit honestum. Sed justius perit ipsa, neque hac exitura, neque illac, reclusa perpetuo, et capta in fovea quam fecit.
4. Quidam tamen dissentientes ab aliis, inter solos virgines matrimonium contrahi posse fatentur. Verum quid in hac distinctione rationis afferre possint, non video: nisi quod pro libitu quisque suo sacramenta Ecclesiae, tanquam matris viscera, dente vipereo certatim inter se dilacerare contendunt. Nam quod dicuntur praetendere de primis conjugibus, quia virgines erant; quid istud, quaeso, matrimonii praejudicat libertati, quominus et inter non virgines contrahi liceat? Sed nescio quid se in Evangelio invenisse susurrant, quod suae ineptiae frustra existimant suffragari. Illud credo, quod Dominus cum praemisisset testimonium de Genosi: Et creavit hominem Deus ad imaginem et similitudinem suam, masculum et feminam creavit illos; postea intulit: Ergo quod Deus conjunxit, homo non separet. Hos, inquiunt, conjunxit Deus, quia virgines ambo erant, et jam non licuit separari: non erit autem ex Deo copulatio secus praesumpta. Quis tibi dixit propterea a Deo conjunctos, quia virgines erant? Nam Scriptura hoc non loquitur. An non virgines erant, inquit? Erant; sed non est id ipsum, copulatos virgines, et copulatos quia virgines. Quanquam ne hoc quidem nominatim dictum reperies, quod virgines essent, quamvis essent. Sexuum sane expressa diversitas est, non virginitas, cum dictum est: Masculum et feminam creavit illos. Merito quidem. Non enim maritalis copula corporum requirit integritatem, sed sexuum aptitudinem. Bene proinde ipsam instituens Spiritus sanctus, sexum expressit, et virginitatem tacuit, nec dedit occasionem venandi verbum insidiosis vulpeculis. Quod utique libenter fecissent; quamvis id quoque frustra. Quid enim si dixisset: Virgines creavit illos? Num propterea continuo obtinuisses, solos virgines licere conjungi? Et tamen quomodo exsultasses ex sola verbi occasione? quomodo exsufflasses secundas et tertias nuptias? quomodo insultasses catholicae, scorta lenonesque ad invicem tanto libentius conjungenti, quanto proinde eos de turpi ad honestum transire non dubitat? Fortassis et reprehenderes Deum prophetae praecipientem fornicariam ducere: nunc autem et occasio deest, et libet gratis haereticum esse. Nam testimonium quod usurpasti ad astruendum errorem tuum, plus ad destruendum valere inventum est; pro te facere nihil, contra te plurimum.
5. Nunc autem audi, quod te ex toto aut confundit, aut corrigit, et haeresim tuam prorsus conterit et comminuit. Mulier quanto tempore vir ejus vivit, alligata est viro; si autem dormierit vir ejus, soluta est a lege viri; cui vult nubat, tantum in Domino. Paulus est qui concedit viduae, ut cui vult nubat: et tu econtra praecipis: Nulla praeter virginem nubat, et hoc nonnisi virgini, ut non cui vult, nubat vel ipsa. Quid manum Dei abbrevias? quid largam benedictionem nuptiarum restringis? quid proprium vindicas virgini, quod indultum est sexui? Non concederet hoc Paulus, nisi liceret. At parum dico, concedit: vult quoque. Volo, inquit, adolescentiores nubere: nec dubium quin viduas dicat. Quid manifestius? Ergo quod concedit, quia licet; etiam vult, quia expedit. Quod licet et expedit, haereticus prohibet? Nihil ex hac prohibitione persuadebit, nisi quod haereticus est.
6. Superest ut et de residuo apostolicae prophetiae istos aliquantulum exagitemus. Abstinent namque hi, ut praedixit ille, a cibis, quos creavit Deus ad percipiendum cum gratiarum actione: hinc quoque haereticos se probantes, non sane quia abstinent, sed quia haeretice abstinent. Nam et ego interdum abstineo; sed abstinentia mea satisfactio est pro peccatis, non superstitio pro impietate. Num redarguimus Paulum, quod castigat corpus suum, et in servitutem redigit? Abstinebo a vino, quia in vino luxuria est; aut si infirmus sum, modico utar, juxta consilium Pauli. Abstinebo a carnibus, ne dum nimis nutriunt carnem, simul et carnis nutriant vitia. Panem ipsum cum mensura studebo sumere, ne onerato ventre stare ad orandum taedeat, et ne improperet etiam mihi propheta, quia panem meum comederim in saturitate. Sed ne simplici quidem aqua ingurgitare me assuescam, ne distensio sane ventris usque ad titillationem pertingat libidinis. Haereticus aliter. Nempe horret lac, et quidquid ex eo conficitur: postremo omne quod ex coitu concreatur. Recte et Christiane, si non idcirco quia ex coitu, sed ne ad coitum provocent.
7. Caeterum quid sibi vult, quod ita generaliter omne quod ex coitu generatur, vitatur? Suspicionem generat mihi observatio ista ciborum tam signanter expressa. Verumtamen si de regula medicorum hoc profers nobis, non reprehendimus curam carnis, quam nemo unquam odio habuit, si tamen non nimia fuerit. Si de disciplina abstinentium, id est spiritualium medicorum schola; etiam virtutem approbamus, qua carnem domas, frenas libidinem. At si de insania Manichaei praescribis beneficentiae Dei, ut quod ille creavit et donavit ad percipiendum cum gratiarum actione, tu non modo ingratus, sed et censor temerarius immundum decernas, et tanquam a malo abstineas; non plane abstinentiam collaudabo, sed exsecrabor blasphemiam: te magis immundum dixerim, qui immundum quid putas. Omnia munda mundis, ait ille rerum optimus aestimator: et nihil immundum, nisi ei qui immundum quid putat: Immundis autem, et infidelibus nihil est mundum, sed polluta est eorum mens et conscientia. Vae qui respuitis cibos, quos Deus creavit, judicantes immundos et indignos, quos trajiciatis in corpora vestra: cum propterea vos corpus Christi, quod est Ecclesia, tanquam pollutos et immundos exspuerit.
8. Non ignoro, quod se et solos corpus Christi esse glorientur: sed sibi hoc persuadeant qui illud quoque persuasum habent, potestatem se habere quotidie in mensa sua corpus Christi et sanguinem consecrandi ad nutriendum se in corpus Christi et membra. Nempe jactant se esse successores apostolorum, et apostolicos nominant, nullum tamen apostolatus sui signum valentes ostendere. Quousque lucerna sub modio? Vos estis lux mundi, dictum est apostolis: et ideo apostoli super candelabrum, ut toto luceant mundo. Pudeat successores apostolorum lucem non esse mundi, sed modii, mundi autem tenebras. Dicamus eis: Vos estis tenebrae mundi: et transeamus ad alia. Se dicunt Ecclesiam. Sed contradicunt ei qui dicit: Non potest civitas abscondi supra montem composita. Itane lapidem de monte abscissum sine manibus, montem factum, et implentem mundum, vestris creditis inclusum antris? Et ne hic quidem immorandum. Ipsa opinio refugit publicari suo contenta susurrio. Habet, et semper habebit integram Christus haereditatem suam, et possessionem suam terminos terrae. Se potius subtrahunt huic magnae haereditati, qui Christo illam conantur detrahere.
9. Videte detractores, videte canes. Irrident nos, quod baptizamus infantes; quod oramus pro mortuis; quod sanctorum suffragia postulamus. In omni genere hominum atque in utroque sexu festinant proscribere Christum, in adultis et parvulis, in vivis et mortuis; hinc quidem infantibus ex impossibilitate naturae, inde vero adultis ex difficultate continentiae praescribentes. Porro mortuos viventium fraudantes auxiliis, viventes nihilominus sanctorum, qui decesserunt, suffragiis spoliantes. Absit! Non relinquet Dominus plebem suam, quae est sicut arena maris, nec contentus erit paucitate haereticorum, qui omnes redemit. Neque enim parva, sed plane copiosa apud eum redemptio. Quantus vero numerus istorum ad magnitudinem pretii? Se magis pretio fraudant, qui ipsum evacuare conantur. Quid enim si infans pro se loqui non potest, pro quo vox sanguinis fratris sui, et talis fratris, clamat ad Deum de terra? Astat et clamat nihilominus mater Ecclesia. Quid tamen infans? Nonne et ipse videtur tibi inhiare quodam modo fontibus Salvatoris, vociferari ad Deum, suisque vagitibus clamitare: Domine, vim patior, responde pro me? Flagitat auxilium gratiae, quia vim patitur a natura [ alias, ab origine; alias, a peccato]. Clamat innocentia miseri, clamat ignorantia parvuli, clamat addicti infirmitas. Ita ergo clamant haec omnia, sanguis fratris, fides matris, destitutio miseri, et miseria destituti: et clamatur ad Patrem. Porro Pater se ipsum negare non potest: pater enim est.
10. Nemo mihi dicat quia non habet fidem, cui mater impertit suam, involvens illi in Sacramento, quousque idoneus fiat proprio, non tantum sensu, sed et assensu, evolutam puramque percipere. Nunquid breve pallium est, ut non possit ambos cooperire? Magna est Ecclesiae fides. Nunquid minor fide Chananaeae mulieris, quam constat et filiae sufficere potuisse, et sibi? Ideo audivit: O mulier, magna est fides tua! fiat tibi sicut petisti. Nunquid minor fide illorum, qui paralyticum per tegulas demittentes, animae illi simul et corporis obtinuere salutem? Denique habes: Quorum fidem ut vidit, ait paralytico: Confide, fili, remittuntur tibi peccata; et paulo post: Tolle grabatum tuum, et ambula. Qui haec credit, facile huic persuadebitur merito Ecclesiam praesumere, non solum parvulis baptizatis in sua fide salutem, sed etiam interfectis pro Christo infantibus coronam martyrii. Quae cum ita sint, nullum praejudicium sustinebunt regenerati de eo quod dictum est: Sine fide impossibile est placere Deo, cum sine fide non sint, qui in testimonium fidei baptismi gratiam perceperunt. Sed neque de eo quod item dictum est: Qui vero non crediderit, condemnabitur. Quid enim credere est, nisi fidem habere? Itaque et mulier salvabitur per generationem filiorum, si permanserit in fide cum lenitate; et infantibus per lavacri regenerationem succurretur; et adulti qui continere non poterunt, conjugii tricesimo fructu se rediment; viventium quoque preces et hostias mortui, qui opus habebunt, et digni erunt, mediantibus percipient angelis; et eorum qui jam pervenerunt, viventibus adhuc nequaquam solatia deerunt per Deum qui ubique est, et in Deo nusquam affectu charitatis absentium. Nam et Christus propter hoc mortuus est et resurrexit, ut vivorum dominaretur et mortuorum. Propter hoc quoque et infans natus est, et per singulos aetatum gradus profecit in virum, ut nulli deesset aetati.
11. Non credunt ignem purgatorium restare post mortem; sed statim animam solutam a corpore, vel ad requiem transire, vel ad damnationem. Quaerant ergo ab eo, qui dixit quoddam peccatum esse, quod neque in hoc saeculo, neque in futuro remitteretur, cur hoc dixerit, si nulla manet in futuro remissio purgatiove peccati. Jam vero qui Ecclesiam non agnoscunt, non est mirum si ordinibus Ecclesiae detrahunt, si instituta non recipiunt, si Sacramenta contemnunt, si mandatis non obediunt. « Peccatores, » inquiunt, « sunt apostolici, archiepiscopi, episcopi, presbyteri: ac per hoc nec dandis, nec accipiendis idonei sacramentis. Nunquam duo ista convenient, episcopum esse et peccatorem? » Falsum est. Episcopus erat Caiphas: et tamen quantus peccator, qui in Dominum mortis dictabat sententiam? Si negas episcopum, arguet te testimonium Joannis, qui eum in testimonium sui pontificatus etiam prophetasse refert. Apostolus erat Judas: et licet avarus et sceleratus, electus tamen a Domino. An tu de illius apostolatu dubitas, quem Dominus elegit? Nonne ego, inquit, vos duodecim elegi, et unus ex vobis diabolus est? Audis eumdem electum apostolum, et exstitisse diabolum; et negas posse esse episcopum, qui peccator est? Super cathedram Moysi sederunt Scribae et Pharisaei, et qui non obedierunt eis tanquam episcopis, inobedientiae rei fuerunt, etiam in ipsum Dominum praecipientem, et dicentem: Quae dicunt facite. Patet ergo, quamvis Scribae, quamvis Pharisaei, quamvis videlicet maximi peccatores; propter cathedram tamen Moysi, ad eos quoque nihilominus pertinere quod item dixit: Qui vos audit, me audit; et qui vos spernit, me spernit.
12. Multa quidem et alia huic populo stulto et insipienti a spiritibus erroris, in hypocrisi loquentibus mendacium, mala persuasa sunt: sed non est respondere ad omnia. Quis enim omnia novit? Deinde labor infinitus esset, minime necessarius. Nam quantum ad istos, nec rationibus convincuntur, quia non intelligunt; nec autoritatibus corriguntur, quia non recipiunt; nec flectuntur suasionibus, quia subversi sunt. Probatum est: mori magis eligunt, quam converti. Horum finis interitus, horum novissima incendium manet. Horum siquidem in facto Samson ex succensis vulpium caudis figura praecessit. Plerumque fideles injectis manibus aliquos ex eis ad medium traxerunt. Quaesiti fidem, cum de quibus suspecti videbantur, omnia prorsus suo more negarent; examinati judicio aquae, mendaces inventi sunt. Cumque jam negare non possent, quippe deprehensi, aqua eos non recipiente; arrepto, ut dicitur, freno dentibus, tam misere quam libere impietatem non confessi, sed professi sunt, palam pietatem astruentes, et pro ea mortem subire parati. Nec minus parati inferre qui astabant. Itaque irruens in eos populus, novos haereticis suae ipsorum perfidiae martyres dedit. Approbamus zelum, sed factum non suademus; quia fides suadenda est, non imponenda. Quanquam melius procul dubio gladio coercentur, illius videlicet qui non sine causa gladium portat, quam in suum errorem multos trajicere permittantur. Dei enim minister ille est, vindex in iram ei qui male agit.
13. Mirantur aliqui, quod non modo patienter, sed et laeti, ut videbatur, ducerentur ad mortem; sed qui minus advertunt, quanta sit potestas diaboli, non modo in corpora hominum, sed etiam in corda, quae semel permissus possederit. Nonne plus est sibimet hominem injicere manus quam id libenter ab alio sustinere? Hoc autem in multis potuisse diabolum frequenter experti sumus, qui se ipsos aut submerserunt, aut suspenderunt. Denique Judas suspendit se ipsum, diabolo sine dubio immittente. Ego tamen majus existimo, magisque admiror, quod potuit immisisse in cor ejus ut traderet Dominum, quam ut semetipsum suspenderet. Nihil ergo simile habent constantia martyrum, et pertinacia horum; quia mortis contemptum in illis pietas, in istis cordis duritia operatur. Et ideo Propheta martyris forsitan voce dicebat: Coagulatum est sicut lac cor eorum, ego vero legem tuam meditatus sum: pro eo videlicet quod etsi poena eadem videretur, longe diversa esset intentio; illo utique durante cor contra Dominum, isto in lege Domini meditante.
14. Quae cum ita sint, non est opus, ut dixi, frustra multa adversus homines stultissimos atque obstinatissimos dicere: sufficit innotuisse illos ut vitentur. Quamobrem ut deprehendantur, cogendi sunt vel abjicere feminas, vel exire de Ecclesia, utpote scandalizantes Ecclesiam in convictu et contubernio feminarum. Dolendum valde, quod non solum laici principes, sed et quidam, ut dicitur, de clero, necnon de ordine episcoporum qui magis eos persequi debuerant, propter quaestum sustineant, accipientes ab eis munera. Et quomodo, inquiunt, damnabimus nec convictos, nec confessos? Frivola satis, non ratio, sed occasio. Hoc solo, etiamsi aliud non esset, facile deprehendis, si, ut dixi, viros et feminas, qui se continentes dicunt, ab invicem separes: et feminas quidem cum aliis sui et sexus et voti degere cogas; viros aeque cum ejusdem propositi viris. Per hoc enim consultum erit utrorumque voto simul et famae, cum continentiae suae et testes habuerint et custodes. Quod si non sustinent, justissime eliminabuntur de Ecclesia, quam scandalizant, non solum notabili, sed etiam illicita cohabitatione. Ergo ista sufficiant pro deprehendendis harum vulpium dolis, ad dandam scientiam et cautelam dilectae et gloriosae sponsae Domini nostri Jesu Christi, qui est super omnia Deus benedictus in saecula. Amen.