PART THREE.
CHAPTER I.
On the precepts of God contained in the Decalogue.
I. That the Decalogue is shown to be the sum of all the precepts. Saint Augustine committed to writing that the Decalogue is the sum and epitome of all laws. For "although the Lord spoke many things, nevertheless only two stone tablets were given to Moses, which are called the tablets of the testimony to be kept in the ark; for indeed all the other things which God commanded are understood to depend on those ten precepts which were inscribed on the two tablets (if they are diligently sought out, so as to be rightly understood), just as these ten precepts themselves in turn rest upon those two, namely the love of God and of neighbour, on which the whole law and the prophets depend."
II. Why it is especially fitting that pastors hold and expound the Decalogue clearly.
Therefore, since it is the sum of the whole law, it behoves pastors to be occupied in its contemplation day and night, not only so that they may conform their own life to this norm, but also that they may instruct the people entrusted to them in the law of the Lord. For "the lips*) of the priest shall keep knowledge, and they shall seek the law at his mouth; for he is the angel of the Lord of hosts"; which pertains most of all to the pastors of the new law, who, being closer to God, must be transformed "from glory to glory," "as by the Spirit of the Lord"; and since Christ the Lord has called them by the name of light, it is properly their part to be a light to those who are in darkness, teachers of the unlearned, masters of children, and, if any man be overtaken in any fault, they who are spiritual must instruct such a one. In confessions also they sustain the person of a judge, and according to the kind and measure of sins they pronounce sentence; wherefore, unless they will their own ignorance to be a harm both to themselves and to others, it is necessary that they be most vigilant in this, and most exercised in the interpretation of the divine precepts, so that they may be able to pass judgement by this divine rule upon any action whatsoever and any omission of duty, and, as is said in the Apostle, that they may deliver "sound doctrine," that is, such as contains no error and heals the diseases of souls which are sins, so that the people may be acceptable to God, a follower of good works. Now in such treatments the pastor should set before himself and others those things by which he may persuade that the law must be obeyed.
III. Who is the author of the Decalogue and of the natural law.
Among the other things which can move the souls of men to the keeping of the commands of this law, that consideration has the greatest force: that God is the author of this law. For although it is said to have been "given by angels," nevertheless no one can doubt that God himself is the author of the law; to which ample testimony is given not only by the words of the lawgiver himself, which will be explained a little later, but by almost innumerable passages of the Scriptures, which will easily occur to pastors. For there is no one who does not feel that a law has been implanted in his soul by God, by which he can distinguish good from evil, the honourable from the base, the just from the unjust; the force and reason of which law, since it is not different from that which is written, who is there who would dare to deny God to be the author of the written law as he is of that inmost law? Therefore it must be taught that when God gave the law to Moses, he rather rendered more resplendent this divine light — already almost obscured by depraved morals and long-standing perversity — than brought forth a new one, lest perhaps, when the people hear that the law of Moses has been abrogated, they think themselves not bound by these laws. For it is most certain that these precepts must not be obeyed for this reason, that they were given through Moses, but because they are ingrained in the souls of all, and have been explained and confirmed by Christ the Lord.
IV. In what manner the people may be stirred up by the author of the law himself to keep the law.
Nevertheless it will greatly help, and will have great weight for persuading, that consideration that it is God who brought forth the law; of whose wisdom and equity we cannot doubt, nor can we escape his infinite power and might. Wherefore when God through the Prophets commanded that the law be kept, he said that he was the Lord God, and in the very beginning of the Decalogue): "I am the Lord thy God," and elsewhere: "If I am Lord, where is my fear?"
V. How great a benefit it is to have received the law from God.
But it will not only stir up the minds of the faithful to keep God's precepts, but also to the giving of thanks, that God has explained his will, which contains our salvation. Wherefore Scripture in more than one place, declaring this very great benefit, admonishes the people to acknowledge their dignity and the Lord's beneficence; as in Deuteronomy: "This," he says, "is your wisdom and understanding before the peoples, so that all, hearing these precepts, may say: Behold a wise and understanding people, a great nation"; and again in the psalm: "He has not done in like manner to every nation, and his judgements he has not manifested unto them."
VI. Why God willed of old to deliver his law to the Israelites with such great majesty.
But if the parson further demonstrates the reason of the law delivered from the authority of Scripture, the faithful will easily understand how piously and suppliantly they ought to cultivate the law of God once received; for three days before the law was brought forth, by God's command it was said to all that they should wash their garments, and not touch their wives, that they might be the more holy and prepared to receive the law; so that they might be present "on the third day." Then when they had been brought to the mountain, from which the Lord was to deliver the law to them through Moses, it was said to Moses alone that he should ascend the mountain; whither God came with the greatest majesty, and surrounded the place with thunders, lightnings, fire, and thick clouds, and began to speak with Moses, and gave him the laws; which divine wisdom willed to be done for no other cause than that we might be admonished that the law of the Lord must be received with a chaste and humble soul; and that, if we should neglect the precepts, punishments are prepared for us by divine justice and threaten us.
VII. How a law promulgated with such terror can be fulfilled by men, and that nothing is easier than love.
Nay more, let the parson show that the commandments of the law do not have difficulty; which he will be able to teach by this one reason from St. Augustine, when he says: "Who, I ask, is said to find it impossible to love; to love, I say, the beneficent creator, the most loving father, and then also his own flesh in his brothers? But in truth, 'he who loves... has fulfilled the law.'" Wherefore John the apostle openly testifies that the commandments of God are not grievous; for nothing more just, nothing with greater dignity, nothing with greater fruit could have been required of man, as St. Bernard witnesses. Wherefore Augustine, marvelling at the supreme kindness of God, thus addressed God himself: "What am I to thee, that thou commandest me to love thee? and unless I do it, thou art angry with me and threatenest enormous miseries? Is it a small thing in itself, if I do not love thee?". But if anyone bring forward this excuse, that he is hindered from loving God by the infirmity of nature: it must be taught that God, who has required love, infuses the force of love into hearts through his Holy Spirit; and this good Spirit is given by the heavenly Father to those who ask, so that St. Augustine deservedly prayed: "Give what thou commandest, and command what thou wilt." Therefore, since God's help is at hand for us, especially after the death of Christ the Lord, by which the prince of this world was cast out: there is no reason why anyone should be deterred by the difficulty of the matter; for nothing is difficult to one who loves.
VIII. Whether all men are necessarily bound to the observance of the law.
Moreover, for persuading of the same matter it will greatly avail, if it be explained that the law must necessarily be obeyed; especially since in our times there have not been lacking those who, whether the law be easy or difficult, have impiously and to their own great harm not feared to say that it is by no means necessary to salvation. The parson shall refute their wicked and impious opinion by the testimonies of Holy Scripture; and most of all of the same Apostle, by whose authority they endeavour to defend their impiety. What then says the Apostle: "Neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but the observance of the commandments of God?" And indeed when he repeats the same opinion elsewhere, and says that only a new creature in Christ avails: we plainly understand that he calls him "a new creature in Christ" who observes the commandments of God. For he who has the commandments of God and keeps them, loves God, with the Lord himself as witness in John: "If any man love me, he will keep my word." For although a man can be justified, and from impious be made pious, before he fulfils by external actions the individual precepts of the law: yet it cannot come to pass that one who through age can use reason should from impious be made just, unless he have a soul prepared for the keeping of all the precepts of God.
IX. What fruits those obtain who observe the divine law.
But finally, lest the parson omit anything by which the faithful people may be led to keep the law: he shall show how rich and sweet its fruits are; which he will be able easily to prove from what is written in the eighteenth psalm; for in it the praises of the law of God are celebrated, of which this is the greatest, which declares God's glory and majesty much more amply than the very heavenly bodies do by their beauty and order — which, though they carry away all nations however barbarous into admiration of themselves, so cause them to recognize the glory, wisdom, and power of the maker and founder of all things. And indeed the law of the Lord converts souls to God; for recognizing his ways and the most holy will of God through the law, we turn our feet into the ways of the Lord. But because only those who fear God are truly wise, to that end he also attributes this, that he gives wisdom to little ones. Hence they are heaped up with true joys and the knowledge of divine mysteries, and besides with great delights and rewards both in this life and in the future age, who observe the law of God.
X. Since all things do God's will, it is shown to be most equitable that man should follow the same will.
But the law must be kept not so much for the sake of our own advantage as for God's sake, who has revealed his will for the human race in the law; which, since all other creatures follow, it is much more equitable that man himself should follow the same. Nor indeed is this to be passed over in silence, that in this most of all God has shown his clemency towards us and the riches of his supreme goodness; that, whereas he could have compelled us without any reward to serve his glory, he nevertheless willed to join his glory with our advantage, so that what was useful to man should be the same as was glorious to God. Since therefore this is a great and most excellent thing, the parson shall teach, as was said by the Prophet in the last place: "in keeping them there is a great reward." For not only are those blessings promised to us which seemed to look rather to earthly felicity, such that we should be blessed in the city, blessed in the field, "but a copious reward in heaven," and "a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over" is set forth, which by pious and just actions we merit, with the help of divine mercy.
XI. In what manner the law of Moses binds men of all ages, and on what occasion it was promulgated to the Israelites.
Although this law was given to the Jews on the mountain by the Lord, yet, since by nature it was long before impressed and stamped upon the minds of all, and for that reason God willed all men perpetually to obey it: it will greatly profit to explain diligently those words by which it was promulgated to the Hebrews with Moses as minister and interpreter, and the history of the Israelite people, which is full of mysteries. In the first place the parson shall narrate that, out of all the nations that were under heaven, God chose one, which took its origin from Abraham, whom he willed to be a wanderer in the land of Canaan; possession of which when he had promised him, nevertheless both he and his posterity wandered for more than four hundred years before they inhabited the promised land; in which wandering indeed he never laid aside care of them. They passed indeed "from nation to nation and from one kingdom to another people," but he never suffered any injury to be done them; nay rather he took vengeance on kings. But before they went down into Egypt, he sent ahead a man, by whose prudence both they and the Egyptians might be delivered from famine. In Egypt indeed he embraced them with such kindness that, with Pharaoh resisting and pressing on to their ruin, they were wonderfully increased; and when they were greatly afflicted and treated most harshly as slaves, he raised up Moses as leader to bring them out with a strong hand. It is chiefly at the beginning of this deliverance that the Lord makes mention of the law in these words: "I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage."
XII. Why the Jews were chosen to be a people by God.
From these things the parson must especially note: that one nation out of all was chosen by God, whom he might call his people, and to whom he might make himself known and offer himself to be worshipped; not because they surpassed the others in justice or in number, as God admonishes the Hebrews, but because it so pleased God himself, preferring to augment and enrich a small and poor people, so that his power and goodness might be the more known and illustrious to all. Since therefore such was the condition of those men, "he was joined unto them, and loved them" so, that though he was Lord of heaven and earth, he was not confounded to be called their God, in order to provoke the other nations to emulation, so that, seeing the felicity of the Israelites, all men should betake themselves to the worship of the true God; as also Paul testifies, that by setting forth the felicity of the Gentiles, and the true knowledge of God with which he had instructed them, he provoked his own flesh to emulation.
XIII. Why the Hebrews were long and much afflicted before they received the law.
Then he shall teach the faithful, that God suffered the Hebrew fathers long to wander, and also permitted their descendants to be pressed and harassed with the most harsh servitude, for this reason: that we might be taught that we do not become friends of God unless we be enemies of the world and wanderers on the earth, and thus that we are more easily received into the familiarity of God if we have nothing at all in common with the world; and then, that being transferred to the worship of God we might understand how much happier at last are those who serve God than those who serve the world, of which matter Scripture admonishes us; for it says: "Nevertheless they shall serve him, that they may know the difference between my service, and the service of the kingdoms of the earth." Moreover he shall explain, that after more than four hundred years God performed his promises, so that this people might be nourished by faith and hope. For God wills his nurslings perpetually to depend on himself, and to place all their hope in his goodness, as will be said in the explanation of the first precept.
XIV. Why the law was given in such a place and time.
Lastly he shall note the place and time in which the people of Israel received this law from God; namely after it was led out of Egypt, it came into the desert, so that, allured by the memory of the recent benefit, and deterred by the harshness of the place in which it dwelt, it might be rendered more apt to receive the law. For men are most bound to those whose beneficence they have experienced, and they flee to God's protection when they see themselves destitute of every human hope. From which it may be understood, that the faithful are the more prone to embracing heavenly doctrine, the more they have withdrawn themselves from the allurements of the world, and the pleasures of the flesh; as it is written through the Prophet: "Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand the tidings? them that are weaned from the milk, that are drawn away from the breasts."
CHAPTER II. On the First Precept.
What this opening means, and what mysteries are contained in it.
Let the parson therefore strive, and as much as he can bring it about, that the faithful people always have these words in mind: "I am the Lord thy God"; from which they will understand that they have the lawgiver as their creator, by whom they were both founded and are preserved, and they may rightly employ that saying: "He is the Lord our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand." The vehement and frequent admonition of which words will have this force, that the faithful may be rendered more ready to cultivate the law, and may abstain from sins. But as for what follows: "who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage," although it seems to pertain only to the Jews freed from Egyptian domination: yet, if we consider the inner reason of universal salvation, it pertains much more to Christian men, who have been snatched by God not from Egyptian servitude, but from the region of sin and the power of darkness, and transferred into the kingdom of the Son of his love. Jeremiah, beholding the greatness of this benefit, foretold it thus: "Behold the days come, saith the Lord, and it shall be said no more: The Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but: The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and out of all the lands to which I had cast them out; and I will bring them again into their land, which I gave to their fathers. Behold I will send many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them," and what follows. For the most indulgent Father gathered together through his Son the children who were dispersed, so that now not as slaves to sin, but to justice, "we may serve him in holiness and justice before him, all our days."
II. How the faithful ought to be affected by the beginning of this Decalogue.
Wherefore the faithful shall oppose against all temptations, as a shield, that saying of the Apostle: "We that are dead to sin, how shall we live any longer therein?" we are now no longer our own, but his who died for us and rose again; he is the Lord our God, who acquired us to himself by his blood; how shall we be able to sin against the Lord our God, and crucify him again? Therefore, that we may be truly free, and indeed with that freedom wherewith Christ has made us free, as we have yielded our members to serve unrighteousness, so let us yield them to serve righteousness unto sanctification.
Catechismi Romani
Thou shalt not have strange gods before me.
III. What this first precept embraces as to be observed and shunned.
The parson shall teach that in the Decalogue the first place is held by those things which pertain to God, and the latter by those things which pertain to our neighbour, because God is the cause of those things which we perform for our neighbour; for then by God's precept we love our neighbour, when we love him on account of God; and these things are described in the first tablet. In the second place, he shall show that in these words which are set forth a double precept is contained; of which one has the force of commanding, the other of prohibiting. For what is said: "Thou shalt not have strange gods before me," has this joined meaning: Thou shalt worship me the true God, thou shalt not offer worship to strange gods.
IV. How faith, hope, and charity are contained in this precept.
Now in the former is contained the precept of faith, hope, and charity. For when we call God immovable, unchangeable, perpetually remaining the same; we rightly confess him faithful without any iniquity; from which, assenting to his oracles, it is necessary that we ascribe to him all faith and authority. But he who considers his omnipotence, clemency, and his readiness and propensity to do good: will he be able not to place all his hopes in him? And if he contemplates the riches of his goodness and love poured out upon us, will he be able not to love him? Hence that preface, hence that conclusion, which God uses in Scripture in commanding and charging: "I am the Lord."
V. This precept, in as far as it is negative, is expounded.
The other part of the precept is this: "Thou shalt not have strange gods before me"; which form of speech the lawgiver has used, not because this sentence was not sufficiently explained by the affirmation of the precept in this manner: Thou shalt worship me the one God; for if he is God, he is one: but on account of the blindness of many who of old professed to worship the true God, nevertheless venerated a multitude of gods; of which kind there were very many even among the Hebrews themselves who, as Elias objected to them (III. Reg. 18, 21.), "halted between two sides"; which the Samaritans also did, who worshipped the God of Israel, and the gods of the nations. (IV. Reg. 17, 29.)
VI. How this precept is to be deemed the greatest of all.
These things being explained, it will be added that this is the first and greatest of all precepts, not only in order itself, but in reason, dignity, and excellence. For God must obtain with us a love and authority infinitely greater than that of a master, than of a king. He himself created us, the same governs us; by him we were nourished in our mother's womb, and thence brought forth into this light; he himself supplies us with the things necessary for life and sustenance.
VII. Who in particular are guilty of the violation of this precept.
But they sin against this precept, who have not faith, hope, and charity; whose sin extends very widely. For in this number are those who fall into heresy, who do not believe those things which holy mother Church proposes to be believed; who put faith in dreams, auguries, and other most vain things; who cast away hope of their own salvation, and do not confide in divine goodness; who rely only on riches, on bodily health and strength; which things have been more fully explained by those who have written of vices and sins.
VIII. The worship which by the received usage of the Church is given to the saints is not opposed to this precept.
But this also must be accurately taught in the explanation of this precept, that the veneration and invocation of the holy angels and of the blessed souls, who enjoy heavenly glory, or even of their very bodies and the cult of the sacred ashes of the saints, which the Catholic Church has always employed, is not repugnant to this law. For who is so demented, that, when the king has decreed that no one act as the king, or suffer himself to be honoured with royal worship and honour, would immediately think that the king is unwilling that honour be paid to his magistrates? For although Christians are said to adore the angels, after the example of the saints of the Old Testament: nevertheless they do not render to them that veneration which they ascribe to God. And if we read at times that the angels refused to be venerated by men, this must be understood to have been done because they did not wish that honour to be paid to them which was due to God alone.
IX. How it is lawful to worship the holy Angels, is shown from the Scriptures.
For the Holy Spirit, who says (I. Tim. 1, 17.): "To God alone be honour and glory"; the same commanded that we should honour parents and elders. Holy men moreover, who worshipped the one God, nevertheless "adored kings," as it is in the divine writings, that is, venerated them as suppliants. But if kings, through whom God governs the world, are affected with such great honour: shall we not have much greater honour for the angelic spirits, whom God willed to be his ministers, and whose service he uses not only for the government of his Church, but also of all other things, and by whose aid we are daily freed from the greatest dangers both of soul and of body, even though they do not present themselves to our sight — shall we not have them in so much the greater honour, inasmuch as those blessed minds exceed kings themselves in dignity? Add the charity with which they love us, led by which they pour forth prayers for those provinces over which they preside, as is easily understood from Scripture; which there is no doubt that they also perform for those of whom they are the guardians; for they offer our prayers and our tears to God. Wherefore in the Gospel the Lord taught: that the little ones are not to be scandalized, "because their angels in heaven always see the face of the Father, who is in heaven."
X. That the holy Angels are to be invoked, is proved from the Scriptures.
They are therefore to be invoked, since they both perpetually behold God, and most willingly undertake the patronage of our salvation entrusted to them. There exist testimonies of divine Scripture for this invocation. For Jacob asked from the angel, with whom he had wrestled, that he would bless him, nay even compelled him; for he professed that he would not let him go unless he received a blessing, nor only that it be given him by him whom he beheld, but also by him whom he did not see at all, when he said: "The Angel that delivereth me from all evils, bless these children."
XI. By the invocation of the saints and the veneration of relics nothing is detracted from the honour of God.
From which it may also be gathered, that so far is it from the glory of God being diminished by honouring and invoking the saints who have slept in the Lord, and by venerating their sacred relics and ashes: that it is rather greatly increased, inasmuch as it the more excites, confirms, and exhorts the hope of men to the imitation of the saints: which duty is approved by the second Council of Nicaea, and of Gangra, and of Trent, and by the authority of the holy Fathers.
XII. By what arguments above all the invocation of the Saints is to be established.
But that the parson may be more instructed to refute those who oppose this truth: let him read especially SS. Jerome against Vigilantius, and Damascene; to whose reasoning, which is the chief point, there accedes the custom received from the Apostles, and perpetually retained and preserved in the Church of God; of which matter who would require a firmer or clearer argument than the testimony of divine Scripture, which wonderfully celebrates the praises of the saints? For there exist divine eulogies of certain saints. Since their praises are celebrated in the sacred writings, how is it that men do not bestow singular honour upon them? Although for this cause they are the more to be worshipped and invoked, because they assiduously make prayers for the salvation of men, and God, by their merit and grace, confers many benefits upon us. For if "there is joy in heaven over one sinner doing penance," shall not also the heavenly citizens aid the penitent? Shall they not, being asked, both obtain pardon of sins, and conciliate to us the grace of God?
XIII. It is shown that that invocation of the Saints does not proceed from any distrust of divine aid, or weakness of faith.
But if it be said, as it is said by some, that the patronage of the saints is superfluous, since God meets our prayers without an interpreter: that saying of Saint Augustine easily refutes these impious voices: that God does not grant many things, unless the work and office of a mediator and intercessor has intervened. Which is confirmed by the illustrious examples of Abimelech and the friends of Job, whose sins he pardoned only by the prayers of Abraham and Job. But if it be further asserted that it is from poverty and weakness of faith that we employ the saints as intermediaries and patrons: what will they answer to that example of the centurion, who even in that singular praise of faith which the Lord God bestowed upon him, nevertheless sent the elders of the Jews to the Saviour, that they might obtain salvation for his ailing servant?
XIV. The doctrine concerning the one mediator Christ does not take away the invocation of the Saints.
Wherefore if it must be confessed that one mediator has been set before us, Christ the Lord, who alone reconciled us to the heavenly Father by his blood, and who, "having obtained eternal redemption," having once entered into the holies, does not cease to intercede for us: yet from this it can in no way follow, that it be not permitted to have recourse to the favour of the saints. For if for that reason it were not permitted to use the aids of the saints, because we have one patron, Jesus Christ: the Apostle would never have permitted himself to wish to be helped before God with so great zeal by the prayers of living brethren; for neither do the prayers of the living, any more than the intercession of the saints who are in heaven, diminish the glory and dignity of Christ the mediator.
XV. Whence the power of relics is confirmed, and how great is their force and efficacy, is shown.
But to whom may not both the honour which is due to the saints and the patronage which they undertake for our sake be made credible by the wonderful things effected at their sepulchres — with eyes, hands, and all the limbs of the maimed restored to their pristine state, the dead called back to life, demons cast out of the bodies of men? which things SS. Ambrose and Augustine committed to writing as men who had not heard, as many have, nor read, as most weighty men have, but seen, the most abundant witnesses. Why need one say more? If the garments, handkerchiefs, if the shadow of the saints, before they passed from this life, drove away diseases and restored strength: who finally would dare to deny that God works the same marvellously through the sacred ashes, bones, and other relics of the saints? This was declared by that corpse which, having by chance been laid in the sepulchre of Eliseus, when it touched his body, suddenly revived.
XVI. The following words do not constitute another precept, but one together with the preceding.
But what follows: "Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them": some, thinking this to be another precept, have wished that these last two be contained within the force of one precept; but St. Augustine, dividing those last portions, willed these very words to pertain to the first precept; which opinion, because it is famous in the Church, we willingly follow. Although the reason is at hand, that most true reason, that it was consistent that the reward and punishment of each be joined with the first precept.
XVII. The received usage of images in the Church does not fight against this precept.
Nor indeed let anyone think that the art of painting, fashioning, or sculpting is altogether prohibited by this precept; for in the Scriptures we read that by God's command images and likenesses were fashioned, "the Cherubim, the brazen serpent." It remains therefore that we interpret images as forbidden for this reason, lest anything be detracted from the true worship of God by worshipping images as gods.
XVIII. By what ways in particular the divine majesty can be violated through images.
It is plain that in two ways chiefly, as regards this precept, the majesty of God is vehemently injured: the one, if idols and images are worshipped as God, or if it be believed that there is in them some divinity or virtue, on account of which they are to be worshipped, or because something is to be asked of them, or because confidence is to be fixed in images, as was once done by the gentiles, who placed their hope in idols, which the sacred writings everywhere reprove. The other, if anyone attempts to fashion by some artifice a form of the divinity, as if it could be seen with bodily eyes, or expressed by colours or figures. "For who," as Damascene says, "could express God, who does not fall under sight, who is without body, who cannot be circumscribed by any bounds, nor described by any figure?" Which matter is more fully explained in the second Nicene synod. Therefore the Apostle excellently said that they had changed "the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of corruptible man, and of birds, and of fourfooted beasts, and of creeping things"; for they venerated all these things as God, when they set up images of these things. Wherefore the Israelites, who cried out before the image of the calf: "These are thy gods, O Israel, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt," were called idolaters, because "they changed their glory into the likeness of a calf that eateth grass."
XIX. What the sense of this latter part of the precept is.
Therefore, when the Lord had forbidden strange gods to be worshipped, so that he might utterly abolish idolatry, he forbade an image of the divinity to be cast from bronze, or made of any other matter whatsoever; which Isaiah, declaring, says: "To whom then have you likened God? or what image will you make for him?" And that this opinion is contained in this precept, besides the writings of the holy Fathers, who so interpret it, as is set forth in the seventh synod, those words of Deuteronomy also sufficiently declare, where Moses, wishing to turn the people away from idolatry, said: "You saw not any similitude in the day that the Lord spoke to you in Horeb from the midst of the fire." Which the most wise lawgiver said for this reason, lest led by some error they should fashion an image of the divinity, and ascribe to a created thing the honour due to God.
XX. Those who portray the persons of the Trinity do not violate this precept.
Yet let no one for that reason think that anything is committed against religion and God's law, when some person of the most holy Trinity is expressed by certain signs, which appeared both in the Old and in the New Testament; for no one is so rude as to believe that the divinity is expressed by that image, but let the pastor teach that by those are declared certain properties, or actions, which are attributed to God; as when from Daniel "the ancient of days" is painted as sitting on a throne, before whom "the books are opened," the eternity and infinite wisdom of God is signified, by which he beholds all the thoughts and actions of men, so as to pass judgement upon them.
XXI. In what manner Angels are painted.
To the Angels also both a human form and wings are attributed, so that the faithful may understand how prone they are towards the human race, and as it were prepared to carry out the Lord's ministrations. "For all are ministering spirits, on account of those who shall receive the inheritance of salvation."
XXII. On the dove, in which the Holy Spirit is depicted.
But "the form of a dove, and tongues as it were of fire," in the Gospel and in the Acts of the Apostles, what properties of the Holy Spirit they signify, is much more known than that it need be explained in many words.
XXIII. Images of Christ and of the Saints ought to be painted and honoured.
But since Christ the Lord, and his most holy and most pure Mother, and all the other saints, being endowed with human nature, bore a human form: not only was it not prohibited by this precept that their images be painted and honoured, but it has always been held to be holy and a most certain argument of a grateful soul; which both the monuments of apostolic times, and the ecumenical synods, and the writings of so many most holy and most learned Fathers in agreement with one another confirm.
XXIV. What is the lawful use of images in the Church.
Not only shall the parson show that it is lawful to have images in the Church, and to render honour and worship to them, since the honour which is shown to them is referred to the prototypes: but also he shall declare that even to this day it has been done for the greatest good of the faithful, as is understood from the book which Damascene published on images, and from the seventh synod, which is the second Nicene. But because the enemy of the human race strives to deprave by his frauds and deceits every most holy institution, if perhaps the people have sinned in any matter in this regard, the parson, following the decree of the Council of Trent, shall as much as can be done strive to correct it, and he shall indeed interpret the decree itself to the people when the matter requires; then he shall teach the unlearned, and those who are ignorant of the very institution of images, that images were made for knowing the history of both Testaments, and for renewing again and again the memory thereof, by which, being stirred up by the remembrance of divine things, we may be more vehemently inflamed to worship and to love God himself. He shall likewise show that images of the saints are placed in churches, so that they may be both venerated, and that, being admonished by example, we may conform ourselves to their life and morals.
I am the Lord thy God, strong, jealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands to them that love me, and keep my commandments.
XXV. This appendix does not pertain only to the first precept.
There are two things to be diligently explained in the last part of this precept: the first is, that although on account of the greatest crime of the transgression of the first precept, and men's propensity to commit it, the punishment is aptly set forth in this place, nevertheless it is a common appendix of all the precepts; for every law induces men to keep its precepts by punishment and reward. Hence those so frequent and numerous promises of God in the sacred writings. For, to pass over almost innumerable testimonies of the Old Testament: in the Gospel it is written: "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments"; and elsewhere: "He that doth the will of my Father, who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven"; then that: "Every tree that yieldeth not good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire"; and: "Whosoever is angry with his brother, shall be in danger of the judgement"; and elsewhere: "If you will not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your sins."
XXVI. Whether the punishment here threatened against transgressors is to be inculcated in the same way upon the carnal and the perfect.
The other is, that on a far different account the perfect are to be taught this appendix, and the carnal on another. For to the perfect, who are led by the Spirit of God, and obey him with a ready and alacritous soul, it is as a kind of most joyful message, and a great argument of the divine will propense towards them; for they recognize the care of their most loving God, who now by rewards, now by punishments, almost compels men to his worship and veneration; they recognize his immense benevolence towards them, who wills to command them, and to use their work for the glory of his divine name; nor only do they recognize, but they are in great hope that he who commands what he wills, will also give strength by which they can obey his law. But to the carnal, who have not yet been freed from the spirit of servitude, and abstain from sins more from fear of punishments than from love of virtue, the sense of this appendix is grave and bitter. Wherefore they must be raised up by pious exhortations, and as it were led by the hand to where the law looks. And the parson, as often as an occasion for explaining any precept shall present itself, shall have these same things set before him.
XXVII. What those words: I am God strong, propose for meditation.
To the carnal equally as to the spiritual, two goads as it were in particular must be applied, which, placed in this very appendix for the observance of the law, may greatly incite men. For the fact that God is called "strong" is to be the more diligently explained, because the flesh often, which is less moved by the terrors of the divine threat, fashions for itself various reasons by which it may escape the wrath of God, and avoid the punishment set forth; but to him who is certainly persuaded that God is strong, that saying of the great David applies: "Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? and whither shall I flee from thy face?" The same too, distrusting the divine promises at times, believes the forces of the enemies to be so great, that it reckons itself in no wise a match for sustaining them. But firm and stable faith, not hesitating at all, since it rests upon divine power and virtue, on the contrary refreshes and confirms men; for it says: "The Lord is my light, and my salvation; whom shall I fear?"
XXVIII. What is meant by the fact that God also calls himself jealous.
The other goad is the divine zeal itself. For sometimes men think that God does not care for human things, not even this, whether we keep his law or neglect it. From which follows great confusion of life. But when we believe God to be jealous, meditation on this matter easily keeps us in our duty.
XXIX. Of what sort is the zeal to be attributed to God.
But the zeal which is attributed to God signifies no perturbation of mind, but that divine love and charity with which God suffers no soul to fornicate from him with impunity; but he destroys as many as fornicate from him. The zeal of God is therefore his most tranquil and most sincere justice, by which a soul, corrupted by false opinions and depraved desires, is repudiated, and removed from the nuptial union of God as an adulteress. But indeed we experience this zeal of God as most sweet and pleasant, when his supreme and incredible will towards us is demonstrated by that very zeal. For neither ardent love among men, nor greater and more intimate union, than of those who are joined in wedlock, is found. Therefore God shows how greatly he loves us, when frequently comparing himself either to a spouse or a husband, he calls himself jealous. Wherefore let the parson teach in this place, that men ought so to be desirous of divine worship and honour, that they may rightly be called rather zealous than loving, after the example of him who said of himself: "I have been jealous with zeal for the Lord God of hosts"; nay rather let them imitate Christ himself, whose saying is: "The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up."
XXX. What is the meaning of the threat here intended.
The meaning of the threat is to be explained, not that God will suffer sinners unpunished, but that either as a father he will chastise them, or as a judge he will sharply and severely take vengeance upon them. Which Moses, signifying in another place: "And thou shalt know," he says, "that the Lord thy God himself is God, strong and faithful, keeping his covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his precepts, unto a thousand generations; and repaying them that hate him forthwith"; and Joshua: "You will not be able," he says, "to serve the Lord; for he is a holy and a strong God, and jealous, and will not spare your wickedness and sins. If you leave the Lord, and serve strange gods, he will turn, and will afflict you, and will destroy you."
XXXI. How God visits the sins of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation.
The people must be taught that the punishment of the threat pertains to the third and fourth generation of the impious and wicked, not because the descendants always suffer the punishments of the greater crimes, but because, although they and their children may have borne them with impunity, nevertheless not all their posterity will avoid the wrath or punishment of God. Which happened to King Josiah. For since God had spared him on account of his singular piety, and had granted that he might be brought in peace to the sepulchre of his fathers, lest he see the evils of the following times, which on account of the impiety of his grandfather Manasses were to come upon Judah and Jerusalem: upon his death the vengeance of God followed his posterity, so that he did not spare even the sons of Josiah.
XXXII. How these words agree with the words of Ezekiel.
But in what manner these words of the law do not conflict with that sentence which is found in the Prophet: "The soul that sinneth, the same shall die," the authority of Saint Gregory, agreeing with all the other ancient Fathers, openly shows; for he says: Whoever imitates the iniquity of a depraved parent, is also bound by his offence; but whoever does not imitate the parent's iniquity, is in no way burdened with his offence; whence it comes to pass, that a wicked son of a wicked father pays not only his own sins which he has added, but also the sins of the father, when, to the vices of the father, by which he is not ignorant that the Lord is angered, he is not afraid to add also his own malice still further. And it is just, that he who under a strict judge does not fear to imitate the ways of an iniquitous parent, be compelled also in this present life to pay the penalties of his iniquitous parent's faults. The parson shall then commemorate, how much the goodness and mercy of the same surpass the justice of God. God is angry with the third and fourth generation, but imparts mercy unto thousands. XXXIII. Which transgressors of the divine laws are deemed to hate God.
In that, however, which is said: "of them that hate me," the magnitude of the sin is shown. For what is more shameful and detestable than to hate the highest goodness itself, the highest truth? Now this pertains to all sinners for this reason, that, just as "he who has the commandments" of God "and keeps them, loves" God, so he who despises the law of the Lord and does not keep his commandments must rightly be said to hate God.
XXXIV. What this means: Showing mercy unto them that love me.
What indeed is last: "and to them that love me," teaches the manner and reason of keeping the law; for it is necessary that those who keep the law of God be led to obedience to him by that same charity and love with which they are towards God; which things will hereafter be recalled in the individual precepts.
CHAPTER III. On the Second Commandment.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
I. Why God willed to give this law particularly concerning the honoring of his own name.
Although in the first commandment of the divine law, by which we are ordered to worship God piously and holily, that which follows in the second place is necessarily contained (for he who wishes honor to be rendered to him, likewise demands that we pursue him with the highest honor of words, and forbids the contrary; which also those words of the Lord in Malachi openly indicate: "The son honoreth the father, and the servant his master: if then I be a father, where is my honor?"): God nonetheless, by reason of the magnitude of the matter, willed to give this law separately concerning the honoring of his own divine name, so utterly full of holiness, and to prescribe it to us in express and perspicuous words.
II. How much parish priests must strive in the explanation of this commandment.
Which indeed ought to be foremost a matter of consideration for the parish priest himself, that it will by no means suffice if he speaks of this matter in a general way: but that this is the sort of place in which he himself must dwell longer and must explain whatever pertains to this treatment distinctly, clearly, and accurately to the faithful. Nor indeed is this diligence to be deemed excessive, since there are not lacking those who are so blinded by the darkness of errors that they do not fear to curse him whom the angels glorify. Nor indeed are they deterred by the law once given, from daily diminishing God's majesty, nay rather from almost every hour and moment most impudently
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daring to do so. For who does not see that everything is affirmed by oath? that everything is full of imprecations and execrations? to such an extent that scarcely anyone either sells something, or buys, or conducts any business, who does not interpose the religion of an oath, and does not rashly take God's most holy name a thousand times in vain in even the most trivial and vain matter? wherefore the greater care and diligence must be applied by the parish priest, that he often admonish the faithful how grave and detestable this crime is.
III. What this commandment prescribes or forbids.
Now indeed in the explanation of this commandment let this first be established, that with that which the law forbids to be done, there is also joined the prescribing of those things which men ought to perform. Both, however, are to be taught separately; first indeed, so that those things which are to be handed down may be more easily set forth, what the law commands; soon also what it forbids. For the things it commands are these: God's name is to be honored, and through it to be sworn by holily. These again, which it forbids: let no one despise the divine name, let no one take it in vain, nor swear by it either falsely, or in vain, or rashly.
IV. What is here understood by the name of God.
In that part, therefore, in which we are ordered to render honor to the divine name, let the parish priest enjoin the faithful that God's name, that is, its letters and syllables, or the bare word merely in itself, is not to be attended to, but they must come to the thought of what that voice signifies, which signifies the omnipotent and everlasting majesty of the one and triune Godhead. From these things, however, it is easily gathered that the superstition of certain Jews is vain, who, because they would write God's name, did not dare to pronounce it; as if in those four letters, not in the reality, there were divine power. But although it is uttered in the singular number: "Thou shalt not take the name of God," this is to be understood not of any one name, but of all which are wont to be attributed to God; for many names have been imposed on God, such as Lord, Almighty, Lord of hosts, King of kings, Strong One, and others of that kind, which are read in the Scriptures, which all have equal and the same veneration. Next it must be taught, how due honor is to be rendered to the divine name; for it is not right that the Christian people, by whose mouth God's praises are to be continually celebrated, should be ignorant of a thing most useful and utterly necessary for salvation.
V. In what manner we are deemed to venerate or honor the divine name.
Although the manner of praising the divine name is manifold, nevertheless in those things which will hereafter be spoken of here, the force and weight
of all seems to reside. First therefore God is praised, when in the sight of all we confidently confess God and our Lord, and Christ the author of our salvation, just as we acknowledge him, so also we proclaim him. Likewise when we devote ourselves holily and diligently to the word of God, by which his will is enunciated, when we are constantly engaged in meditation on it, we study to learn it diligently, either by reading or by hearing, according as is fitting and suitable to the person and office of each one. Next, we venerate and reverence the divine name when, for the cause of duty and religion, we celebrate the divine praises, and in all things, both prosperous and adverse, we render him singular thanks. For the Prophet says: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits." And there exist very many Psalms of David, in which with a certain outstanding piety towards God he most sweetly sings forth his divine praises. There exists that admirable example of the patience of Job, who, when he had fallen into those greatest and most horrible calamities, nevertheless never ceased to praise God with a lofty and unconquered spirit. We therefore, when we are tormented by the pains of soul and body, when we are tortured by miseries and afflictions, let us at once turn all zeal and the powers of our soul to praising God, saying that saying of Job: "Blessed be the name of the Lord."
VI. How we obey this commandment in other ways.
Nor is God's name less honored, if we confidently implore his help, by which namely he may either free us from those things, or may bestow constancy and strength to bear them bravely. For the Lord wills this to be done: "Call upon me," he says, "in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me;" of which supplication illustrious examples are found in many other places, but especially in Psalms 16, 43, 118. Moreover we pursue God's name with honor, when for the sake of giving credence we call God to witness; which mode differs greatly from the former. For those things which we mentioned above are so by their very nature good and desirable, that nothing can be more blessed, nothing more desirable for man, than if in diligently performing them he exercise himself day and night. "I will bless," says David, "the Lord at all times: his praise shall be always in my mouth." But an oath, although it is good, its frequent use nevertheless is in no way praiseworthy.
VII. Why the more frequent use of an oath is not to be approved.
The reason of this distinction is placed in this, that an oath was instituted only for this cause, that it should be as a certain remedy for human weakness, and a necessary instrument for proving what we say. For just as it is not expedient to apply medicines to the body, unless it is necessary, but the frequent use of these is pernicious: so also, unless when a grave and just cause underlies it, to use an oath is not salutary. But if it is used more often, so far is it from benefiting, that it brings great detriment. Wherefore Saint Chrysostom excellently teaches, that not at the birth, but when the world was already grown up, when evils had spread far and wide and had occupied the whole orb of lands, and nothing stood in its own place and order, but all things, disturbed and mixed, were borne up and down with great confusion of things, and, what is the gravest of all evils, almost all mortals had cast themselves down into the foul servitude of idols: then at length after indeed a long interval the oath crept into the custom of men. For when amid so great perfidy and iniquity of men no one was easily led to believe, they called God to witness.
VIII. In what the reason of an oath consists; and what properly is to swear.
But since in this part of the commandment the principal reason is that of teaching the faithful how they ought piously and holily to employ an oath: first it must be said that "to swear" is nothing other than to call God to witness, by whatever form and conception of words it may be done. For both: "God is my witness," and: "by God," are the same. There is also that oath, when for the sake of giving credence we swear by created things, as by the sacred Gospels of God, by the cross, by the relics and name of the saints, and the rest of that kind. Nor indeed do these things of themselves bring any authority or strength to an oath: but God himself performs this, whose splendor of divine majesty shines forth in those things. From which it follows that those who swear by the Gospel swear by God himself, whose truth is contained and declared in the Gospel; similarly also by the saints who are temples of God, and who believed in the evangelical truth, and cultivated it with all observance, and disseminated it most widely through peoples and nations.
IX. On that form of oath which is made by execration.
The same reason applies to that oath which is uttered by execration; such as that of St. Paul: "I call God to witness upon my soul;" for in this manner someone is subjected to God's judgment as the avenger of falsehood. Nor do we therefore deny that some of these formulas can be taken in such a way as if they did not have the force of an oath: but nevertheless it is useful that the things which have been said about an oath be kept in these also, and directed to the very same norm and rule.
Roman Catechism
X. How manifold an oath is.
There are two kinds of swearing: the first indeed, which is called assertory; namely when we religiously affirm something concerning a present or past matter, as the Apostle in the epistle to the Galatians: "Behold, before God, I lie not." The other, however, is called promissory, to which also threatenings are referred, looking to future time, when we promise and confirm as certain that something will be so; of which kind is that of David, who, swearing to Bathsheba his wife "by the Lord God" his own, promised that Solomon her son would be heir of the kingdom, and would succeed in his own place.
XI. How many are the requisites for a lawful oath.
But in truth although for an oath it is sufficient to employ God as witness,
nevertheless that it may be right and holy, many more things are required, which must be diligently explained. These indeed briefly, with Saint Jerome as witness, Jeremiah enumerates, when he says: "Thou shalt swear: The Lord liveth, in truth, and in judgment, and in justice," by which words indeed he has briefly and summarily embraced those things in which all perfection of an oath is contained, namely truth, judgment and justice.
XII. How an oath is performed in truth.
First therefore in an oath let "truth" have place;
namely that what is asserted both itself be true, and that he who swears think that it is so, not indeed moved rashly or by slight conjecture, but by the most certain arguments. The other kind of oath, however, by which we promise something, requires truth plainly in the same manner; for he who promises something ought to be so disposed that, when the time comes, he may in fact perform it, and pay the promise. Nor indeed will a good man ever undertake to do that which he thinks contrary to God's most holy precepts and will; but whatever it has been lawful to promise and swear, once promised he will never change; unless perhaps, the condition of things having changed, it has begun to be such that now, if he wished to keep faith and stand by his promises, he would incur God's hatred and offense. That truth is necessary in an oath, David also indicates in those words: "He that sweareth to his neighbor, and deceiveth not."
XIII. Who is said to swear in judgment, and for what cause an oath should not be demanded of children.
There follows in the second place "judgment;" for an oath must be employed not rashly and inconsiderately, but deliberately and thoughtfully. Therefore he who is about to swear let him first consider whether
he is compelled by necessity, or not; and let him accurately weigh the whole matter, whether it is of such kind that it seems to need an oath. Moreover let him regard the time, attend to the place, and circumspect many other things which are adjoined to the circumstances; let him not be impelled by hatred, by love, or by any perturbation of soul, but by the force and necessity of the matter itself. For unless this consideration and diligent observation has preceded, surely the oath will be precipitous and rash. Of which kind is also that irreligious affirmation of those who in the most trivial and vain matter, by no reason or counsel, but by a certain depraved custom, swear. This indeed we see done daily everywhere by sellers and buyers; for the former in order to sell at the highest price, the latter again in order to buy at the lowest, do not hesitate to praise or disparage the things for sale by oath. Since therefore there is need of judgment and prudence, but children cannot yet through age thus acutely perceive and distinguish, therefore it has been established by Saint Cornelius the Pontiff, that an oath not be exacted from children before puberty, that is, before the 14th year.
XIV. In what manner one swears in justice.
Justice remains, which is especially required in promises; wherefore if anyone promises something unjust and dishonest, he both sins in swearing, and in fulfilling the promises heaps crime upon crime. There exists an example of this matter in the Gospel in King Herod, who, bound by a rash oath, gave the head of John the Baptist to a dancing girl as the prize of her dance. Such also was the oath of the Jews, who bound themselves, as is in the Acts of the Apostles, on this condition, that they would taste nothing until they had killed Paul.
XV. By what reasons chiefly it is understood that an oath is sometimes lawful.
These things having been so explained, no doubt at all remains that it is lawful to swear safely for him who has observed all these things, and who has fortified the oath by these conditions as certain safeguards. But this is easy to prove by many arguments. For "the law of the Lord," which is "without blemish" and holy, commands this: "The Lord," it says, "thy God shalt thou fear, and him only shalt thou serve; and thou shalt swear by his name;" and it was written by David: "They shall be praised, all that swear by him." Moreover sacred letters indicate that the very lights of the church, the most holy Apostles, sometimes used an oath; and this appears from the Apostle's epistles. Add that even the angels themselves sometimes swear; for by
6, 13. 8) Ps. 62, 12.
Saint John the Evangelist in the Apocalypse it is written that an angel swore "by him that liveth for ever and ever." Nay, even God himself swears, the Lord of angels; and in the Old Testament in many places God confirms his promises by an oath; as to Abraham and to David, who related that concerning God's oath: "The Lord hath sworn," he says, "and he will not repent: Thou art a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedech."
XVI. It is proved that an oath rightly taken is to be placed among things praiseworthy.
Nor indeed is the reason obscure for explaining why an oath is praiseworthy, if one considers the whole matter more attentively, and looks into its origin and end. For an oath draws its origin from faith, by which men believe that God is the author of all truth, who can neither ever be deceived, nor deceive others; "to whose eyes all things are naked and open;" who finally attends to all human things with admirable providence, and administers the world. Imbued therefore with this faith, men employ God as witness of truth, not to have faith in whom will be impious and nefarious.
XVII. The end of an oath is the end of controversies and lawsuits.
As concerns the end, however, an oath tends thither and looks wholly to this, that it may prove the justice and innocence of man, and impose an end upon lawsuits and controversies; which also the Apostle teaches in the epistle to the Hebrews.
XVIII. How Christ forbade oath-taking.
Nor are those words of our Savior in Saint Matthew repugnant to this sentiment: "You have heard that it was said to them of old: Thou shalt not forswear thyself; but thou shalt perform thy oaths to the Lord. But I say to you not to swear at all, neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God: nor by the earth, for it is his footstool: nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king: neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your speech be: yea, yea; no, no: and that which is over and above these, is of evil." For by these words it is not to be said that an oath is condemned in general and universally, since we have already seen above that the Lord himself and the Apostles frequently swore; but the Lord wished to refute the perverse judgment of the Jews, by which they had brought into their mind that nothing was to be guarded against in an oath, except falsehood. Therefore concerning the most trivial matters and of no moment both they themselves swore very often, and from others they exacted an oath. This custom
the Savior reproves and disapproves, and teaches that one must wholly abstain from an oath, unless necessity demand it.
XIX. How Christ said that which goes beyond the simple assertion of truth is from evil.
For because of human weakness an oath was instituted, and indeed it comes from evil, since either it indicates the inconstancy of him who swears, or the contumacy of him for whose cause we swear, who, to believe, cannot otherwise be led. But nevertheless the necessity of swearing has an excuse. And indeed, when the Savior says: "Let your speech be: yea, yea; no, no": by this form of speaking he sufficiently declares that he forbids the custom of swearing in the conversations of familiar and trivial matters. Wherefore we are especially admonished by the Lord that we be not too easy and inclined to swearing, and this must be diligently taught, and inculcated in the ears of the faithful. For it is proved both by the authority of the sacred letters and by the testimonies of the most holy Fathers, that almost infinite evils emanate from an excessive custom of swearing. In Ecclesiasticus it is written: "Let not thy mouth be accustomed to swearing: for in it there are many falls." Likewise: "A man that sweareth much shall be filled with iniquity, and a scourge shall not depart from his house." More on this matter can be read in Saints Basil and Augustine in the books against lying. And thus far concerning things commanded; now let us speak of things forbidden.
XX. Why a false and rash oath is so great
a sin.
We are forbidden to take the divine name in vain; for it is apparent that he who is borne to swearing not by counsel, but by rashness, binds himself by grave sin. That this is a most grievous offense, those very words declare: "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain," as if he were giving the reason why this deed is so wicked and nefarious; namely because the majesty is diminished of him whom we profess to be our God and Lord. By this commandment therefore men are forbidden to swear falsely. For he who does not shrink from so great a crime as to call God to witness falsely, here does notable injury to God; for he either brands him with the mark of ignorance, while he thinks that the truth of some matter is hidden from him, or certainly with that of wickedness and depraved affection, who wishes to confirm a lie by testimony.
XXI. How those perjure themselves who swear that which is true to be true.
But he swears falsely, not only he who, when he knows something false,
affirms by swearing that it is true, but also he who by oath
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asserts that which, though it be true, he himself nevertheless thinks false. For since a lie is a lie by this, that it is uttered against the mind and the opinion of the soul: it is manifest that this man plainly lies and is perjured.
XXII. How he who swears a falsehood that he thinks to be true sins.
By similar reason also he perjures himself, who swears that which he esteems true, and nevertheless it is in reality false, unless, as far as he could, he has applied care and diligence to have the whole matter ascertained and explored. For although his speech agrees with his mind, nevertheless he is guilty of this commandment.
XXIII. He who does not keep what he swore or vowed he would do,
how he sins.
Guilty of the same sin indeed is he to be deemed, who promises by oath that he will do something, when nevertheless either he had not in mind to fulfill the promise, or, if he had, he does not actually perform what he promised. Which also pertains to those who, when they have bound themselves to God by the pledge of a vow, do not perform it.
XXIV. He who swears mortal sin, or against the evangelical
counsel, how he sins.
Moreover sin is committed against this commandment, if justice is lacking, which is one of the three companions of an oath. Therefore if anyone swears that he will commit some mortal sin, for example the murder of a man, he is guilty of this commandment, even if he says it seriously and from the heart, and the oath has truth, which we have declared to be required in the first place. To these must be joined those kinds of swearing which proceed from a certain contempt, when someone swears that he will not obey the evangelical counsels, of which kind are those which exhort to celibacy and poverty; for although no one must necessarily follow them, if nevertheless someone swears that he will not obey those counsels, he by that oath despises and violates the divine counsels.
XXV. He who swears led by slight conjectures, sins.
Moreover he violates this law, and sins in judgment, who
swears that which is true, and thinks that it is so, led by certain slight and far-fetched conjectures; for although truth accompanies this kind of oath, nevertheless falsehood is somehow underneath; for he who thus swears negligently, is in great danger of perjuring himself.
XXVI. He who swears by false gods, sins gravely.
Moreover he swears falsely, who swears by false gods. For what
is more alien from truth, than to call lying and fictitious gods to witness as the true God?
XXVII. He who dishonors God's word, either by misinterpreting it, or by
turning it to vain uses, sins.
But since Scripture, when it forbade perjury, says: "Neither shalt thou defile the name of thy God," neglect is forbidden, which must be shunned in the rest of those things to which honor is due by the authority of this commandment; such as the word of God, whose majesty not only the pious, but sometimes even the impious reverence, as in the history of Judges concerning Eglon king of the Moabites it has been handed down to memory. God's word, however, is affected with the highest injury by whoever bends sacred Scripture from its right and genuine sense to the dogmas and heresies of the impious; of which crime the prince of the Apostles admonishes us in those words: "There are certain things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, to their own destruction." Moreover Sacred Scripture is contaminated with foul and dishonorable stains, when nefarious men twist its words and sentiments, which ought to be cultivated with all veneration, to profane matters; namely to scurrilities, fables, vanities, flatteries, detractions, lots, defamatory pamphlets, and if there are any others of that kind; upon which sin the sacred Tridentine Synod orders animadversion.
XXVIII. Those who do not invoke God in their calamities, how
they sin.
Next, as those honor God who implore his help and aid in their calamities: so those deny God the due honor, who do not invoke his aid; whom David refutes, when he says: "They have not called upon God: there have they trembled for fear, where there was no fear."
XXIX. The gravest of all these sins is blasphemy against God and his saints.
But indeed by a far more detestable crime do they bind themselves, who dare to blaspheme and execrate with an impure and contaminated mouth the most sacred name of God, which ought to be blessed by all creatures and extolled with the highest praises, or even the name of the saints reigning with God; which sin indeed is so atrocious and monstrous that sometimes the sacred letters, if discourse falls upon blasphemy, use the name of "blessing."
XXX. Why certain threats are subjoined to this commandment.
But since the terror of penalty and punishment is wont vehemently to restrain the license of sinning: therefore the parish priest, that he may move men's souls the more, and impel them the more easily to the observation of this commandment, will diligently explain the other part of it and as it were its appendix: "For the Lord will not hold him guiltless that shall take the name of the Lord his God in vain." And first indeed let him teach that it was done with the highest reason that threats were added to this commandment; whereby indeed both the gravity of the sin, and God's kindness towards us are recognized, who, since he is not delighted by the perdition of men, so that we may not undergo his wrath and offense, deters us by these salutary threats, namely that we may experience him benevolent rather than angry. Let the pastor urge this place, and press with the highest zeal, that the people may recognize the gravity of the crime, and detest it more vehemently, and employ greater diligence and caution in avoiding it. Let him show moreover how great is men's proclivity to committing this sin, so that it was not sufficient to give a law, unless threats were also added. For it is incredible how much utility this knowledge has; for as nothing equally harms as a certain incautious security of soul: so knowledge of one's own weakness profits very much. Then let him also declare that no fixed punishment was appointed by God, but only a universal threat, that whoever shall have bound himself by this crime, shall not bear it with impunity. Wherefore the diverse punishments by which we are daily afflicted, ought to admonish us of this sin. For hence it is easy to conjecture that men fall into the greatest calamities for this reason, that they do not obey this commandment. With these things set before themselves, it is likely that they will be more cautious in the future. Let the faithful therefore, terrified by holy fear, flee this sin with all zeal; for if an account must be rendered at the last judgment for every idle word, what must be said of the gravest crimes, which bear before them great contempt of the divine name?
CHAPTER IV. On the Third Commandment.
Remember that thou keep holy the sabbath day. Six days shalt thou labor, and shalt do all thy works; but on the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: thou shalt do no work on it, thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy beast, nor the stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all things that are in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and sanctified it.
I. What is enjoined on the faithful by this third commandment.
By this commandment of the law that external worship which is owed by us to God is rightly and in order prescribed; for this is as it were a certain fruit of the former commandment, since him whom we piously worship with our inmost senses, led by faith and hope which we have placed in him, we cannot not venerate with external worship, and render thanks to him. And since these things cannot easily be performed by those who are detained by the occupations of human affairs: a certain time has been appointed, in which they may be conveniently done.
II. Why care should especially be taken by the parish priest, that what is here prescribed be retained in the perpetual memory of the faithful.
Therefore since this commandment is such that it brings admirable fruit and utility: it is of the greatest interest to the parish priest that the highest diligence be applied in explaining it. To enkindle his zeal for this, that first word of the commandment has great force: "Remember." For just as the faithful ought to remember such a commandment, so it is the pastor's duty, to often bring it back into their memory both by admonishing and by teaching. How much however it concerns the faithful to cultivate this commandment, is perceived from this, that by diligently cultivating it they will be more easily led to observing the other commands of the law. For since among the other things which they must perform on feast days, they must of necessity gather at the church for the sake of hearing the word of God: when they have been taught the divine justifications, this also will follow, that they will keep the law of the Lord with all their heart. Wherefore very often "the celebration and worship of the sabbath" is prescribed in the Sacred Scriptures, as may be seen in Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, in Isaiah, likewise Jeremiah, and the Prophet Ezekiel; in all which places this precept concerning the worship of the sabbath has been handed down.
III. How princes are to be exhorted to assist the prelates of the Church.
Princes and magistrates indeed are to be admonished and exhorted that, especially in those things which pertain to the retention and increase of this worship of God, they help the prelates of the Church by their authority, and order the people to obey the precepts of the priests. But as to the explanation of this commandment, care must be taken that the faithful be taught in what respects this commandment agrees with the others, and in what it differs from them. For in this way they will learn the cause and reason, why we cultivate and hold holy not the sabbath, but the Lord's day.
IV. In what way this commandment differs from the other laws of the Decalogue.
Thus certain that difference is seen, that the other precepts of the Decalogue are natural and perpetual, and cannot be changed in any way;
294 Roman Catechism 294
whereby it has come about that although the law of Moses has been abrogated, nevertheless the Christian people observes all the precepts which are contained in the two tables; which is done for this reason, not because Moses so ordered, but because they are agreeable to nature, by whose force men are impelled to observing them. But this commandment concerning the worship of the sabbath, if the appointed time is regarded, is not fixed and constant, but mutable, and does not pertain to morals, but to ceremonies, nor is it natural, since we have not been taught or instituted by nature, that on that day rather than on another, we render external worship to God, but from the time when the Israelite people was freed from the servitude of Pharaoh, it observed the sabbath day.
V. At the time of Christ's death, the ceremonies of the law having been abolished, the sabbath also, in the respect in which it was ceremonial, was abolished.
But the time at which the worship of the sabbath was to be abolished, is that same time at which the other Hebraic worships and ceremonies were to be antiquated; namely the death of Christ. For since those ceremonies are as it were shadowed images of the light and truth, it was necessary that, at the coming of the light and truth, which is Jesus Christ, they be removed; concerning which Saint Paul wrote thus to the Galatians, when he reproved the cultivators of the Mosaic rites: "You observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest perhaps I have labored in vain among you." In which sentiment he also wrote to the Colossians. And these things concerning the difference.
VI. In what way this third commandment agrees with the other nine.
But this commandment agrees with the others, not in rite and ceremonies, but because it has something which pertains to morals and the law of nature. For the worship and religion of God, which is expressed by this commandment, arises from the law of nature, since it is ordained by nature, that we spend some hours in those things which pertain to the worship of God. Of which thing it is an argument, that among all nations we see that there have been certain fixed feast days, and those public, which were consecrated to the performance of sacred and divine things. For it is natural to man, that he give a certain fixed time to the necessary functions of things, as to the rest of the body, to sleep and other such things; and just as to the body, so by the same reason of nature it has been brought about, that he also concede some of the time to the mind, in which in the contemplation of God he may refresh himself; and thus since some part of time ought to be, in which divine things are cultivated, and due worship is rendered to God, this indeed pertains to the precepts of morals.
VII. The Apostles ordained that the Lord's day should be cultivated in place of the sabbath day.
For which cause the Apostles from those seven days determined to consecrate that which is the first, to divine worship, which day they called the Lord's day. For both Saint John in the Apocalypse mentions "the Lord's day": and the Apostle orders collections to be made "on the first day of the sabbath," which is the Lord's day, as Saint Chrysostom interprets, that we may understand, that already then in the church the Lord's day was held holy. Now indeed, that the faithful may know what they should do on that day, or from what actions they must abstain, it is not alien that the parish priest interpret word by word the whole commandment, which can rightly be divided into four parts.
VIII. What is here generally prescribed by this word: Remember.
Therefore let him first generally propose, what is prescribed by those words: "Remember that thou keep holy the sabbath day." For this cause the word "Remember" was aptly added at the beginning of the commandment, because the worship of this day pertains to ceremonies; concerning which it seemed that the people had to be admonished, since the law of nature, although it teaches that at some time God must be worshipped by the rite of religion, nevertheless did not prescribe on what day this should chiefly be done. Moreover the faithful are to be taught that from those words may be gathered the manner and reason in which it is fitting to do work in the whole week; namely, that we always look to the feast day, on which day, since an account as it were of our actions and works is to be rendered to God, we must effect such works as are neither rejected by God's judgment, nor, as it is written, are to us "for a sobbing," and "for a scruple of the heart." Lastly we are taught that which we must certainly notice, namely that occasions will not be lacking, for which forgetfulness of this commandment may seize us, or led by the example of others who neglect it, or by the zeal for spectacles and games, by which we are often drawn away from the holy and religious worship of this day. But now let us come to that which is shown by the signification of the sabbath.
IX. What sabbath and to sabbatize denote in the sacred letters.
Sabbath, a Hebrew name, if you interpret it in Latin, is called cessation. Sabbatizare therefore is called in Latin vocabulary to cease and rest, by which signification it has come about, that by the name of sabbath "the seventh day" is called; since, the universe of the world being completed and perfected, "God" rested "from all the work, which he had done;" thus the Lord calls this day in Exodus.
Afterwards however not only this seventh day, but because of its dignity, the week itself also was called by this name; in which sense the Pharisee in Saint Luke said: "I fast twice in a sabbath." And this indeed concerning the signification of the sabbath.
X. How the faithful are said to sanctify the sabbath.
The sanctification however of the sabbath in the sacred letters is a cessation, which is made from the labors of the body and from business, as these words of the commandment which follow openly show: "Thou shalt not work." Nor indeed does it signify this alone, (for otherwise it would have been sufficient to say in Deuteronomy: "Observe the day of the sabbath;") but since in the same place it is added: "that thou sanctify it": by this word it is shown, that the day of the sabbath is religious, and consecrated to divine actions and holy offices of things. Therefore we then fully and perfectly celebrate the day of the sabbath, when we render to God the offices of piety and religion; and this plainly is the "sabbath" which Isaiah calls "delicate," since feast days are as it were delights of the Lord and of pious men. Wherefore if to this religious and holy worship of the sabbath are added works of mercy, surely greatest and many are the rewards, which in the same chapter are set before us.
XI. What is the genuine sentiment of the above words.
Therefore the true and proper sense of this commandment looks to this, that man may devote himself both in mind and body to this care, that, at some fixed time, at leisure from business and bodily labors, he piously worship and venerate God.
XII. What is shown by the second part of the commandment.
By the second part of the commandment it is shown, that the seventh day has been divinely dedicated to the worship of God; for thus it is written: "Six days shalt thou labor, and shalt do all thy works; but on the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God." Which words are referred to this sentiment, that we interpret the sabbath as consecrated to the Lord, and that on that day we render to him the offices of religion, and that we understand the seventh day to be a sign of the Lord's rest.
XIII. Why it was expedient for the Jews to prescribe a certain day, and that the seventh, for the offices of religion.
This day however was dedicated to divine worship, because for a rude people it was less expedient to have that faculty of choosing the time at their own discretion, lest perhaps they imitate the sacred rites of the Egyptians. Therefore of the seven days the last was chosen for worshipping God; which matter indeed is full of mystery. Wherefore the Lord in Exodus, and in Ezekiel calls it a sign: "See," he says, "that you keep my sabbath; because it is a sign between me and you in your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord, who sanctify you."
XIV. Of what things the celebration of the sabbath was a sign.
Therefore it was a sign, which indicated that men ought to dedicate themselves to God, and to render themselves holy to him, when we see that even a day is dedicated to him; since indeed that day is holy, because then especially men must cultivate holiness and religion. Next it is a sign and as it were a monument of this admirable universe which has been founded. Moreover it was a sign handed down to the memory of the Israelites, by which admonished, they would remember that they had been loosed and freed by God's help from the harshest yoke of Egyptian servitude; which the Lord shows in those words: "Remember, that thou thyself also didst serve in Egypt, and the Lord thy God brought thee out from thence with a strong hand, and a stretched out arm; therefore hath he commanded thee that thou shouldst observe the sabbath day." It is likewise a sign both of the spiritual and of the heavenly sabbath.
XV. What is the spiritual sabbath of the Christian people.
The spiritual sabbath however consists in a certain holy and mystical rest, namely, when the old man, buried with Christ, is renewed to life, and studiously exercises himself in those actions which befit Christian piety. For they ought, who "were" "sometimes darkness, but now light in the Lord" are, "to walk as children of the light," in all goodness, justice and truth, nor "communicate with the unfruitful works of darkness."
XVI. That the blessed also have their own sabbath.
The heavenly sabbath however is, as D. Cyril says treating that place of the Apostle: "There remaineth therefore a day of rest for the people of God," that life, in which we shall enjoy all good things living with Christ, sin having been extirpated by the roots, according to that: "No lion shall be there, nor shall any mischievous beast go up by it," but there will be there a clean path, "and it shall be called the holy way." For the mind of the saints obtains all good things in the vision of God. Wherefore the faithful will have to be exhorted with these words, and incited by the pastor: "Let us hasten therefore to enter into that rest."
XVII. The Jews had other days, besides the seventh, that were festive.
Besides the seventh day the Jewish people had other festal and sacred days also, instituted by divine law, on which the memory of the greatest benefits was renewed.
4, 9. 5) Is. 35, 9. 6) Hebr. 4, 11.
XVIII. Why the Apostles consecrated not the seventh day of the week, but
the first to divine worship.
It pleased however the Church of God, that the worship and celebration of the sabbath day be transferred to the Lord's day. For as on that day the light first shone upon the orb of the lands, so by the resurrection of our Redeemer, who opened to us the entrance to eternal life, which was on that day, our life was called back from darkness to light; whence also the Apostles wished that it be called the Lord's day. Moreover we notice in the sacred letters that this day is solemn, because on that day the creation of the world had its beginning, and because the Holy Spirit was given to the disciples.
XIX. For what reason other feasts have been added for Christians to the Lord's day.
Other feast days however from the beginning of the Church and in the subsequent times the Apostles and our holy Fathers instituted, that we might piously and holily cultivate the memory of God's benefits. Among these however the most celebrated are held those days which have been consecrated to religion because of the mysteries of our redemption, next, those which are dedicated to the most holy Virgin Mother, and then indeed to the Apostles and martyrs and the other saints reigning with Christ; in whose victory God's goodness and power is praised, due honors are rendered to them, and the faithful people is incited to imitate them.
XX. How by this commandment they are incited to flee idleness.
And since that part of it has great force for observing this commandment, which is expressed in those words: "Six days shalt thou labor; but the seventh day is the sabbath of God": the parish priest must diligently explain that part. For from these words it can be gathered, that the faithful must be exhorted not to pass their life in idleness and sloth, but rather, mindful of the apostolic voice, each one to do his business (1 Thess. 4, 11), and to work with his hands, as had been commanded by him. Moreover by this commandment the Lord orders this, that on those six days we perform our works; lest any of those things which must be done or performed on the other days of the week be deferred to the feast day, and thus the soul be called away from the care and zeal of divine things.
XXI. What is especially forbidden to be done on feast days.
Next the third part of the commandment must be explained, which describes in a certain manner in what way we ought to cultivate the sabbath day; but chiefly it explains what we are forbidden to do on that day. Wherefore the Lord says: "Thou shalt do no work on it, thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy beast, nor the stranger that is within thy gates." By which words to that first 9 we are instructed to avoid altogether whatever can impede divine worship. For it is easy to see that every kind of servile work is forbidden, not indeed because it is in its nature shameful or evil, but because it draws our mind away from divine worship, which is the end of the precept; and the more so should sins be avoided by the faithful, which not only turn the soul away from the pursuit of divine things, but wholly separate us from the love of God.
XXII. External actions which pertain to the worship of God are not forbidden on the sabbath. Yet those actions and works are not forbidden which pertain to divine worship, even if they be servile; such as to prepare the altar, to adorn the churches for the sake of some feast day, and other things of this kind. And therefore it was said by the Lord (Mat. 12, 5.), that the priests in the temple violate the sabbath, and are without blame.
XXIII. Certain servile works also are permitted on account of necessity on feast
days. Nor is it to be thought that the works of those things are forbidden by this law, whose loss would be incurred if they were omitted on the feast day; as also is permitted by the sacred canons. Many other things the Lord declared in the Gospel could be done on feast days, which the parish priest will easily observe in Saints Matthew and John.
XXIV. Why the Lord willed that beasts of burden should rest. But that nothing might be omitted, by the action of which this observance of the sabbath might be hindered, mention was made of the beast of burden; by which kind of animal men are impeded, so that they may less observe the sabbath day. For if on the sabbath day the use of a beast of burden is destined for the performance of some work, the labor of the man who drives the beast is also necessary for it; and so the work by itself alone cannot be done, but assists the man who is at it. But on that day it is lawful for no one to do work, therefore not even for beasts of burden, whose labor men use for this. Therefore the law of this precept also aims at this, that, if God wills men to spare the labors of beasts of burden, certainly the more must they themselves take care not to be inhuman toward those whose work and industry they use.
XXV. In what works chiefly Christians ought to exercise themselves on feast days. Nor indeed should the parish priest omit diligently to teach in what works and actions Christian men ought to exercise themselves on feast days. These are of such a kind, that we should go to the temple of God, and there with sincere and pious attention of soul be present at the sacrifice of the most holy Mass, and frequently apply the divine sacraments of the Church, which were instituted for our salvation, to the healing of the wounds of the soul. Nothing indeed can be done more opportunely or better by Christian men, than if they frequently confess their sins to priests; to accomplish which the parish priest may exhort the people, having drawn the reason and abundance for recommending this matter from what has been handed down and prescribed about the sacrament of penance in its proper place. Nor will he only stir up the people to this sacrament, but will also diligently and repeatedly exhort them to receive frequently the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist. Moreover, the sacred sermon must be heard attentively and diligently by the faithful; for nothing is less tolerable, nor indeed so unworthy, as to despise the words of Christ or to hear them negligently. Likewise the exercise and zeal of the faithful in prayers and divine praises ought to be frequent; and their chief care should be to learn diligently those things which pertain to the instruction of the Christian life, and diligently to exercise themselves in those duties which contain piety, by giving alms to the poor and needy, visiting the sick, piously consoling the mournful and those who lie afflicted with grief. For, as it is with St. James (Iac. 1, 27.), "religion pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation." From what has been said, it will be easy to gather what is committed against the rule of this precept.
XXVI. Why it was necessary to assign certain days to divine worship.
Now the duty of the parish priest ought also to consist in this, that he have ready certain points from which he may draw reasons and arguments, by which the people may be most persuaded to observe the law of this precept with the greatest zeal and careful diligence. For this it avails very much that the people understand and plainly perceive how just and consonant to reason it is that we should have certain days, which we devote wholly to divine worship, and that we acknowledge, worship, and venerate our Lord, from whom we have received the greatest and innumerable benefits. For if He had commanded us to render Him religious worship daily, would not all effort have to be given, on account of His benefits toward us, which are greatest and infinite, that we should with a ready and eager soul be obedient to His word? But now, with few days appointed for His worship, there is no reason why we should be negligent and difficult in the performance of that duty, which without the gravest fault we cannot omit.
XXVII. What benefit returns to those who diligently obey this precept.
Let the parish priest then demonstrate how great is the virtue of this precept, since those who rightly observe it seem to be in the sight of God, and to converse with Him. For both by offering prayers we contemplate the majesty of God, and we converse with Him, and by hearing preachers we receive the voice of God, which comes to our ears through the work of those who preach piously and holily concerning divine things; then in the sacrifice of the altar we adore Christ the Lord present. And these goods indeed chiefly those enjoy who observe this precept diligently.
XXVIII. What on the contrary is to be thought of those who wholly neglect this law.
But those who wholly neglect this law, since they do not obey God and the Church, nor heed His precept, are enemies both of God and of the holy laws; which can be noted from the fact that this precept is of such a kind that it can be kept with no labor. For since God does not impose on us labors which we should undertake for His sake even though most difficult, but rather commands us on those feast days to be quiet and free from earthly cares, it is a mark of great temerity to refuse the law of this precept. The punishments which God took from those who violated it ought to be an example to us, as can be understood from the book of Numbers (15, 35.). Therefore, lest we fall into this offense against God, it will be worth the effort often to repeat in thought that word "Remember," and to set before our eyes those great benefits and advantages which, as declared above, are received from the observance of feast days; and many other things pertaining to this kind, which a good and diligent pastor, as the circumstance of occasion shall demand, can pursue abundantly and at length.
CHAPTER V.
Of the Fourth Commandment.
Honor thy father and thy mother, that thou mayest be long-lived upon the earth, which the Lord thy God will give thee.
I. What is the dignity of this precept, and how it agrees with the foregoing.
Since in the foregoing precepts there is the highest force and dignity, rightly do those which we now pursue, because they are most necessary, hold the next place. For those continually look to the end, which is God; these instruct us to the love of neighbor, though when carried further they lead to God, that is to that extreme end, for whose sake we love the neighbor himself. Wherefore Christ the Lord ') said those two precepts concerning loving God and neighbor are like to one another. But this place can scarcely be told how many benefits it has, since it both bears its own fruits, abundant indeed and excellent, and is as it were a sign from which the obedience and worship of the first precept shines forth. "He that loveth not," says St. John, "his brother, whom he seeth: how can he love God, whom he seeth not?" In the same manner, if we do not venerate and honor the parents whom, after God, we ought to love, since they are almost always in our sight: what honor, what worship shall we render to God the highest and best Parent, who falls under no sight? From which it is manifest that both precepts agree with one another.
II. How broadly the force of this precept extends, and how much parents
are aided by this precept.
Now the use of this precept extends most broadly; for besides those who begat us, there are many others whom we ought to honor in place of parents, whether by reason of power, or dignity, or benefit, or of some outstanding office and duty. Furthermore, it relieves the labor of parents and of all elders; for since they care above all that those whom they have in their power may live rightly and conformably to the divine law: this care will be very easy, if all understand that, with God as author and admonisher, the highest honor must be rendered to parents; which that we may be able to render, it is necessary to know a certain difference which exists between the precepts of the first and second tables.
III. For what purpose the distinction of the precepts of the law into two tables was made.
Therefore these things must first be explained by the parish priest; and above all let him admonish that the divine precepts of the decalogue were engraved on two tables; on one of which, as we have received from the holy Fathers, those three were contained which have already been expounded, but the remaining were enclosed on the other table. And this description was most suitable for us, that the order itself should distinguish the rationale of the precepts; for whatever in sacred letters is commanded or forbidden by the divine law, arises from one of two kinds; for in every duty either love toward God or love toward men is regarded. And indeed the three foregoing precepts teach love toward God; but what pertains to the conjunction and society of men, is contained in the remaining seven precepts. Wherefore not without cause was such a distinction made, that some precepts are referred to the first, others to the other table.
IV. How love toward God is contained in the first three precepts, and love toward neighbor in the rest, and what is the difference between
the two. For in the three foregoing precepts, of which has been spoken, as it were the subject matter which they treat is God, that is the highest good: but in the rest the good of the neighbor. To those the highest love is proposed, to these the love of the neighbor; those look to the end, these to those things which are referred to the end. Moreover, the love of God depends on Himself; for God is to be loved supremely on His own account, not for the sake of any other thing; but the love of neighbor has its origin from the love of God, and is to be directed to it as to a certain rule. For if we hold parents dear, if we obey masters, if we reverence those who excel in dignity: this is to be done above all for this reason, that God is their creator, and willed that they should preside over others, by whose work He rules and protects the rest of men; who, since He is the author to us that we should revere such persons, therefore we ought to render this, because they are deemed worthy of this very honor by God. Whence it comes about that the honor which we render to parents seems to be rendered rather to God than to men. For thus it is in St. Matthew, when the observance toward superiors is treated: "He that receiveth you, receiveth me;" and the Apostle in the epistle to the Ephesians, instructing servants: "Servants," he says, "be obedient to your carnal masters with fear and trembling, in the simplicity of your heart, as to Christ; not serving to the eye, as it were pleasing men, but as servants of Christ."
V. How the love of God is circumscribed by no bounds, but the love of neighbor by its own
bounds.
It is added that to God no honor, no piety, no worship is rendered worthily enough, toward whom love can be increased infinitely, and therefore our love toward Him must necessarily become more ardent day by day; whom, by His command, we ought to love with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength. But the love by which we embrace our neighbor is circumscribed by its own bounds; for the Lord commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves. But if anyone shall have gone beyond these bounds, so that he renders equal love to God and to neighbors: he commits the greatest crime. "If any man cometh to me," says the Lord, "and hateth not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple;" in which sense it is likewise said:
"Let the dead bury their dead," when a certain one wished first to bury his father, and afterwards to follow Christ; of which matter the clearer explanation is that in St. Matthew: "He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me."
VI. How parents are to be loved, and for what cause they are sometimes not to be obeyed. Nor yet is there any doubt that parents are vehemently to be loved and observed; but for piety it is above all necessary that to God, who is the parent and maker of all, the chief honor and worship be rendered; and therefore mortal parents are to be loved, so that the whole force of love may be referred to the heavenly and everlasting Father. But if sometimes the commands of parents are contrary to the precepts of God: there is no doubt that children ought to prefer the will of God to the desire of parents, mindful of that divine sentence: "We ought to obey God rather than men."
VII. What in the sense of this precept the word "honoring" properly
denotes.
These things having been expounded, the parish priest will interpret the words of the precept, and first, what it is "to honor." For it is to think honorably of someone, and to esteem greatly all things that are his. But to this honor all these things are joined: love, observance, obedience, and worship. Learnedly, however, in the law is placed the word "honor," not "love" or "fear," even though parents are to be loved and feared greatly; for he who loves does not always observe and venerate, he who fears does not always love: but whom someone honors from the soul, he also loves and reveres. When the parish priest shall have explained these things, then he will treat of fathers, and who those are who are called by this name.
VIII. Who are understood here by the name of father.
For although the law speaks chiefly of those fathers from whom we are begotten, yet this name pertains also to others, whom the law seems to embrace; as we easily gather from several places of divine Scripture. Besides those, therefore, who procreated us, there are likewise other kinds of fathers in sacred letters (which we have touched on before), to each of whom his proper honor is due. And first, the presidents and pastors and priests of the Church are called "fathers"; as is clear from the Apostle, who writing to the Corinthians says: "Not to confound you, do I write these things, but as my dearest sons I admonish you. For if you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus, by the Gospel, I have begotten you."
And in Ecclesiasticus ) it is written: "Let us praise glorious men, and our parents in their generation." Next, those to whom either command, or magistracy, or power has been committed, who govern the commonwealth, are called "fathers." Thus Naaman was called "father" by his servants. Furthermore, we call "fathers" those to whose management, faith, honesty, and wisdom others are commended; such are tutors and guardians, pedagogues and masters. Wherefore Elijah and Elisha the sons of the Prophets ) called "father." Lastly, we call "fathers" the aged and those worn by age, whom we ought also to revere. And let this be the greatest among the parish priest's instructions, to teach that fathers, of whatever kind they be, but especially those from whom we are born, are to be honored by us, of whom the divine law especially speaks.
IX. Why Christian children ought to render chief honor to their parents according to the flesh.
For they are, as it were, certain images of the immortal God, and in them we behold the image of our origin; from them life was given to us; them God used to impart to us soul and mind; by them we were led to the sacraments, instructed in religion, in human and civil culture, educated in the integrity and holiness of morals. But let the parish priest teach that the name "mother" is rightly expressed in this precept, that we may consider her benefits and merits toward us, with what care and solicitude she bore us in her womb, with what labor and pain she brought us forth and raised us.
X. For what reasons carnal parents are to be honored. Further, parents are so to be observed, that the honor which we render them may seem drawn from love and from the inmost feeling of the soul; to whom this duty is owed most, since they are so affected toward us that they shun no labor, no contention, no dangers for our sake, and nothing can happen to them more pleasant, than that they may feel themselves dear to the sons whom they love most. Joseph, when in Egypt he was next to the king in honor and greatness, honorably received his father, who had come into Egypt, and Solomon rose up to his mother coming, and venerating her placed her on a royal throne at his right hand. There are moreover other duties of honor, which ought to be conferred on parents. For we also honor them, when we suppliantly ask from God that all things may turn out well and happily for them; that they may be in the greatest favor and honor with men; that they may be most commended to God Himself and to the saints who are in heaven. Likewise we honor
Catechismus, Conc. Trid
parents when we conform our plans to their judgment and will; of which matter Solomon is the adviser: "Hear," he says, "my son, the discipline of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother, that grace may be added to thy head, and a chain to thy neck." Of this kind also are the exhortations of St. Paul: "Children, obey your parents in the Lord; for this is just;" likewise, "Children, obey your parents in all things; for this is well pleasing in the Lord." And it is confirmed by the examples of most holy men. For Isaac, when he was bound by his father for the sacrifice, obeyed modestly and without refusal, and the Rechabites, lest they should ever depart from the counsel of their father, abstained from wine forever. Likewise we honor parents when we imitate their right deeds and morals. For we seem to render most to those to whom we wish to be most like. Likewise we honor parents when we not only seek their counsels, but also follow them.
XI. How parents placed in necessity are to be aided, and especially in danger of death.
Likewise those whom we aid by imparting those things which food and clothing require; which is confirmed by the testimony of Christ, who, rebuking the impiety of the Pharisees: "Why do ye also," he says, "transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? For God said: Honor thy father and mother, and: He that shall curse father or mother, let him die the death. But you say: Whosoever shall say to his father or mother: Any gift whatsoever proceedeth from me, shall profit thee; and he shall not honor his father or his mother, and you have made void the commandment of God by your tradition." And indeed we ought always to render the duties of honor to parents, but then especially when they are dangerously ill; for care must be given, lest they omit anything which pertains either to the confession of sins, or to the other sacraments, which ought to be received by Christian men when death approaches, and let it be our care that pious and religious men frequently visit those who either may confirm the weak and aid them with counsel, or may raise those best disposed to the hope of immortality, that, when they shall have roused the mind from human things, they may cast the whole upon God. Thus it will come about that, protected by the most blessed company of faith, hope, and charity, and by the safeguard of religion, they may deem death not only not to be feared, since it is necessary, but, when it opens the way to eternity, even to be desired.
•) Mat. 15, 3. seq.
XII. How we may exhibit honor to deceased parents. Lastly, honor is rendered even to deceased parents, if we perform their funeral, if we grace their obsequies, if we bestow the honor of burial; if we take care of the due and anniversary sacrifices, if we diligently pay what has been bequeathed by them.
XIII. How bishops and priests are to be honored.
Now not only are those to be honored from whom we are born, but also others, who are called fathers, as bishops and priests, as kings, as princes, as magistrates, as tutors, as guardians, as masters, as pedagogues, as the aged, and the rest of this kind; for they are worthy to receive fruits from our charity, from our obedience, from our help; but one more than another. Of bishops and other pastors it is thus written '): "Let the priests that rule well be esteemed worthy of double honor; especially they who labor in the word and doctrine." Now indeed, what documents of love toward the Apostle the Galatians gave! to whom he rendered that illustrious testimony of good will: "For I bear you witness, that, if it could be done, you would have plucked out your own eyes, and would have given them to me."
XIV. How the things necessary for sustenance ought to be supplied
to priests.
Indeed also the things required for the necessary uses of life ought to be supplied to priests. Wherefore the Apostle: "Who," he says, "ever serveth as a soldier at his own charges?" And in Ecclesiasticus it is written: "Honor the priests, and purify thyself with thy arms; give them their portion, as it is commanded thee, of the firstfruits and of purification." The Apostle also teaches that they must be obeyed: "Obey," he says, "your prelates, and be subject to them; for they watch as being to render an account for your souls." Rather, it is commanded by Christ the Lord that we obey even wicked pastors, when He says: "The scribes and Pharisees have sitten on the chair of Moses. All things therefore whatsoever they shall say to you, observe and do; but according to their works do ye not; for they say, and do not."
XV. It is shown that honor is to be paid to political magistrates.
The same must be said of kings, of princes, of magistrates, and the rest, to whose power we are subjected. But what kind of honor, worship, observance is to be rendered to them, the Apostle to the Romans explains at length; for whom also he admonishes that we must pray. And St. Peter: "Be ye subject," he says,
"to every human creature for God's sake; whether it be to the king as excelling, or to governors as sent by him." For if we render some worship to him, it is referred to God; for the outstanding rank of dignity has the veneration of men, because it is in the likeness of divine power; in which also we venerate the providence of God, who has assigned to them the care of public office, and whom He uses as ministers of His power.
XVI. Why even wicked political magistrates are to be obeyed, and when not.
For not the wickedness or baseness of men, if such are the magistrates, but the divine authority which is in them, we revere, so that, which perhaps may seem very strange, although they are of an unfriendly and hostile mind toward us, although implacable, yet the cause is not sufficiently worthy why we should not observe them most dutifully. For there were great services of David toward Saul, when yet he was more offended with him; which he intimates with those words "With them that hate peace, I was peaceable." But truly if they command anything wickedly, if anything unjustly, since they act this not from power, but from injustice and perversity of soul, they are not at all to be heard. When the parish priest shall have expounded these things one by one, let him then consider what reward, and how consistent, is set before those who obey this divine precept.
XVII. What reward for obedience to parents is divinely
set forth.
For in it the fruit is greatest, that they may live long; therefore that they are worthy to enjoy as long as possible the benefit whose memory they perpetually preserve. When therefore those who honor parents return thanks to those from whom they have the use of light and life: rightly and deservedly do they prolong life to extreme old age. Then is to be added the illustrious explanation of the divine promise; for not only of the everlasting and blessed, but also of this life which we lead on earth, the use is promised; of which sentence the interpreter is St. Paul, when he says: "Piety is profitable to all things, having the promise of the life which now is, and of that which is to come."
XVIII. How much the promise of long life is here to be esteemed.
Nor indeed is this reward either slight or to be despised, although to most holy men, as to Job, to David, to Paul, death was desirable, and to wretched and miserable men the prolongation of life is unpleasant; for the addition of those words: "Which the Lord thy God will give thee," promises not only long duration of time for living, but leisure, quiet, safety for living well. For in Deuteronomy ^) He not only says: "That thou mayest live a long time," but He adds also this: "that it may be well with thee," which was afterward repeated by the Apostle.
XIX. How those who honor parents, even if they die quickly,
receive the reward of this precept.
But we say these goods are at hand for those to whose piety God returns grace. For otherwise the faith and constancy of the divine promise will not be, when sometimes those who have rendered greater piety to parents have a shorter life; to whom this indeed happens, either because it is best provided for those who depart from life before they withdraw from the religion of virtue and duty; for they are snatched away, lest wickedness alter their understanding, or lest deceit beguile their soul, or because when ruin and the disturbance of all things impends, they are called out of their bodies, that they may escape the bitterness of common times. "For before the face of wickedness," says the Prophet, "the just is gathered;" which is done, lest either their virtue or salvation be endangered, when God exacts from mortals the punishments of their crimes, or lest in most sorrowful times they feel the most bitter griefs from the calamities of kinsmen and friends. Wherefore it is greatly to be feared, when an untimely death befalls good men.
XX. With what penalties those are affected who are the transgressors of this precept.
And as to those who are grateful toward parents the reward and fruit of duty is set forth by God: so ungrateful and impious children are reserved for the gravest penalties. For it is written 6): "He that shall curse his father or his mother, let him die the death;" and: "He that afflicteth his father, and flieth from his mother, is ignominious and unhappy;" and: "He that curseth his father or mother, his lamp shall be put out in the midst of darkness;" and: "The eye that mocketh at his father, and that despiseth the labor of his mother in bearing him, let the ravens of the brooks pluck it out, and the young eagles eat it." We read that there were many who inflicted injury on parents, in avenging whom the wrath of God blazed forth. For He did not leave David unavenged, but gave the due penalties for the crime to Absalom, whom for his crime He punished transfixed with three spears. But concerning those who do not obey priests, it is written: "He that shall be proud, refusing to obey the commandment of the priest, who at that time ministereth to the Lord thy God, by the decree of the judge that man shall die."
XXI. By what means chiefly parents can render themselves worthy of that honor
divinely prescribed.
And as it is sanctioned by divine law that children render honor to parents, that they obey, that they submit: so the proper duties and offices of parents are, that they imbue their children with most holy disciplines and morals, and give them the best precepts of living, that, instructed and prepared for religion, they may holily and inviolably venerate God; which we read was done by the parents of Susanna. Therefore let the priest admonish parents to show themselves to their children as masters of virtue, equity, continence, modesty, and holiness; and to avoid especially three things, in which they have often been accustomed to offend: first, lest they speak or decree anything too harshly toward their children, which the Apostle in the epistle to the Colossians thus prescribes: "Fathers, provoke not your children to indignation, lest they be discouraged;" for there is danger, lest they be of broken and abject mind, while they fear everything. Wherefore let him prescribe that they flee excessive severity, and rather correct their children than avenge themselves upon them.
XXII. How parents should not be remiss toward their children, nor labor too much to leave them an excessively ample patrimony.
Next, if any fault has been committed, when castigation and rebuke are necessary, let them not by indulgence dissolutely remit anything to their children; for often children are depraved by the excessive mildness and easiness of parents. Wherefore let him deter them from dissolute indulgence by the example of Heli the high priest, who, because he had been too indulgent toward his children, was stricken with the greatest punishment. Lastly, lest, what is most shameful, they enter into preposterous counsels in the education and instruction of their children; for very many are engaged in this one thought and care, that they may leave to their children wealth, money, and a splendid and ample patrimony; whom they exhort not to religion, not to piety, not to the discipline of the good arts, but to avarice and to the increase of the household estate, nor are they anxious about the reputation or salvation of their children, provided only that they be moneyed and very rich; than which what can be said or thought more base? Thus it happens that to those they transfer not so much the abundance of things, as their own crimes and disgraces; to whom at last they show themselves not as leaders to heaven, but to the eternal punishments of the underworld. Therefore let the priest instruct parents with the best precepts, and rouse them to the example and like virtue of Tobias, that, when they have rightly educated their children in the worship of God and in holiness, they may receive from them also the most abundant fruits of love, and observance, and obedience.
CHAPTER VI. Of the Fifth Commandment.
Thou shalt not kill.
I. What is the fruit and utility of the doctrine which is included in this precept.
That great felicity which is set forth to peaceful men — "because ') they shall be called the sons of God," ought especially to move pastors, that they may diligently and accurately hand on the teaching of this precept to the faithful; for no better reasoning can be entered upon for conciliating the wills of men, than if the law of such a precept rightly explained, be by all holily kept, as befits; since then it may be hoped that men joined together by the greatest agreement of soul may most cultivate concord and peace. But how necessary it is that this precept be explained, is evident from this, that after that immense inundation of the whole earth had been made, this is one thing above all which God forbade to men: "The blood," He says, "of your lives I will require at the hand of every beast, and at the hand of man." In the Gospel also, in which first the old laws were explained by the Lord, among them this is the first, concerning which in St. Matthew ) it is thus written: "For it was said: Thou shalt not kill," and the rest, which concerning this matter in that very place are thereafter recounted. The faithful moreover ought to hear this precept attentively and willingly. For if its force is considered, it avails for the protection of each one's life; since by these words: "Thou shalt not kill," homicide is altogether forbidden. Therefore individual men ought to receive it with such great joy of soul, as if, with the wrath of God set forth and other gravest penalties, it were expressly forbidden by name, that any of them should be harmed. Therefore as this precept is pleasant to hear, so the caution against the sin which is forbidden by the precept ought to have its pleasantness.
II. What is both forbidden and commanded by this precept.
Now when the Lord explained the force of this law, He showed that in it two things are contained, one, that we should not kill, which it is forbidden for us to do; the other, what we are commanded to do, that we should embrace our enemies with concordant friendship and charity, have peace with all, and finally bear all inconveniences patiently.
III. It is lawful to feed on beasts and to kill animals.
In that, moreover, which prohibits slaughter, this first must be taught, which slaughters are of such a kind as are not forbidden by this law of the precept. For it is not forbidden that beasts be killed, since if it is granted by God to men to feed on them, it is likewise lawful that they be killed; concerning which thus St. Augustine '), "when we hear," he says, "Thou shalt not kill, we do not take this to have been said of shrubs, because there is no sense in them; nor of irrational animals, because they are associated with us by no reason."
IV. It is lawful to sentence men to death in judgment or to kill them. Another permitted kind of slaughter is that which pertains to those magistrates to whom the power of life and death has been given, by which according to the prescription of laws and judgment they punish criminal men, and defend the innocent; in which office, while they act justly, not only are they not guilty of slaughter, but they most obey this divine law by which slaughter is forbidden. For since the end of this law is set forth, that provision be made for the life and safety of men: likewise the animadversions of magistrates, who are the legitimate avengers of crimes, look to the same, that by the repression of audacity and injury through punishments, the life of men may be safe. Wherefore David: "In the morning," he says*), "I slew all the sinners of the land, that I might destroy from the city of the Lord all the workers of iniquity."
V. How even those who kill in a just war are not guilty
of slaughter.
By which reason not even those sin who in a just war, not impelled by desire or cruelty, but only by zeal for public utility, take life from enemies. There are moreover slaughters of such a kind, which are done by the express command of God. The sons of Levi did not sin, who in one day killed so many thousands of men; after which slaughter thus Moses spoke to them: ) "You have consecrated your hands this day to the Lord."
VI. He is not guilty of this precept, who kills a man by a fortuitous
chance.
Nor indeed is he guilty of this precept, who not spontaneously, nor with forethought, but fortuitously kills a man; of which matter in the book of Deuteronomy it is thus written: "He that striketh his neighbor unknowing, and who is proved to have had no hatred against him yesterday and the day before, but to have gone with him simply into the wood to cut wood, and in the cutting of the wood the axe shall have slipped from his hand, and the iron slipping from the handle shall strike his friend, and kill him." These slaughters are of such a kind, as, because they are not inflicted by will, nor on purpose, therefore are not at all numbered among sins. Which is confirmed by the sentence of St. Augustine: "Far be it," he says, "that those things which we do either for the sake of a good or lawful end, if indeed beyond our will any evil has happened, should be imputed to us."
VII. How he is guilty of homicide who by chance committed slaughter. In which however there can be sin in two ways: one, if anyone engaged in an unjust matter shall have killed a man, for example, if anyone should strike a pregnant woman with fist or foot, from which abortion should follow; that indeed was beyond the will of the striker, yet not beyond fault, since it was in no way lawful for him to strike a pregnant woman. The other, if not all things considered he has killed someone negligently and incautiously.
VIII. It is lawful also to kill another for the sake of defending one's own life.
By which reason also, if anyone for the sake of defending his own life, with all caution employed, shall have killed another, it appears clearly enough that he is not held by this law. And these indeed, which we have just recalled, are slaughters which are not contained by this precept of the law; excepting which, all the rest are forbidden, whether one looks at the killer, or at the one who is killed, or at the ways in which the slaughter is done.
IX. It is lawful for no one by private authority to commit slaughter.
For as to those who commit slaughter, no one plainly is excepted, not the rich, not powerful men, not masters, not parents, but with every choice and distinction removed, it is forbidden to all to kill.
X. There is absolutely no one who cannot be safe by this law.
But if those are looked at, who are killed, this law pertains to all: nor is anyone so humble and of abject condition a man, but that he is defended by the force of this law. Nor indeed is it lawful for anyone to kill himself, since no one has power over his own life in such a way, that by his own arbitration it is lawful to inflict death upon himself; and therefore by the words of this law it is not so prescribed: "Thou shalt not kill another," but simply: "Thou shalt not kill."
XI. In how many ways it happens that this precept is violated. But if we attend to the manifold manner of committing slaughter, there is no one who is excepted. For not only is it not lawful to take life from a man by one's own hands, or by iron, or stone, or stick, or noose, or poison, but by counsel, aid, assistance, or by any other reason whatsoever it is altogether forbidden to be done. In which was the greatest slowness and stupor of the Jews, who believed that they kept this precept, if they only kept their hands from slaughter. But to the Christian man, who by Christ as interpreter has learned this law to be spiritual, namely which commands us to have not only pure hands, but also a chaste and sincere soul: that is not at all enough, which they thought themselves to have rendered fully; for that not even to be angry with anyone is lawful, is handed down in the Gospel, when the Lord says: "But I say to you: Every one that is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother: Raca, shall be in danger of the council; and whosoever shall say: Thou fool, shall be in danger of the hell of fire."
XII. How one may sin by being angry, or not sin. From which words it is manifest, that he is not without fault,
who is incensed at his brother, although he keep the anger enclosed within the soul; but he who has given some sign of that anger, sins gravely; but much more gravely, he who does not fear to receive his brother harshly, and to reproach him. And indeed this is true, if there is no cause underlying for being angry. For the cause of anger, which is granted by God and by the laws, is this, when we punish those who obey our command and power, if there is fault in them. For the anger of a Christian man ought not to proceed from the senses of the flesh, but from the Holy Spirit, since it is fitting that we be "temples of the Holy Spirit," in which Jesus Christ dwells.
XIII. How men perfectly observe this law, and how
many sin against it.
Moreover many things have been handed down by the Lord, which pertain to the perfect rationale of this law; such are those. "Not to resist evil, but, if anyone shall strike thee on thy right cheek, offer him also the other, and to him who will contend with thee in judgment, and take away thy coat, let go also thy cloak, and whosoever shall force thee one mile, go with him other two." From these things, which have now been recalled, it can be noted how prone men are to those sins which are forbidden by this precept, and how many are found who, if not with hand, at least with the soul commit the crime of slaughter.
XIV. How greatly in sacred letters God detests homicide.
And since in sacred letters remedies have been applied to this so dangerous a disease, it is the duty of the parish priest diligently to hand them on to the faithful; but chief is this, that they understand how nefarious a sin is the slaughter of man. And this can be perceived by very many and greatest testimonies of the holy letters. For to such a degree does God detest homicide in the holy letters, that He says He will require the penalty of the slaughter of men from beasts, and commands that the brute which has harmed a man be killed; nor for any other cause did He will man to shrink from blood, except that by every means he might keep both soul and hands from the nefarious slaughter of a man.
XV. How great a crime is the slaughter of a man, is demonstrated by reason.
For homicides are enemies of the human race, and therefore the most bitter foes of nature, who, as far as in them lies, overturn the whole work of God, since they take away man, for whose sake He testifies that He made all things whatsoever were procreated; nay rather in Genesis, since it is forbidden that man be killed, because God created him to His own image and likeness: he does a signal injury to God, and seems as it were to lay violent hands upon Him, who takes away His image from the midst. Meditating this with divine reflection of soul, David most gravely complained of bloodthirsty men with those words: "Their feet are swift to shed blood." Nor did he simply say, "they kill," but "they shed blood;" which words he brought forth for the amplification of that detestable crime, and for showing their monstrous cruelty. And that he might declare especially how headlong they are borne by a certain diabolical impulse to that crime, he said: "Their feet are swift to shed blood."
XVI. What in this precept God commands to be done.
Now indeed what Christ the Lord commands to be observed in this precept, looks to this, that we have peace with all; for He says, when He interpreted this place ): "If thou offer thy gift at the altar, and there thou remember that thy brother hath anything against thee: leave there thy offering before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to thy brother, and then coming thou shalt offer thy gift," and what follows. Which things will be so explained by the parish priest, that he teach that without any exception all are to be embraced in charity; to which in the explanation of this precept he will incite the faithful, as much as he shall be able, because in it the virtue of loving the neighbor especially shines forth. For since hatred is openly forbidden by this precept, since "he that hateth his brother is a murderer," certainly it follows that the precept of love and charity is given.
XVII. What duties of charity are contained in this precept.
And when by this law there is a precept concerning charity and love, then also the precepts of all those duties and actions which are wont to follow charity itself are handed down. "Charity is patient," says St. Paul. Therefore patience is prescribed to us, in which the Savior teaches that we shall possess our souls. Then beneficence is the companion and associate of charity; since charity "is kind." But the virtue of kindness and beneficence extends widely, and its office is exercised especially in these things, that we supply to the poor things necessary, food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, that we clothe the naked; and the more each one needs our help, the more of liberality we confer upon him. XVIII. In what manner the love of enemies is the most perfect of all the offices of charity.
These offices of beneficence and kindness, which are in themselves illustrious, become even more illustrious if they are rendered to enemies; for the Saviour says: "Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you"; which the Apostle also admonishes in those words: "If thy enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head. Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil by good." Then, if we regard the law of charity, which is kind: we shall understand that all the offices which pertain to meekness, gentleness, and other virtues of this kind are prescribed by that law to be cultivated.
XIX. By what in particular the love of neighbour, which is here commanded, shines forth.
But by far the most excellent office of all, which is most full of charity, in which it is fitting for us especially to exercise ourselves, is this: that we should remit and pardon with an even mind the injuries we have received; in order that we may plainly accomplish this, the divine letters often, as has been said before, admonish and exhort us, since they not only call those blessed who do precisely this, but they also affirm that pardon for errors is given them by God; whereas those who neglect to do this very thing, or altogether refuse, do not obtain that pardon. But since the desire for revenge is generally implanted in the minds of men, the parish priest must place the greatest diligence in this, that he not only teach, but thoroughly persuade the faithful, that it behoves a Christian man to forget injuries and to remit them. And since much mention is made of this very matter among the sacred writers, let him consult them, for the refutation of the obstinacy of those who are of a stubborn and hardened mind in the desire for vengeance. Let him have at hand those arguments which those Fathers, most weighty and most suited to that matter, piously employed.
XX. By what reasons especially hatred is to be repressed, and the faithful are to be led to the forgetting of injuries.
But these three points chiefly must be explained. The first is that he who thinks himself to have received an injury should be strongly persuaded that the one whom he desires to avenge was not the principal cause of the loss or injury. So did that admirable Job, who, being grievously injured by the Sabaeans, by the Chaldeans, and by the demon, yet taking no account of them, as an upright man and one exceedingly pious, rightly and piously used these words: "The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away." Therefore by the speech and example of that most patient man, let Christian men persuade themselves, what is most true, that whatever we suffer in this life proceeds from the Lord, who is the parent and author of all justice and mercy.
XXI. The men who persecute us are the ministers and attendants of God, though they do so out of ill will.
Nor indeed does He, according to His immense kindness, punish us as enemies, but corrects and chastises us as sons. And certainly, if we rightly consider, in these matters men are nothing else at all, but ministers and as it were attendants of God; and although a man can wickedly hate someone, and wish him the very worst, yet, unless by God's permission, he can in no way harm him. Moved by this reasoning, Joseph bore with an even mind the impious counsels of his brethren, and David likewise bore the injuries inflicted upon him by Semei. To this same point also that kind of argument is very pertinent, which Saint Chrysostom has gravely and learnedly treated: namely, that no one is injured except by himself; for those who think themselves to have been injuriously treated, if they reckon the matter with themselves by a right path, will certainly find that they have received no injury or damage from others; for although those things by which they are injured happen externally, yet they chiefly offend themselves, when they wickedly contaminate their soul with hatred, cupidity, and envy.
XXII. What advantages accrue to those who willingly pardon injuries.
The second point embraces two chief advantages which pertain to those who, led by pious zeal toward God, willingly remit injuries; of which the first is that God has promised to those who remit the debts of others, that they themselves also shall obtain pardon for their sins; from which promise, how grateful to Him this office of piety is, easily appears. The other advantage is that we attain a certain nobility and perfection; for by pardoning injuries we are in some manner made like to God, "who maketh his sun to rise upon the good and bad, and raineth upon the just and the unjust."
XXIII. What and how many are the disadvantages arising from hatred of enemies.
Lastly, those disadvantages are to be explained into which we fall when we are unwilling to pardon the injuries which have been inflicted upon us. Therefore let the parish priest set before the eyes of those who cannot bring themselves to forgive their enemies, that hatred is not only a grave sin, but also, by length of sinning, adheres more grievously; for when he in whose soul this affection has settled thirsts for the blood of his enemy, full of the hope of avenging him, he is so engaged day and night in a certain perpetual evil agitation of mind, that he never seems to cease from the thought of slaughter or of some nefarious matter. Whence it comes to pass that he is either never, or with the greatest difficulty, impelled to this, that he should either altogether forgive, or at least in some part remit the injuries; wherefore he is rightly compared to a wound in which a weapon remains fixed.
XXIV. It is shown that many sins arise from hatred.
Besides, there are many disadvantages and sins which are held joined together with this one sin of hatred, as by a certain bond. And therefore Saint John thus spoke to this effect: "He that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth; because the darkness hath blinded his eyes." Therefore it is necessary that he often stumble. For how can it be that anyone should approve the sayings or deeds of him whom he hates? Hence arise rash and unjust judgments, angers, envies, detractions, and other such things, in which those also are wont to be implicated who are joined either by kinship or by friendship. Thus it often happens that from one sin many arise; nor is it without reason that this sin is said to be "of the devil," since he was from the beginning "a murderer." Wherefore the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, when the Pharisees desired to bring death upon Him, said that they were begotten "of the father the devil."
XXV. Remedies against the sin of hatred.
But besides these things which have been said, whence reasons for detesting this crime may be sought, other remedies also, and indeed most opportune ones, have been handed down in the monuments of the sacred letters. And the first of all remedies and the greatest is the example of our Saviour, which we ought to set before ourselves for imitation. For He, though not even the least suspicion of sin could fall upon Him, being beaten with rods, crowned with thorns, and at last fixed to the cross, uttered that prayer most full of piety: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." The sprinkling of whose blood the Apostle testifies to be "speaking better than Abel." The other remedy has been proposed by Ecclesiasticus, that we should remember death and that day of judgment. "Remember," he says, "thy last end, and thou shalt never sin"; which sentence aims at the same thing, as if he said: consider this again and again, that shortly thou shalt meet death; therefore, because at such a time it will be most desirable for thee, and most necessary, to obtain the supreme mercy of God, thou must set it before thy eyes now and perpetually. For so it will come to pass that that monstrous desire of revenge will be drained from thee, since thou canst find no remedy more fitting or greater for imploring the mercy of God than forgetfulness of injuries and love toward those who have injured thee or thine by deed or by speech.
CHAPTER VII. Of the Sixth Commandment.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
I. To what this commandment pertains, and in what manner it is to be treated by parish priests.
Since the bond between husband and wife is most close, and nothing more pleasing can befall either than to understand that they are loved by each other with a certain mutual and singular love; and on the contrary, nothing more grievous than to feel that the due and legitimate love is being transferred by one to another: rightly indeed and in order does this law, which concerns adultery, follow that law which guards man's life from slaughter, so that no one should dare, by any crime of adultery, to violate or dissolve that holy and honourable conjunction of matrimony, whence a great force of charity is wont to arise. But yet in explaining this very matter the parish priest should be exceedingly cautious and prudent; and let him mention the matter in veiled words, which requires moderation rather than copiousness of speech. For there is fear lest, while he strives to explain too widely and copiously in what ways men depart from the prescript of this law, he should perchance fall into speech of those matters whence material for exciting lust rather than the means of extinguishing it is wont to flow.
II. What commands are comprehended in this commandment.
But since many things are contained in this commandment which must not be passed over, they shall be explained in their place by the parish priests. Its force therefore is twofold: one, by which in express words adultery is forbidden; the other, which has that sentiment enclosed, that we should cultivate chastity of soul and body.
III. What is here forbidden under the name of adultery or fornication.
That, moreover, the beginning of teaching may be taken from what is forbidden: Adultery is an injury of the legitimate bed, whether it be another's or one's own. For if a husband has relations with an unmarried woman, he himself violates his own bed; but if an unmarried man knows another's wife, another's bed is stained with the blot of adultery. But by this interdict of adultery all things are forbidden, as Saint Ambrose and Augustine are authors, whatsoever are dishonest and unchaste. That these words are to be taken in this sense it is permitted to gather from the sacred letters both of the Old and of the New Testament; for besides adultery other kinds of lust are punished under Moses.
IV. Various species of lusts, which are enumerated in the Scriptures.
There is the judgment of Judah in Genesis upon his daughter-in-law. There is that famous law of Moses in Deuteronomy, that none of the daughters of Israel should be a harlot. There exists besides the exhortation of Tobias to his son of this kind: "Take heed to thyself, my son, from all fornication." Ecclesiasticus likewise says: "Be ashamed at the look of a harlot woman." In the Gospel also Christ the Lord says, that from the heart proceed "adulteries and fornications, — which defile the man." But the Apostle Paul often detests this vice with many and most grave words: "This," he says, "is the will of God, your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication," and: "Flee fornication," and: "Do not keep company with fornicators." "But fornication," he says, "and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not so much as be named among you," and: "Neither fornicators — nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor liers with mankind — shall possess the kingdom of God."
V. Why especially in this commandment mention has been made of adultery.
But adultery is chiefly expressly forbidden for this reason, because besides the turpitude which it has in common with other kinds of intemperance, it also has the sin of injustice joined to it, not only against the neighbour, but also against civil society. This also is certain, that he who does not abstain from the intemperance of the other lusts easily slips into this incontinence which is of adultery. Wherefore we easily understand by this interdict of adultery that every kind of impurity and unchastity, by which the body is polluted, is forbidden; nay, that every inward lust of the soul is forbidden by this commandment, both the force of the law itself signifies, which is established to be spiritual, and Christ the Lord taught in those words: "You have heard that it was said to them of old: Thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say to you, that whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart." These are the things which we have thought ought to be publicly delivered to the faithful; provided, however, those things also be added which have been decreed by the holy Synod of Trent against adulterers, and against those who keep harlots and concubines, many other and various kinds of unchastity and lust being passed over, of which each one must be admonished privately by the parish priest, as the condition of the time and of the persons shall require. It follows now that those things be explained which have the force of commanding.
VI. What, besides those things which are prohibited, is here necessarily prescribed to be observed.
The faithful, therefore, are to be taught and vehemently exhorted to cultivate modesty and continence with all zeal, and to cleanse themselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting sanctification in the fear of God. But in the first place they must be admonished, that although the virtue of chastity shines more in that kind of men who holily and religiously cultivate that most beautiful and plainly divine resolution of virginity: yet it is also fitting for those who either lead a celibate life, or who, being joined in matrimony, keep themselves pure and whole from forbidden lust.
VII. What things above all are to be considered by one who wishes to subdue his lusts.
Since, however, many things have been handed down by the holy Fathers, by which we are taught to keep our lusts subdued, and to coerce our pleasures: let the parish priest strive accurately to expound these things to the people, and let him apply himself most diligently to this treatment. These things, however, are of such a kind, partly that they consist in thought, partly in action. The remedy which is placed in thought, this is chiefly engaged in this, that we should understand how great is the turpitude and destruction of this sin; which being known, the manner of detesting it will be made easier. That it is a pernicious crime can be understood from this, that because of this sin men are driven from and banished from the kingdom of God, which is the ultimate of all evils. And this calamity indeed is common to all crimes. But that is proper to this sin, that those who fornicate are said to sin against their very own bodies, from the sentence of the Apostle thus writing: "Flee fornication, for every sin whatsoever a man commits is outside the body; but he who fornicates sins against his own body." Which was said for this cause, because he treats his body injuriously when he violates its sanctity; concerning which matter Saint Paul thus writes to the Thessalonians: "This," he says, "is the will of God, your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication; that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour, not in the passion of desire, like the Gentiles that know not God." Then, what is more wicked, if a Christian man shamefully gives himself up to a harlot, he makes the members which are Christ's members of a harlot; for thus Saint Paul says: "Know you not that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of a harlot? God forbid. Or know you not, that he who is joined to a harlot, is made one body?" Besides, the Christian man is, as the same testifies, "the temple of the Holy Spirit," which to violate is nothing else than to cast out from it the Holy Spirit.
VIII. By what reasons it is permitted to understand the enormity of adultery.
In the crime of adultery, however, there is great iniquity. For if, as the Apostle wills, those who are joined in matrimony are so that one is enslaved to the power of the other, that neither has "the power of his own body" or the right thereto, but they are, as it were, bound by a certain mutual bond of servitude among themselves, so that the husband must accommodate himself to the will of the wife, and on the contrary the wife to the nod and will of the husband: certainly, if either disjoins his own body, which is of another's right, from him to whom it is bound, he is exceedingly iniquitous and wicked. And since the fear of infamy both vehemently incites men to the things which are commanded, and greatly deters them from things forbidden: the parish priest will teach that adultery burns upon men a notable mark of turpitude. For it is thus delivered in the sacred letters: "He that is an adulterer, through the folly of his heart, shall lose his soul; he gathereth to himself turpitude and ignominy, and his reproach shall not be blotted out." But the magnitude of this crime can easily be perceived from the severity of the punishment; for adulterers, by the law prescribed by the Lord in the Old Testament, were overwhelmed with stones.
IX. What kinds of punishments usually follow impure lusts.
Nay, on account of the lust of one, not only has he who committed the crime, but sometimes the whole city, as we read concerning the Shechemites, been destroyed. Many examples of divine punishment have been delivered in the sacred letters, which the parish priest will be able to gather for deterring men from nefarious lust: such as the destruction of Sodom and the other neighbouring cities, the punishment of the Israelites who fornicated with the daughters of Moab in the desert, and the destruction of the Benjamites. But those who escape death, yet do not escape the intolerable pains and torments of punishments with which they are often struck; for they become blind in mind, which is a most grave punishment, so that they take no account of God, nor of fame, nor of dignity, nor even of their children, nor of their own life, and in this way become so wicked and useless, that no grave matter ought to be entrusted to them, and they are scarcely fit for any office of duty. Examples of this matter it is permitted us to seek from David and Solomon, of whom the one, after he had committed adultery, suddenly became most unlike himself, from the most gentle he became cruel, so that he offered to death Uriah, who had deserved most well of him; the other, when he had poured himself wholly into the lust of women, so turned away from the true religion of God, that he "followed strange gods." Therefore, as Hosea said, this sin takes away the heart of man, and often blinds him. Now let us come to those remedies which consist in action.
X. By what ways men are incited to lust, which they must chiefly avoid.
The first of these is that we should chiefly flee idleness; in which the Sodomite men, as is in Ezechiel, when they became dulled, fell headlong into that filthiest crime of nefarious lust. Then debauchery is greatly to be avoided. "I filled them full," says the Prophet, "and they committed adultery," because a belly filled and sated begets lust. This very thing the Lord signified in those words: "Take heed to yourselves, lest perhaps your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness." This likewise the Apostle: "Be not drunk," he says, "with wine, wherein is luxury." But the soul is chiefly wont to be inflamed to lust through the eyes, to which that sentence of Christ the Lord pertains: "If thy eye scandalize thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee." There are besides many voices of the Prophets on the same matter; as is in Job: "I made a covenant with my eyes, that I would not so much as think upon a virgin." There are finally many, and almost innumerable examples of evils which had their origin from the sight of the eyes. Thus David, thus the king of Shechem sinned; in this same way those old men of Susanna, the calumniators, offended.
XI. The exquisite adornment of women, obscene conversations, and other incitements to luxury are to be avoided.
Likewise more elegant adornment, by which the sense of the eyes is greatly excited, often furnishes no small occasion for lust; and therefore Ecclesiasticus admonishes: "Turn away thy face from a woman dressed up." Since, therefore, women are engaged in excessive zeal for adornment, it will not be out of place if the parish priest apply some diligence in this, that he at times admonish and chide them with words which the Apostle Peter uttered most gravely on this kind: "Whose adorning let it not be the outward plaiting of the hair, or the wearing of gold, or the putting on of apparel." Saint Paul likewise says: "Not with plaited hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly attire"; for many women, adorned with gold and pearls, have lost the adornments of mind and body. But this incitement to lust, which is wont to arise from the exquisite adornment of garments, another follows, which is that of foul and obscene speech; for by the obscenity of words, as by a certain torch applied, the souls of young men are inflamed. "Evil conversations corrupt good manners," says the Apostle, and since delicate and softer songs and dances especially effect this very thing, from these also diligent caution must be taken. In this kind are likewise numbered books obscenely and amorously written, which are to be avoided as images which bear before them some appearance of turpitude, since there is in them the greatest force for the foul allurements of things, and for inflaming the souls of young men. But let the parish priest take care above all, that the things which have been piously and religiously established by the most sacred Council of Trent concerning these matters be most sacredly observed. But all these things which have now been commemorated, if they be avoided with great applied zeal and care, nearly all the material of lust is taken away.
XII. The use of confession and the Eucharist, and of pious prayers, is necessary for attaining chastity.
But for suppressing the force of lust the frequent use of confession and of the Eucharist is especially efficacious; then assiduous and pious prayers to God, joined with alms and fasting. For chastity is a gift of God, which He does not deny to those who rightly ask, nor suffer us to be tempted above that which we can bear.
XIII. The body of one pursuing chastity is to be tamed.
But the body is to be exercised not only by fastings, and those especially which the holy Church has instituted, but also by vigils, pious pilgrimages, and other kinds of afflictions, and the appetites of the senses are to be repressed; for in these and other such things especially is the virtue of temperance discerned. To which sentence Saint Paul thus writes to the Corinthians: "Every one that striveth for the mastery refraineth himself from all things; and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible"; and a little after: "I chastise," he says, "my body, and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway"; and in another place: "Make not provision for the flesh in its concupiscences."
CHAPTER VIII. Of the Seventh Commandment.
Thou shalt not steal.
I. How great is the commendation of this commandment, and its connection with the two preceding.
That this was an ancient custom of the Church, that the force and reason of this commandment should be inculcated upon hearers, is indicated by that rebuke in the Apostle of those who most deterred others from those vices, with which they themselves were found to be heaped: "He therefore," he says, "that teachest another, teachest not thyself? thou that preachest that men should not steal, stealest?" By which benefit of doctrine he not only corrected the frequent sin of those times, but also calmed tumults and lawsuits, and other causes of evils which are wont to be stirred up by theft. Since our age also is miserably engaged in these sins and delinquencies, and in the disadvantages and calamities of delinquencies: following the example of the holy Fathers and of the masters of Christian discipline, parish priests will urge this place, and assiduously and diligently explain the force and meaning of this commandment. And first they will bring their office and diligence to bear upon declaring the infinite love of God toward the human race; who not only by those two interdicts: "Thou shalt not kill," — "Thou shalt not commit adultery," as it were by garrisons, protects both our life and body, and our fame and estimation: but also by this commandment, "Thou shalt not steal," as by a certain custody, fortifies and defends our outward things and possessions.
II. What sentiment is subjected to this commandment.
For what notion have these words subjected to them, except that which we have said above, when we spoke concerning the other commandments? namely, that God forbids these goods of ours, which are under His protection, to be taken away or violated by anyone. Which benefit of the divine law, the greater it is, the more grateful we ought to be to God, the author of that benefit. And since the best reason both for having and rendering thanks has been proposed to us, that we should not only willingly receive the precepts with our ears, but also approve them in the very matter: to cultivating this office of the commandment the faithful are to be aroused and inflamed. This commandment, however, as the preceding ones, is divided into two parts; of which one, which forbids theft, is plainly enunciated; the sentence and force of the other, by which we are commanded to be kind and liberal toward neighbours, is hidden and wrapped up in the former. Of the former therefore it shall first be spoken: "Thou shalt not steal."
III. What the lawgiver wishes to be signified here by the name of theft.
In which this must be observed, that by the name of theft is understood not only when something is secretly taken from an unwilling owner, but also when something of another's is possessed against the will of the owner who knows of it; unless perhaps it is to be thought that He who forbids theft does not disapprove robberies done by force and injury, since that saying of the Apostle exists: "The extortioners shall not possess the kingdom of God," whose every manner and custom is to be fled, the same Apostle writes. Although robberies are indeed a greater sin than theft, for besides the thing which they take from someone, they moreover apply force and impose greater ignominy.
IV. Since God here wishes to forbid every unjust usurpation of another's property, why He has mentioned theft rather than robbery.
It is not to be wondered at, however, that the precept of the divine law has been marked with this lighter name of theft, not of robbery; for that has been done by the highest reason, because theft extends more widely, and pertains to more things, than robberies, which only those can commit who excel in power and strength. Although no one fails to see that, by excluding the lighter sins of the same kind, the graver offences are also forbidden.
V. The species of theft more broadly taken are enumerated.
By various names, however, unjust possession, and the use of another's things, are marked, from the variety of those things which are taken from owners both unwilling and unknowing; for if something private is taken from a private person, it is called "theft"; if something is snatched from the public, it is called "peculation"; they call it "plagium," if a free man or another's servant is led away into servitude; but if a sacred thing is snatched, it is named "sacrilege," which is a most nefarious and wicked deed, and is so introduced into customs, that the goods which had been piously and wisely attributed to the necessary worship of the sacred things, and to the ministers of the Church, and to the use of the poor, are turned to private covetousness and pernicious lusts.
VI. Not only those transgress this commandment who possess another's things in deed, but also in mind.
But besides theft itself, that is, the external action of stealing, even the mind and will are forbidden by the law of God. For it is a spiritual law, which looks upon the mind, the source of thoughts and counsels. "For from the heart," says the Lord in Saint Matthew, "come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false testimonies."
VII. Whence especially we may measure the gravity of theft.
But how grave a crime theft is, the very force and reason of nature sufficiently shows; for it is contrary to justice, which gives to each his own. For the distributions and assignments of goods, established from the beginning itself by the law of nations, and confirmed also by divine and human laws, ought to be ratified, that each one, unless we wish to do away with human society, may hold those things which have fallen to him by right. For, as the Apostle says: "Neither thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers, nor extortioners, shall possess the kingdom of God." And many things declare the importunity and monstrosity of this crime which follow theft. For judgments are made rashly and inconsiderately about many matters; hatreds break out, enmities are stirred up, sometimes the most bitter condemnations of innocent men arise.
VIII. In what manner things taken away are necessarily to be restored.
What shall we say of that necessity, which has been divinely imposed upon all, of giving satisfaction to him from whom something has been taken? "For," says Augustine, "the sin is not forgiven, unless what has been taken be restored"; which restitution, when anyone has become accustomed to enrich himself from others' goods, how much difficulty it has, besides what each one can judge both from the custom of others and from his own sense, it is permitted to understand from the testimony of the Prophet Habacuc; for he says: "Woe to him that multiplieth things not his own, how long, and loadeth himself with thick clay." He calls thick clay the possession of another's things, from which men can with difficulty emerge and extricate themselves. But the kinds of thefts are so many that to enumerate them is most difficult. Wherefore it shall be enough to have spoken concerning these two, theft and robbery, to which, as to a head, the other things which we shall say are referred. To detesting these therefore, and to deterring the faithful people from the wicked deed, parish priests will bring all their care and diligence. But let us pursue the parts of this kind.
IX. What are the chief kinds of thefts, and who are to be numbered among thieves.
There are therefore also thieves, who buy things taken away by theft, or in some manner retain things found, occupied, or taken; for Saint Augustine says: "If thou hast found and not restored, thou hast seized." But if the owner of the things can in no way be found, those goods are to be bestowed on the uses of the poor. To restore which, he who cannot be induced, easily proves by that very fact, that he would take away all things from every side, if he could. To the same crime those bind themselves who in buying and selling things use frauds and vanity of speech; the frauds of these the Lord will avenge. More grave and more iniquitous in this kind of theft are those who sell false and corrupt goods for true and whole ones; or who deceive buyers in weight, measure, number, and rule. For it is in Deuteronomy, "Thou shalt not have divers weights in thy bag"; and in Leviticus: "Do not any unjust thing in judgment, in rule, in weight, in measure; let the balance be just, and the weights equal, the bushel just, and the sextary equal." It is also in another place: "An abomination before the Lord is weight and weight; the deceitful balance is not good." Theft also is open of workers and craftsmen, who exact the whole and entire wage from those to whom they themselves have not given the just and due work. Nor indeed are unfaithful servants and guardians of masters' things to be distinguished from thieves; nay, they are even more detestable than the rest of the thieves who are shut out by keys, because nothing can be sealed or shut up at home from a thievish servant. Furthermore, those seem to commit theft who by feigned and simulated words, or who by fallacious begging, extort money; whose sin is the graver, because they heap theft upon lying. Those also are to be put in the number of thieves, who, when they are hired for some private or public office, neglect their duty by rendering no or little work, while they only enjoy the wage and price. To pursue the remaining multitude of thefts, contrived by crafty avarice, which knows all the ways of money, is long, and, as we have said, most difficult.
X. What are the kinds of robberies, and who are to be called robbers.
Therefore concerning robberies, which is the other head of these crimes, it seems must be said, if first the parish priest has admonished the Christian people that it should remember that sentence of the Apostle: "They that will become rich, fall into temptation and into the snare of the devil." Nor in any place let it suffer this commandment to slip from it: "Whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you also to them." And let it perpetually consider this: "What thou hatest to be done to thee by another, see thou never do to another." Robberies, therefore, extend more widely; for those who do not pay the due wage to workers, are robbers, whom Saint James invites to penance with these words: "Go to now ye rich men, weep and howl in your miseries which shall come upon you." The cause of which penance he subjoins: "Behold the hire of the labourers who have reaped your fields, which by fraud hath been kept back by you, crieth; and the cry of them hath entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth." Which kind of robberies is vehemently reproved in Leviticus, in Deuteronomy, in Malachi, and in Tobias. In this crime of rapacity are included those who do not pay or who intercept and transfer to themselves the tributes, tolls, tithes, and other things of this kind which are due to the rulers of the Church and to magistrates.
XI. To practice usury is to commit robbery, and how grave a crime it is.
Hither also are referred usurers, most keen and most bitter in robberies, who plunder and slaughter the miserable plebs with usuries. But usury is whatever is received beyond the principal and that capital which has been given; whether it be money, or something else which can be bought or valued by money. For thus it is written in Ezechiel: "He hath not lent upon usury, nor taken any increase"; and the Lord in Luke: "Lend, hoping for nothing thereby." This was always a most grave deed, even among the Gentiles, and most hateful. Hence this saying: "What is it to practice usury? What is it, he says, to kill a man?" For those who practice usury sell the same thing twice, or sell that which is not.
XII. Venal judges and defrauders of creditors commit robberies.
Likewise venal judges commit robberies, who have their judgments for sale, and, softened by price and gifts, overturn the best causes of the weaker and the needy. Defrauders of creditors and deniers, and those who, having taken a period of time for paying, buy goods on their own or another's credit, and do not discharge their credit, shall be condemned with the same crime of robberies; whose offence also is the graver, because the merchants, on the occasion of their failure to pay and fraud, sell all things dearer with great loss to the city; to whom that sentence of David seems to apply: "The sinner shall borrow, and not pay."
XIII. The rich, who by taking away pledges oppress the poor, are numbered among robbers.
What shall we say of those rich men, who exact more bitterly from those who cannot pay what they have lent, and even take away pledges against the interdict of God, which are necessary for the protection of their body? For God says: "If thou take of thy neighbour a garment in pledge, thou shalt return it to him before the setting of the sun; for that same is the only thing wherewith he is covered, the garment of his flesh, nor hath he any other wherein to sleep. If he cry to me, I will hear him, because I am merciful." The bitterness of the exaction of these men we shall rightly call rapacity, and indeed robberies.
XIV. Those who at a time of necessity withhold grain are robbers.
Of the number of those who are called robbers by the holy Fathers, are those who in the scarcity of the fruits withhold the grain, and make it so that by their fault the price of food is dearer and harsher, which also holds in all things necessary for sustenance and for life; to whom that execration of Solomon pertains: "He that hideth up corn, shall be cursed among the people." Whom, admonished of their crimes, the parish priests will more freely accuse, and will more abundantly explain the punishments set before those sins. These things concerning what is forbidden; now let us come to what is commanded, among which things satisfaction or restitution has the first place. For the sin is not forgiven, unless what has been taken be restored.
XV. Who are to be judged obliged to restitution.
But since not only he who has committed theft must restore it to him from whom he stole, but besides all who have been partakers of the theft are held by this law of restitution: it must be opened, who they are who cannot escape this necessity of giving satisfaction or making restitution. There are, however, several kinds of men; and the first is of those who command to steal, who not only are themselves partners and authors of thefts, but also most foul in that kind of thieves. The second kind, equal to the first in will, unequal in power, but yet to be placed in the same degree of thieves, is of those who, when they cannot command, are persuaders and impellers of thefts. The third kind is of those who consent with thieves. The fourth kind is of those who, being partakers of thefts, themselves also gain profit from them, if that is to be called profit, which, unless they repent, condemns them to eternal torments; concerning whom David thus speaks: "If thou didst see a thief, thou didst run with him." The fifth kind is of thieves, who, although they can prohibit thefts, so far from meeting and opposing them, permit and grant their licence. The sixth kind is of those who, although they certainly know both that the theft has been committed, and where it has been committed, do not report the matter, but dissemble that they know it. The last kind is that which embraces all the helpers, guardians, patrons of thefts, and those who furnish a receptacle and a dwelling-place for them; who all ought to give satisfaction to those from whom something has been taken away, and are vehemently to be exhorted to that necessary office. Nor indeed are the approvers and praisers of thefts at all free from this crime. Nor indeed are sons of families and wives, who secretly take away moneys from fathers and husbands, free from the same fault.
XVI. What is to be thought concerning almsgiving, which is also here implicitly prescribed.
But now to this commandment also that sentiment is subjected, that we should pity the poor and the needy, and alleviate their difficulties and straits with our resources and offices. Which argument, because it must most often and most copiously be treated, the parish priests will seek from the books of the most holy men, Cyprian, John Chrysostom, Gregory Nazianzen, and others, who have written excellently concerning almsgiving, by which they may satisfy this office. For the faithful are to be inflamed to zeal and alacrity in helping those who must live by others' mercy. But they are also to be taught, how great a necessity almsgiving has; namely, that we should in very deed and work be liberal toward the needy, by that most true argument, that on that day of the supreme judgment God will detest and consign to everlasting fires those who shall have passed over and neglected the offices of almsgiving; but those who shall have dealt kindly with the needy, being praised, He will lead into the heavenly country. Each sentence is pronounced by the mouth of Christ the Lord: "Come, ye blessed of my Father; possess the kingdom prepared for you," and: "Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire."
XVII. By what means the people are to be aroused to almsgiving.
Priests shall moreover use those places suitable for persuading: "Give, and it shall be given to you." They shall set forth the promise of God, than which nothing more abundant, nothing more magnificent can even be thought: "There is no one that hath left house etc., who shall not receive an hundred times as much now in this time, — and in the world to come life everlasting." They shall add that which was said by Christ the Lord: "Make unto you friends of the mammon of iniquity, that when you shall fail, they may receive you into everlasting dwellings." They shall expound the parts of this necessary office, that, those who cannot lavish upon the needy the means by which to sustain life, should at least lend to the poor according to the prescript of Christ the Lord: "Lend, hoping for nothing thereby." And the felicity of this matter blessed David expressed: "Acceptable is the man that sheweth mercy and lendeth."
XVIII. For bestowing alms, and for the sake of avoiding idleness, one must labour.
But it is of Christian piety, unless there be from elsewhere the faculty of doing well toward those who need another's mercy for sustenance, also for the sake of avoiding idleness, to seek by labour, work, and hands those things by which the indigence of the needy may be alleviated. To this the Apostle exhorts all by his own example in the epistle to the Thessalonians with those words: "For yourselves know how you ought to imitate us"; likewise to the same: "Use your endeavour to be quiet, and that you do your own business, and work with your own hands, as we commanded you"; and to the Ephesians: "He that stole, let him now steal no more; but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have something to give to him that suffereth need."
XIX. We must live sparingly for the sake of relieving the want of others.
We must also take thought for frugality, and spare the goods of others, that we be not grievous or troublesome to the rest; which temperance indeed shines forth in all the Apostles, but chiefly eminent in Saint Paul, whose words to the Thessalonians are: "For you remember, brethren, our labour and toil; working night and day, lest we should be chargeable to any of you, we preached among you the Gospel of God." And the same Apostle in another place: "In labour and in toil working night and day, lest we should be chargeable to any of you."
XX. By what reasons the Christian people are to be led to the detestation of thefts and to the zeal of kindness.
But that the faithful people may shrink from this whole kind of nefarious deeds, it will be proper for parish priests to seek from the Prophets, and to take from the rest of the divine books, the detestation of thefts and robberies, and the horrible threats set forth by God against those who commit those crimes. The prophet Amos cries out: "Hear this, you that crush the poor, and make the needy of the land to fail, saying: When will the month be over, and we shall sell our wares, and the sabbath, and we shall open the corn, that we may lessen the measure, and increase the sicle, and may substitute deceitful balances?" Many things are in the same sentence in Jeremias, in the Proverbs, and in Ecclesiasticus. Nor indeed is there to be doubted, but that these seeds of evils, by which evils this age is oppressed, are in great part included in these causes. But that Christian men may become accustomed to follow the needy and beggars with every office of liberality and kindness, which pertains to the other part of this commandment; parish priests shall set forth the greatest rewards, which God promises to give to the beneficent and the liberal both in this life and in the life to come.
XXI. What is to be thought concerning those who with a vain pretext excuse their thefts and sacrileges.
But because there are those who even excuse themselves in thefts: they are to be admonished, that God will accept no excuse of their sin; nay rather, that by that purgation not only will the sin not be lightened, but in a wonderful manner increased. Behold, the unbearable delights of noble men, who seem to themselves to extenuate the fault, if they affirm that they have not descended to taking away another's things out of covetousness or avarice, but for the sake of maintaining the greatness of their family, and of their ancestors, whose estimation and dignity would fall, unless propped up by the accession of another's things. From whom a pernicious error is to be snatched away, and at the same time it is to be demonstrated, that there is one way of preserving and enlarging resources and wealth, and the glory of ancestors, if they have obeyed the will of God, if they have kept His precepts, which being despised, founded and best established resources are overturned; kings are hurled headlong from the royal throne and the highest degree of honour, in whose place sometimes the lowest men, and those who have been in the greatest hatred with them, are divinely called. It is incredible how greatly God is angry with these men; of which matter Isaias is a witness, in whom are those words of God: "Thy princes are faithless, companions of thieves: they all love gifts, they follow after rewards. Therefore saith the Lord God of hosts, the mighty one of Israel: Ah! I will comfort myself over my adversaries, and I will be revenged of my enemies, and I will turn my hand to thee, and I will clean purge away thy dross." XXII. How to respond to those who affirm that they are driven to seize what belongs to others for the sake of convenience.
There are those who no longer adduce that cause of splendor and glory, but a more convenient and elegant manner of livelihood and life; they must be refuted and taught how impious are both the action and speech of those who prefer any convenience to the will and glory of God, whom, by neglecting his precepts, we offend in a remarkable way. And yet what convenience can there be in theft, since the greatest inconveniences follow from it? "For upon the thief," says Ecclesiasticus, "there is confusion and repentance." But suppose it were so — that matters did not turn out inconveniently for them: the thief dishonors the divine name, opposes his most holy will, despises his saving precepts. From this source flows every error, every wickedness, every impiety.
XXIII. What is to be said to those who cover their thefts by plundering the wealthy, or by their own habit.
What of the fact that one may sometimes hear thieves who contend that they sin in no way when they take something away from wealthy and well-supplied men, since by that withdrawal they inflict no loss, nor do such men even feel it? Truly a wretched and pestilent defense. Another thinks his satisfaction ought to be accepted on the ground that he has contracted such a habit of stealing that he cannot easily desist from that mind and action; yet unless he listens to the Apostle saying: "He that stole, let him now steal no more," whether he will or not, he will also contract the habit of eternal punishments.
XXIV. What again is to be said to those who plead that they are induced to steal either by occasion or by the passion of revenge.
There are some who excuse themselves on the ground that they took something from another when the occasion was given; for that proverb is worn out in common speech: those who are not thieves become so by occasion. These must be led away from their nefarious opinion by this argument: that evil desires must be resisted. For if whatever lust suggests must immediately be carried out, what measure, what end will there be to crimes and outrages? That defense, therefore, is most shameful, or rather a confession of the utmost intemperance and injustice. For he who says he does not sin only because he has no occasion for sinning almost confesses that he will always sin when the occasion is offered. There are those who say they steal for the sake of revenge, because they have been wronged by others in the same way; these must be answered thus: first, it is permitted to no one to pursue wrongs; next, no one can be judge in his own case; then, much less is it conceded that they demand from others the penalties for the wrongs that others have committed against them.
XXV. What is to be said to those who steal in order to be freed from debt.
Finally indeed some think that theft is sufficiently defended and concealed by this argument: that since they are oppressed by debt, they cannot be freed from it otherwise than by discharging it through theft. With such men one must deal thus: that there is no heavier debt, and none by which the human race is more burdened, than that debt of which we daily make mention in the divine prayer: "Forgive us our debts"; wherefore it belongs to the most insane man to wish to owe more to God — that is, to sin more — in order to discharge what he owes to men; and it is far better to be cast into prison than to be consigned to the everlasting torments of hell; it is also far graver to be condemned by the judgment of God than by the judgment of men; furthermore, suppliants themselves ought to have recourse to the help and pity of God, from whom they can obtain whatever is needful. There are other kinds of excuses, which parish priests, prudent and most diligent in their duty, will easily be able to meet, so that at some time they may have a people following after good works.
CHAPTER IX. On the Eighth Commandment.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
I. What utility this commandment comprehends.
How great not only the utility, but also the necessity, of a constant exposition of this commandment and admonition of duty is, the authority of St. James warns us in these words: "If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man." And again: "The tongue is indeed a little member, and boasteth great things: behold how small a fire kindleth a great wood!" and what follows to the same effect. By these we are admonished of two things: first, that this vice of the tongue extends most widely; which is also confirmed by that saying of the Prophet: "Every man is a liar"; so that this is almost the one sin which seems to pertain to all men. Second, that from it arise innumerable evils, since often by the fault of a slanderous man fortunes, reputation, life, and the soul's salvation are lost — either of him who is injured, because he cannot bear insults patiently, but pursues them with an impotent mind; or of him who injures, because, deterred by perverse shame and a false opinion of some esteem, he cannot be brought to make satisfaction to him whom he has offended. Wherefore in this place the faithful must be admonished to give the greatest thanks to God that they can for this saving commandment of not bearing false witness; by which we are not only ourselves forbidden to wrong others, but also by this obedience we are kept from the wrong of others.
II. What meaning is subjoined to this commandment.
But in this commandment we must proceed by the same reasoning and method by which we have proceeded in the others; namely, that two laws be observed in it: one prohibiting false witness being spoken; the other commanding that, dissimulation and deceits being removed, we measure our words and deeds by simple truth. Of which duty the Apostle admonished the Ephesians in these words: "Doing the truth in charity, we may in all things grow up in him."
III. What is chiefly guarded against by this commandment.
But the first part of this commandment has this meaning: that although by the name of false witness is signified whatever is constantly said of another in a good or bad sense, whether in court or out of court, nevertheless chiefly forbidden is that testimony which is falsely spoken in court by one sworn. For the witness swears by God, so that the speech of one thus testifying and invoking the divine name has the greatest credence and weight. And so, because this testimony is dangerous, it is for that reason chiefly forbidden; for sworn witnesses, unless they be excluded by legitimate exceptions, or their wickedness and perversity be manifest, not even the judge himself can reject; especially since there is the command of the divine law, that "in the mouth of two or three every word shall stand." But that the faithful may plainly understand the commandment, they must be taught what this word "neighbor" signifies, against whom it is by no means permitted to bear false witness.
IV. Who is here designated by the name of neighbor.
He is a neighbor — as is gathered from the doctrine of Christ our Lord — whoever needs our help, whether he be a kinsman or a stranger, a citizen or a foreigner, a friend or an enemy; for it is unlawful to think that it is permitted to say something false in testimony against enemies, whom by the command of God and our Lord it behooves us to love. Indeed, since each man is in a certain manner a neighbor to himself, it is lawful for no one to bear false witness against himself; those who commit this, branding themselves with a mark of ignominy and shame, injure both themselves and the Church, of which they are members; in the same way those who contrive their own death harm the commonwealth. For thus it is in St. Augustine: "Nor could it appear to those rightly understanding that it was not forbidden for anyone to stand as a false witness against himself, because it was added in the precept: 'against thy neighbor.' But let no one therefore think that, if he has borne false witness against himself, he is free from this crime; since the rule of loving one's neighbor the lover received from himself."
V. It is not lawful to bear false witness or to lie even for the benefit of one's neighbor.
But because we are forbidden to injure our neighbor by false testimony, let no one on that account think the contrary is permitted to us, namely, that by perjuring ourselves we may obtain some utility or advantage for him who is joined to us by nature and religion. For no one is to pursue falsehood and vanity, much less perjury. Wherefore St. Augustine, in his treatise on lying to Crescentius, teaches from the Apostle's sentence that a lie is to be numbered among false testimonies, even if it be spoken in someone's false praise. For treating that passage: "And we are found also to be false witnesses of God, because we have given testimony against God, that he hath raised up Christ, whom he hath not raised up, if the dead rise not," he says: "The Apostle calls it false testimony if anyone lies concerning Christ, and concerning what seems to pertain to his praise."
VI. How many evils follow from false testimony borne in favor of another.
Very often it happens that he who favors one injures another. Certainly a cause of erring is given to the judge, who sometimes, led by false witnesses, decides against right according to injury, and is compelled so to judge. Sometimes also it happens that he who by the false testimony of someone has won his cause in court, and has carried it off with impunity, exulting in an iniquitous victory, grows accustomed to corrupt and employ false witnesses, by whose aid he hopes to attain whatever he may desire. It is also most grievous for the witness himself, that both by him whom he has relieved and aided by his oath he is recognized as false and perjured, and he himself, because that crime succeeds for him as he wished, daily takes greater exercise and habit of impiety and audacity.
VII. The sins of all those who conduct trials, and in general every lie, are forbidden by this commandment.
As therefore the vanity, lies, and perjuries of witnesses are forbidden, so also of accusers and defendants, and of patrons, examiners, and procurators, advocates, and in short of all who constitute trials. Finally, God forbids every testimony, not only in court but also out of court, which may bring inconvenience or detriment to another. For in Leviticus, where these commandments are repeated, it is said in these words: "You shall not steal, you shall not lie, neither shall any man deceive his neighbor," so that it can be doubted by no one that every lie is cast out and condemned by God by this commandment; which David most openly testifies in this way: "Thou wilt destroy all that speak a lie."
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VIII. This commandment also extends to the vice of detraction.
But by this commandment not only false witness is forbidden, but also the detestable passion and habit of detraction against another, from which pestilence it is incredible how many and how grave inconveniences and evils are born. This vice of speaking reproachfully and contumeliously in secret against another the divine letters everywhere disapprove. "With him," says David, "I did not eat"; and St. James: "Detract not one another, my brethren." Nor indeed do the sacred letters furnish precepts only, but also examples, by which the greatness of the crime is declared. For Aman, by feigned accusations, so inflamed Assuerus against the Jews that he commanded all the men of that nation to be slain. Sacred history is filled with examples of this kind, by the mention of which priests will take care to deter the faithful from the wickedness of the matter.
IX. Who are to be reckoned in the number of detractors.
But in order that the force of this sin, by which something is detracted from another, may be thoroughly perceived, it must be known that the reputation of men is wounded not only by calumny employed, but also by augmenting and amplifying crimes; and if something has been committed more secretly by someone, which, when it becomes known, is grave or shameful to his reputation: he who divulges that matter where, when, and to whom it is not necessary, is rightly called a detractor and slanderer. But of all detraction none is more capital than that of those who detract from Catholic doctrine and its preachers. In similar guilt are those who extol with praises the masters of evil doctrines and errors.
X. Those who listen to detractors, or sow dissensions among friends, are detractors.
Nor indeed are those separated from the number and guilt of these men who, opening their ears to detracting and reviling men, do not rebuke the slanderers, but willingly assent to them. For to detract, or to listen to one detracting — St. Jerome and Bernard write — it is not easily established which is the more damnable; for there would be no detractors if there were not those present who listen to detractors. In the same class are those who by their artifices tear men apart and set them against one another, and greatly delight in sowing discords, so that, dissolving the greatest unions and societies by feigned speeches, they drive the closest friends into immortal enmities and to arms. This pestilence the Lord thus detests: "Thou shalt not be a criminator, nor a whisperer among the people." Such were many of the counselors of Saul, who tried to alienate his will from David and to stir up that king against him.
XI. Flattery is also forbidden by this law.
Finally, in this regard, smooth-tongued men and flatterers sin, who by flatteries and feigned praises flow into the ears and minds of those whose favor, money, and honors they hunt after, saying, as is in the Prophet: "Evil good, and good evil"; to ward off and drive whom from our company, David admonishes us by that prayer: "The just man shall correct me in mercy, and shall rebuke me; but let not the oil of the sinner fatten my head." For although such men do not curse their neighbor in the least, nevertheless they do him the greatest harm, who, by praising his sins, themselves furnish him cause to persevere in his vices as long as he lives. And indeed in this class that flattery is worse which is employed for the neighbor's calamity and ruin. Thus Saul, when he desired to expose David to the fury and sword of the Philistines, that he might be killed, flattered him with these words: "Behold my elder daughter Merob; her will I give thee to wife: only be thou a valiant man and fight the battles of the Lord." Thus the Jews addressed Christ our Lord with insidious speech: "Master, we know that thou art a true speaker, and teachest the way of God in truth."
XII. How friends dangerously flatter a friend gravely ill.
Far more pernicious, however, is the speech of friends, kinsmen, and relatives, which they sometimes use in a flattering way with those who, stricken by deadly disease, are already at their last breath, while they affirm that there is then no danger of death for him; while they bid him be glad and merry, and deter him from the confession of sins as from the saddest thought; while finally they turn his mind away from all care and meditation of the last perils, in which he is most of all involved. Wherefore every kind of lie is to be avoided, but chiefly that by which anyone can be afflicted with grave loss. But that lie is most full of impiety when anyone lies about religion or concerning religion.
XIII. Authors of defamatory pamphlets also strike against this commandment, as do those lying in jest or for the sake of duty, and hypocrites.
But by those curses and reproaches also God is gravely offended, which are committed in the pamphlets they call defamatory, and by other contumelies of this kind. Besides, to deceive by a lie for the sake of jest or of duty, although no one has made either loss or gain by it, nevertheless is altogether unworthy; for thus the Apostle admonishes us: "Putting away lying, speak ye the truth." For in that there is great proneness to frequent and graver lying, and from jocose lies men take up the habit of lying; whence they come into the opinion that they are not truthful. Wherefore, that their speech may obtain credit, they find it necessary to swear perpetually. Finally, in the first part of this commandment dissimulation is repudiated, and not only those things which are said dissemblingly, but those which are so done, when they are joined with wickedness; for words as well as deeds are certain marks and signs of what is in each one's mind, and for that cause the Lord, often rebuking the Pharisees, calls them hypocrites. And this concerning the first law of the commandment, which looks to prohibition. Now let us explain what the Lord commands in the other.
XIV. What is prescribed in the other part of this law, enveloped in the words, concerning forensic trials.
The force and reason of this commandment pertain to this: that forensic trials be exercised justly and according to the laws, and that men do not usurp and arrogate trials to themselves; for it is not lawful, as the Apostle writes, to judge another's servant, lest, the matter and cause being unknown, they pass sentence. In which fault was the counsel of the priests and scribes who judged concerning St. Stephen; which same was the sin of the magistrate of the Philippians, of whom the Apostle says: "They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men that are Romans, and have cast us into prison: and now do they thrust us out privately?" Let them not condemn the innocent, or absolve the guilty; let them not be moved by price or favor, by hatred or love. For thus Moses admonishes the elders whom he had constituted judges of the people: "Judge that which is just: whether he be one of your own country, or a stranger. There shall be no difference of persons; you shall hear the little as well as the great: neither shall you respect any man's person, because it is the judgment of God."
XV. The accused, interrogated by a legitimate magistrate, cannot lie.
Concerning the accused and guilty, however, God wills them to confess the truth when they are interrogated according to the form of trial. For that confession is a certain testimony and proclamation of the praise and glory of God, by the sentence of Joshua himself, who exhorting Achan to the confession of the truth, said: "My son, give glory to the Lord God of Israel, and confess, and tell me what thou hast done, hide it not."
XVI. What is the office of witnesses.
But since this commandment chiefly touches upon witnesses, concerning these also the parish priest will have to treat diligently. For the force of the commandment is this: that it not only prohibits false testimony, but commands that true testimony be given. For in human affairs there is the greatest use of true testimony, since there are innumerable things which must necessarily be unknown to us, unless we learn of them from the faith of witnesses. Wherefore nothing is so necessary as the truth of testimonies in those matters which we ourselves do not know, and which nevertheless it is not lawful to be ignorant of. Concerning which there exists that sentence of St. Augustine: "He who conceals the truth, and he who produces a lie, both are guilty; the one because he is unwilling to benefit, the other because he desires to harm." It is permitted sometimes to keep the truth silent, but outside of court; for in court, where a witness is legitimately interrogated by a judge, the truth must altogether be disclosed. In which place, nevertheless, witnesses must beware, lest, trusting too much to their memory, they affirm as certain what they have not ascertained. There remain the patrons of cases and advocates, then plaintiffs and petitioners.
XVII. In what manner advocates and procurators of cases will be able to fulfill their office.
They therefore will not be wanting in their assistance and patronage at the necessary times of men, and will kindly help the needy; again, they will not undertake unjust causes to be defended, nor prolong lawsuits by calumny, nor be nourished by avarice. As to the fee of their labor and work, they should measure it by right and equity.
XVIII. In what way plaintiffs and accusers will not rightly fulfill their office.
Plaintiffs and accusers must be admonished, lest, induced by love or hatred, or by some desire, they create peril for anyone by iniquitous accusations. This command finally has been divinely prescribed to all the pious, that in meetings and conversations they always speak truly and from the heart, that they say nothing which may harm the reputation of another, not even of those by whom they perceive themselves to be injured and troubled, since they ought to have this purpose — that such a bond and society intercedes between them and these others, that they are members of the same body.
XIX. By what reasons Christians can be brought to the recognition of the foulness which is in lying.
But that the faithful may more willingly guard against this vice of lying, the parish priest will set before them the sum of the misery and turpitude of this crime. For in the sacred letters the demon is called the father of lying. For because the demon stood not in the truth, he is a liar and the parent of lying. He will add, for casting out so great a wickedness, those evils which follow lying; and since they are innumerable, he will show the sources and heads of the inconveniences and calamities. And first, into how great an offense of God a vain and lying man falls, and how great a hatred of his he incurs, he will declare by the authority of Solomon in that place: "But there are some things the Lord hateth, and the seventh his soul detesteth: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that deviseth wicked plots, feet that are swift to run into mischief, a deceitful witness that uttereth lies," and what follows. Who therefore will guarantee his safety who is in signal hatred with God, so as not to be afflicted with the gravest punishments?
XX. What inconveniences lies bring upon human society.
Next, what is more impure or fouler, as St. James says, than with the same tongue with which we bless God and the Father, to curse men, who have been made to the image and likeness of God, so that from the same opening of the fountain flow sweet and bitter water? For the tongue which before gave praise and glory to God, afterwards, as much as it can, afflicts him with ignominy and shame by lying. Wherefore it comes to pass that liars are excluded from the possession of heavenly beatitude. For when David asked of God in this manner: "Lord, who shall dwell in thy tabernacle?" the Holy Spirit answered: "He that speaketh truth in his heart, who hath not used deceit in his tongue." But it is also a very great inconvenience in lying, that this disease of the soul is almost incurable. For since the sin, which is committed by inflicting a false charge, or by detracting from the neighbor's reputation and esteem, is not remitted unless the calumniator makes satisfaction for the injuries to him whom he has calumniated, and since this is done with difficulty by men — first, as we admonished before, deterred by shame and a certain vain opinion of dignity: we cannot doubt that he who is in this sin is consigned to the eternal punishments of hell. Nor let anyone hope that he can obtain pardon of calumnies or detraction, unless first he makes satisfaction to him from whose dignity and reputation, either publicly in court, or even in private and familiar meetings, he has detracted something. Besides, this detriment extends most widely, and is diffused unto others, because by vanity and lying faith and truth are taken away, the closest bonds of human society, which being removed, there follows the greatest confusion of life, so that men seem to differ nothing from demons. Moreover the parish priest will teach that loquacity is to be avoided, by the avoidance of which the remaining sins are shunned, and it is a great precaution against lying; from which vice the loquacious cannot easily keep themselves.
XXI. Vain excuses for lies are dissolved.
Finally, the parish priest will take away from those that error, who excuse themselves by the vanity of speech, and defend lying by the example of the prudent, who, they say, are accustomed to lie in season. He will say that which is most true, that the prudence of the flesh is death. He will exhort his hearers, in difficulties and straits, to trust in God, and not to have recourse to the artifice of lying. For those who use that refuge easily show that they rely more on their own prudence than place their hope in the providence of God. Those who transfer the cause of their lying upon those by whom they have been deceived by a lie: these are to be taught that it is not lawful for men to avenge themselves, nor is evil to be repaid by evil, but rather evil is to be overcome in good; and if it were also lawful to return this favor, nevertheless it is useful to no one to avenge himself to his own detriment; and this is the greatest detriment, which we do by speaking a lie. To those who bring forward the weakness and fragility of human nature, this precept of duty must be handed on: that they implore divine help, and not yield to the infirmity of humanity. Those who oppose habit must be admonished, if they have grown accustomed to lie, to give their effort that they may contract the contrary habit of speaking truly; especially since those who sin by use and habit offend more gravely than others.
XXII. One must not lie because of the lying of others.
And since there are not wanting those who cover themselves with the excuse of other men, whom they contend to lie and perjure everywhere: by this reasoning they must be led away from that opinion: the wicked are not to be imitated, but rebuked and corrected; but when we ourselves lie, our speech has less authority in the rebuke and correction of another. Others defending themselves thus, that by speaking the truth they are often afflicted with inconvenience, priests will thus refute: that this is an accusation, not a defense, since it is the duty of a Christian man, even rather to make loss, than to lie.
XXIII. Neither jocose nor useful lying is to be admitted.
There remain two kinds of those who excuse themselves in lying; some who say they lie for the sake of jest; others, that they do the same for the sake of utility, since indeed they could neither buy nor sell well, unless they employed lying. Parish priests will study to turn both away from their error. And the former they will lead away from that vice, both by teaching how much in that kind of sinning the use of lying augments the habit, and by inculcating this, that an account must be rendered of every idle word; but these latter they will rebuke even more severely, since in their excuse there lies the graver accusation of those very men, who put it forward that they grant no credit and authority to those words of God: "Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you."
CHAPTER X.
On the Ninth and Tenth Commandments.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house; neither shalt thou desire his wife, nor his servant, nor his handmaid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is his.
I. In what way this ninth and tenth commandment seem to comprehend the remaining eight.
In these two commandments, which are handed down in the last place, this especially must be known, that the method is almost established by which the other commandments are observed. For that which is commanded in these words looks to this: that if anyone strives to keep the higher commands of the law, he should count this of greatest moment, that he covet not; because he who does not covet, content with his own, will not crave what belongs to others, will rejoice in the advantages of others, will give glory to the immortal God, will render him the greatest thanks, will keep the sabbath — that is, will enjoy perpetual quiet, and will venerate his elders — finally, will injure no one either in goods, or in words, or in any other way. For the root and seed of all evils is evil concupiscence, by which those who are inflamed are carried headlong into every kind of outrage and crime. These things being observed, both the parish priest will be more diligent in handing down what follows, and the faithful more attentive to hearing.
II. In what way those two commandments differ from each other.
But although we have joined these two commandments together, because, since their subject-matter is not dissimilar, they have the same manner of teaching: the parish priest nevertheless, both by exhortation and admonition, will be able to treat them either jointly or separately, as shall seem more convenient to him. But if he has undertaken the duty of interpreting the Decalogue, he will show what the dissimilarity of these two commandments is, or how one concupiscence differs from the other; which difference, in the book of Questions on Exodus, St. Augustine declares. For of these, one regards only what is useful, what is fruitful; to the other are set forth lusts and pleasures. If therefore anyone covets a field or a house, he pursues rather gain, and what is useful, than pleasure; but if he desires another's wife, he burns not with the desire of utility, but of pleasure.
III. Whether in the sixth and seventh commandments that had been sufficiently explained, which is comprehended by these two last.
But of these commandments there was a twofold necessity: one, that the meaning of the sixth and seventh commandment might be explained. For although by a certain light of nature it was understood that the desire of possessing another's wife was forbidden by the prohibition of adultery (for if it were lawful to covet, it would likewise be lawful to possess): nevertheless most of the Jews, blinded by sin, could not be brought to the opinion that this was forbidden by God; nay rather, when this law of God was published and known, many who professed themselves to be interpreters of the law were engaged in that error. Which can be observed from that discourse of the Lord in St. Matthew: "You have heard that it was said to them of old: Thou shalt not commit adultery; but I say to you," and what follows. Another necessity of these commandments is, that some things are distinctly and explicitly forbidden, which were not explicitly prohibited by the sixth and seventh. For by way of example, the seventh commandment forbade that anyone should unjustly covet what belongs to another or attempt to seize it; but this forbids that anyone should in any way covet, even if he could obtain it by right and by law, from the obtaining of which he sees loss to be brought upon his neighbor.
IV. What and how great is the benefit of God, which has been conferred upon us by the command of this law.
But above all, before we come to the explanation of the commandment, the faithful must be taught: that we have been instituted by this law not only to restrain our desires, but also to recognize God's mercy toward us, which is immense. For when by the higher precepts of the law he had fortified us with certain defenses, as it were, lest anyone should violate ourselves or our possessions: by adjoining this commandment he willed especially to provide, lest we should injure ourselves by our own appetites; which would easily come about, if it were free and open to us to desire and wish for all things. Therefore by this law prescribed, of not coveting, it has been provided by God, that the stings of our desires, by which we are wont to be excited to whatever is pernicious, being in some manner shaken off by the force of this law, press us less, and therefore that we may have a greater space of time, freed from that troublesome anxiety of desires, for rendering those offices of piety and religion which we owe to God himself many and very great.
V. What distinction these two commandments insinuate to exist between divine and human laws.
Nor does this law only teach us this, but also shows that the law of God is of such a kind that it must be observed not only by external functions of duties, but also by the inmost sense of the soul. And this there is between divine and human laws, that the latter are content with external things only, but the former, because God regards the soul, require the pure and sincere chastity and integrity of the soul itself. The divine law is therefore as a certain mirror, in which we behold the vices of our nature. Wherefore the Apostle said: "I had not known concupiscence, unless the law had said: Thou shalt not covet." For since concupiscence — that is, the fomes of sin, which had its origin from sin — perpetually cleaves fixed within us, from this we recognize that we are born in sin; wherefore as suppliants we flee to him who alone can wash away the stains of sin.
VI. What concupiscence is not here forbidden, and what concupiscence is.
These commandments individually have this in common with the rest, that they partly forbid something, and partly command something. As to the force of prohibiting, lest anyone perhaps suppose that that concupiscence which lacks vice is in some manner a vice — such as to covet the spirit against the flesh, or to desire the justifications of God at all times, which David greatly desired: the parish priest will teach what that concupiscence is which must be avoided by the prescript of this law. Wherefore it must be known that concupiscence is a certain commotion and force of the soul, by which men, being impelled, seek pleasant things which they do not have. And just as the other motions of our soul are not perpetually evil: so this force of coveting is not always to be put down as vice. For it is not therefore evil if we desire food or drink, or, when we are cold, if we desire to grow warm, or on the contrary, when we are warm, if we desire to grow cold. And indeed this right force of coveting has been implanted in us by nature with God as its author; but through the sin of our first parents it came to pass that it, overleaping the bounds of nature, has been so depraved, that it is often stirred up to covet those things which are repugnant to the spirit and to reason.
547 Pars III. Caput X. 347
VII. What utilities chiefly concupiscence, conformable to right reason, affords to man.
Nay rather, this force, if it is moderate, and is contained within its bounds, often affords no small utilities; for it first brings it about that by assiduous prayers we beseech God, and as suppliants ask from him those things which we most desire; for prayer is the interpreter of our desire. And if this right force of coveting were absent, there would not be so many prayers in the Church of God. It brings it about besides, that the gifts of God are dearer to us; for the more vehement the desire with which we are inflamed for something, the dearer and more pleasant is that thing to us when we have obtained it. Then indeed the very delight which we perceive from a coveted thing makes us render thanks to God with greater piety. And so if it is sometimes lawful to covet, we must necessarily confess that not every force of coveting is forbidden.
VIII. In what way the Apostle calls concupiscence sin.
And although St. Paul said that concupiscence was sin, it must nevertheless be accepted in that sense in which Moses spoke, whose testimony he brings forward; which the Apostle's own discourse declares. For he calls it the concupiscence of the flesh in the epistle to the Galatians: "Walk in the Spirit," he says, "and you shall not fulfill the desires of the flesh."
IX. What concupiscence is here in no way forbidden, nor has the rationale of sin.
That natural and moderate force of desire, therefore, which does not transgress its bounds, is not forbidden, much less that spiritual desire of a right mind, by which we are incited to the pursuit of those things which are repugnant to the flesh. To this indeed the sacred letters exhort us: "Covet my words," and "Come over to me all ye that desire me."
X. What is the concupiscence here forbidden.
And so by this interdict not the very force of coveting, by which it is lawful to use both for good and for ill, but the use of evil desire — which is called the concupiscence of the flesh and the fomes of sin, and which, if it has the assent of the soul joined to it, must always be numbered among vices — is altogether forbidden. Therefore only that lust of coveting is forbidden, which the Apostle calls the concupiscence of the flesh — namely, those motions of coveting which have no measure of reason, nor are contained within the bounds constituted by God.
XI. From what causes it is recognized that concupiscence is sin.
This desire is condemned, either because it seeks evil, such as adulteries, drunkenness, murders, and other nefarious crimes of this kind, concerning which the Apostle says thus: "Let us not be," he says, "covetous of evil things, as they also coveted"; or because, although the things are not evil by their nature, nevertheless the cause exists from elsewhere why it is unlawful to covet them; in which kind are those things which God or the Church forbids us to possess. For it is not lawful for us to covet those things which it is altogether unlawful to possess; such as formerly in the old law were the gold and silver from which idols had been molded, which the Lord in Deuteronomy forbade anyone to covet. For this cause also this vicious desire is forbidden, since the things coveted belong to another, such as a house, servant, handmaid, field, wife, ox, ass, and many other things; and since these belong to another, the divine law forbids to covet them; and the desire of such things is nefarious, and is numbered among the gravest sins, when the assent of the soul is granted to coveting them.
XII. Where the sin of concupiscence chiefly consists.
For then sin naturally comes into being, when after the impulse of evil desires the soul delights in depraved things, and either assents to them or does not resist; which St. James, when he shows the origin and progression of sin, teaches in these words: "Every man is tempted by his own concupiscence, being drawn away and allured; then when concupiscence hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; but sin, when it is consummated, begetteth death."
XIII. What is the meaning of the two last commandments.
Since therefore it is thus provided by the law: "Thou shalt not covet," these words are referred to this sense, that we restrain our desires from the things of others; for the thirst for the desire of others' things is immense and infinite, nor is it ever satiated, as it is written: "A covetous man shall not be satisfied with money"; concerning which it is thus in Isaiah: "Woe to you that join house to house and lay field to field." But from the explanation of the individual words the foulness and magnitude of this sin will more easily be understood.
XIV. What is to be understood by the word house in the form of this commandment.
Wherefore the parish priest will teach that by the word house is signified not only the place which we inhabit, but the entire inheritance, as is known from the use and custom of the divine writers.
In Exodus it is written that houses were built by the Lord for the midwives: the sense looks to this, that we interpret that their fortunes were increased and amplified by him. From this interpretation, therefore, we perceive that it is forbidden us by this law of the commandment, lest we greedily desire riches, nor envy the riches, power, nobility of others, but be content with our condition, whatever it may be, whether humble or exalted. Next we ought to understand that the desire of another's glory is forbidden: for this likewise pertains to the house.
XV. What is contained under the words ox and ass.
But what follows: "not the ox, not the ass," shows that it is not lawful for us to covet not only those things which are great, such as house, nobility, and glory, when they belong to another: but also small things, whatever they may be, whether animate or inanimate.
XVI. Of what servants there is discourse in this commandment.
Then follows: "Neither servant," which must be understood both of captives, and of the other kind of servants, whom, as the other goods of another, we ought not to covet. But free men, who serve of their own will, either hired for wages, or impelled by love and observance, no one in any way, either by words, or by hope, or by promises, or by rewards, ought to corrupt or solicit, that they may desert those to whom they have voluntarily bound themselves: nay rather, if before that time in which they had promised to be in their service, they have withdrawn from them, they must be admonished by the authority of this commandment, that they altogether return to these very ones.
XVII. Why also in this commandment mention is made of the neighbor.
But that in the commandment mention is made of the neighbor, this pertains to this end, that the vice of men be shown, who are accustomed to desire neighboring fields, or neighboring houses, or another thing of this kind, which is contiguous with one's own. For neighborhood, which is placed in the part of friendship, is translated from love to hatred by the vice of desire.
XVIII. Those who desire to buy things offered for sale by their neighbor at a just price do not transgress this law.
But this commandment those in no way violate who desire to buy from their neighbor things which he has for sale, or buy them at a just price; for these not only do not injure the neighbor, but greatly aid him, since money is going to be of greater advantage and use to him than those things which he himself is selling.
XIX. How the tenth commandment concerning not coveting the neighbor's wife is to be understood.
This law concerning not coveting another's property is followed by another, which prohibits that we covet another's wife;
by which law not only is that lust of coveting prohibited, by which the adulterer desires another's wife, but also that by which a certain affection desires to lead another's wife into matrimony; for at that time, when the bill of divorce was permitted, it could easily happen that, one repudiated by one man, another would take her as wife. But the Lord forbade this, lest either husbands be solicited to leave their wives, or wives so present themselves as difficult and morose to their husbands, that for that cause a certain necessity, as it were, would be imposed upon men of repudiating them. Now indeed the sin is graver, since it is not lawful to lead into matrimony a woman, even if she has been repudiated by her husband, to another, unless the husband is dead. And so he who covets another's wife will easily fall from one desire into another; for he will desire either her husband to die, or to commit adultery. And this same is said of those women who are betrothed to another; nor is it lawful to covet these likewise, since those who strive to rescind these agreements violate the most holy covenant of faith. And just as it is altogether nefarious to covet her who is married to another: so her who is consecrated to the worship and religion of God, it is by no means lawful to desire as wife.
XX. He does not sin against this law who solicits to matrimony a woman whom he thinks to have lost her husband.
But if anyone covets that a woman who is married be given him as wife, when he supposes her to be unmarried, and would not, if he understood her to be placed in matrimony with another, desire her as wife to be given him as married — as we read happened to Pharaoh (Gen. 12 and 20) and Abimelech, who coveted to have Sarah in matrimony, when they supposed her not at all married, and the sister of Abraham, not his wife: he certainly who is of that mind does not seem to violate the law of such a commandment.
XXI. What, besides the things which are forbidden, is commanded to be done by this commandment.
But that the parish priest may disclose the remedies which are suited for taking away this vice of desire, he ought to explain the other reason of the commandment, which consists in this: that, if riches flow in, we should not set our heart upon them, and be prepared to cast them aside out of zeal for piety and divine things, and willingly expend money for relieving the miseries of the poor; if means are lacking, we should bear poverty with an equable and cheerful mind. And indeed if we use liberality in giving our goods, we shall extinguish the desires of the things of others. But concerning the praises of poverty and the contempt of riches in the sacred letters and among the holy Fathers, it will easily be possible for the parish priest to gather much, and to hand it down to the faithful people. By this same law it is also commanded that we desire with ardent zeal and with the utmost longing that what God wills, rather than what we ourselves covet, be chiefly brought to pass, as is set forth in the Lord's Prayer. Now the will of God consists above all in this, that we be made holy in a certain singular manner, and that we preserve our soul sincere, and pure and whole from every stain, and that we exercise ourselves in those duties of the mind and of the spirit which are opposed to the senses of the body; and that, their appetites being subdued, we hold the right course of life with reason and the spirit as our guides; and further, that we most vigorously restrain the force of those things which supply matter to our desires and to lust through the senses.
XXII. What Christians ought chiefly to meditate upon in order to curb the force of concupiscence.
But to extinguish this burning of desires it can also avail very much if we set before our eyes the evils that arise from them. The first evil indeed is this: that, since we yield to desires of this kind, the utmost force and power of sin reigns in our soul. Wherefore the Apostle admonished: "Let not sin reign in your mortal body, so that you should obey the lusts thereof." For just as, if we resist the desires, the forces of sin will fall: so, if we yield to them, we drive the Lord from His kingdom, and we introduce sin in His place. Another evil moreover is this: that from this power of coveting, as from a certain fountain, all sins flow, as St. James teaches. Likewise St. John says: "All that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life." The third evil consists in this: that the right judgment of the soul is darkened by these desires. For men, blinded by these shadows of desires, deem to be honorable and excellent all things whatsoever they themselves covet. Moreover, by the power of concupiscence the word of God is stifled, which has been planted in our souls by that great husbandman, God. For thus it is written in St. Mark: "Others there are who are sown among thorns: these are they that hear the word, and the cares of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts after other things entering in, choke the word, and it is made fruitless."
XXIII. Who are chiefly entangled in the snares of desires.
Now those who above all others labor under this vice of concupiscence, and whom therefore the parish priest ought the more diligently to exhort to the observance of this precept, are these: those who take delight in unworthy games, or who abuse games immoderately; and likewise merchants, who desire scarcity of goods and the dearness of provisions, and who bear it ill that there should be others besides themselves who sell or buy; that so they themselves may sell more dearly or buy more cheaply. In this matter they also sin, who desire others to be in want, that they themselves may profit either by selling or by buying. Soldiers likewise sin, who desire war that it may be lawful for them to plunder; physicians also, who long for diseases; lawyers, who covet the abundance and multitude of cases and lawsuits; then also craftsmen, who, greedy of gain, long for the scarcity of all things that pertain to sustenance and to the adornment of life, that they may thence make the greatest profit. In this kind moreover they grievously sin who are greedy and covetous of another's praise and glory, not without some detraction of another's fame, and this especially if those who covet it are slothful and worthless men; for fame and glory is the reward of virtue and industry, not of sloth or idleness.