Kings of the World

Quid valeat apud homines saeculi eloquentia et sapientia saecularis, testes sunt Demosthenes, Tullius, Plato, Xenophon, Theophrastus, Aristoteles, et caeteri oratores ac philosophi, qui velut reges habentur hominum, et praecepta eorum non ut praecepta mortalium, sed quasi oracula accipuntur deorum. Unde et Plato dicit: Felices fore respublicas, si aut philosophi regnent, aut reges philosophentur. Quam autem difficile istiusmodi homines credant in Deum, ut quotidana exempla praeteream, et sileam de veteribus historiis ethnicorum, sufficit nobis Apostoli testimonium, qui ad Corinthios scribens, ait: ' Videte, frates, vocationem vestram, quia non sunt multi sapientes secundum carnem non multi potentes, non multi nobiles: sed stulta mundi elegit Deus, ut confundant sapientes, et infirma mundi elegit Deus, ut confundant fortia, et ignobilia mundi, et ea quae erant contemptibilia elegit Deus,' et caetera. Unde rursum dicit: 'Perdam sapientiam sapientium, et intelligentiam prudentium reprobabo.' Et: 'Videte, ne quis vos spoliet per philosophiam et inanem seductionem.' Ex quo perspicuum est, praedicationem Christi reges mundi audire novissimos, et deposito fulgore eloquentiae et ornamentis ac decore verborum, totos se simplicitati et rusticitati tradere, et in plebeium cultum redactos sedere in sordibus, et destruere quod ante praedicaverant. Proponamus nobis beatum Cyprianum (qui prius idololatriae assertor fuit, et in tantam gloriam venit eloquentiae, ut oratoriam quoque doceret Carthagini) audisse tandem sermonem Jonae et ad poenitentiam conversum, in tantam venisse virtutem, ut Christum publice praedicaret, et pro illo cervicem gladio flecteret. Profecto intelligimus regem Ninive descendiise de solio suo, et purpuram sacco, unquenta luto, munditias sordibus commutasse: non sordibus sensuum, sed verborum. Unde et de Babylone in Jeremia dicitur: Calix aureus Babylon inebrians omnem terram. Quem non inebriavit eloquentia saecularis? cujus non animos compositione verborum et disertitudinis suae fulgore perstrinxit? Difficile homines potentes et nobiles et divites, et multo his difficilius eloquentes credunt Deo: obcaecatur enim mens eorum divitiis et opibus atque luxuria et circumdati vitiis, non possunt videre virtutes simplicitatemque Scripturae sanctae, non ex majestate sensuum, sed ex verborum judicant vilitate. Cum autem ipsi qui prius mala docuerant, versi ad poenitentiam, docere coeperint bona, tunc videbimus Niniviticos populos una praedicatione converti, et fieri illud quod in Isaia legimus: Si nata est gens semel. Homines quoque et jumenta operta saccis, et clamantia ad Dominum, eodem sensu intellige: quod et rationabiles, et irrationabiles, et prudentes ac simplices ad pradicationem Jonae agant poenitentiam juxta illud, quod et alibi dicitur: 'Homines et jumenta salvabis, Domine.' Possumus autem jumenta operta saccis et aliter interpretari, de his maxime testimoniis, in quibus legimus: Sol et luna induentur sacco. Et in alio loco: Induam coelum sacco, pro lugubri sicilicet habitu et moerore atque moestitia, quae μεταφορικως saccus nominantur. Illud quoque quod dicitur: Quis scit si converatur et ignoscat Deus? Ideo ambiguum ponitur et incertum: ut dum homines dubii sunt de salute, fortius agant poenitentiam, et magis ad misericordiam provocent Deum. Sanctus Hieronimus, Commentarius In Jonam Prophetem

Worldly eloquence and wisdom, the heads of which are Demosthenes, Cicero, Plato, Xenophon, Theophrastus, Aristotle and other orators and philosophers, prevail over men in such a way that they are like kings over men and their precepts are not mortal precepts but they are received like the oracles of the gods. Whence Plato said: States would be happy if either philosophers ruled or kings philosophised. To show how difficult indeed it is for such men to believe in God I shall provide a common example and leave silent the ancient histories of the pagans, for it suffices for us the testimony of the Apostle who writing to the Corinthians said, 'See, brothers, your vocation, because not many of you are wise according to the flesh, nor many powerful, nor many noble, but God chose the stupid of the world to confound the wise, and the weak to confound the strong, and God chose the ignoble of the world and those who are contemptible.' and so on. Again he says, ' I shall destroy the wisdom of the wise and the I shall reprove the intelligence of the prudent.' And: 'Watch lest you are carried off by philosophy and inane seduction.' From all of which it is easy to see that it is most rare for the kings of the world to hear the preaching of Christ, that which, stripped of the blaze of eloquence and the ornamentation and decoration of words, taking to itself all things simple and rustic, sits down among the commoners amid squalor, to destroy what has been preached before. We propose to ourselves blessed Cyprian, he who once was an idolator and who came to such renown in the art of rhetoric that he taught oratory at Carthage, he who hearing a sermon of Jonah was converted to penance and came to such virtue that he preached Christ publicly, for which he was beheaded. This is how we understand the king of Nineveh coming down off his throne, changing his purple for sackcloth, his anointing oils for mud, his elegance for filth, that is, not the filth of meaning but of words. Whence concerning Babylon in Jeremiah it is said:' A golden cup made drunk all the land of Babylon. Who is not made drunk by the eloquence of the world? Whose souls are not touched by such arrangement of words and such brilliance of style? Difficult it is for the powerful and the rich and the noble to believe in God, and more difficult it is for the eloquent, for their minds are blinded by wealth and luxury and they are surrounded by vices so that they are not able to see the virtues and simplicity of the Holy Scriptures, not judging by the majesty by the sense but by the commonness of the words. When those who taught evil turn to penance they have begun to teach the good, so we see the people of Nineveh convert by the preaching of one man and they become that which in Isaiah reads: 'If a nation is born at once.'  That men and animals also put on sackcloth and cried out to the Lord, we understand in the same sense, that even rational and irrational, clever and simple were brought to penance by the preaching of Jonah, so in the Psalms it is said, ' You save men and animals, O Lord.' We are even able to interpret the animals donning sackcloth in the light of other passages in which it is written: Sun and earth put on sackcloth' and in another place, 'The sky shall put on sackcloth' as meaning grieving and weeping and sadness, since sackcloth is used here in a figurative sense. It is also said, ' Who knows if God shall turn and forgive?'  Thus ambiguity and uncertainty are proposed so that while men are doubtful of salvation they might more strongly take to penance and greater provoke the mercy of God. Saint Jerome, Commentary on Jonah