A Judge Counselled

Vides igitur quid auctoritas tribuat, quid suadeat misericordia. Excusationem habebis, feceris: laudem, si non feceris. Sed si non potueris facere; nec tamen nocentes atterere squalore carceris, sed absolvere, plus quasi sacardos probabo. Potest enim fieri ut causa cognita, recipiatur ad senientiam reus, qui postea aut indulgeniiam sibi petat, aut certe sine gravi severitate, quod quidam ait, habitet in carcere. Scio tamen plerosque gentilium gloriari solitos, quod incruentam de administratione provinciali securim revexerrint Si hoc gentiles, quid Christiani debent? Ad omnia tamen accipe responsum Salvatoris. Nam cum adulteram reperissent obtulerunt eam Salvatori, captantes ut si absolveret eam, videretur legem solvere, qui dixerat: Non veni legem solvere, sed adimplere: si damnaret, videretur adversus finem venisse propositi sui. Hoc igitur praevidens Dominus Jesus, inclinato capite, scribebat in terra. Quid scribebat, nisi illud propheticum: Terra, terra scribe hos viros abdicatos; quod de Jechonia descriptum est in Hieremia prophetam? Cum Judaei interpellant, in terra scribuntur nomina Judaeorum: cum adeunt Christiani, non scribuntur in terra fidelium nomina, sed in coelo. In terra autem scribuntur abdicati a patre proprio, qui patrem tentant, et contumelias irrogant auctori salutis. Cum interpellant Judaei, inciinat caput Jesus; et quia non habet ubi reclinet caput suum, iterum erigit, quasi dicturus sententiam, et ait : Qui sine peccato est, prior lapidet eam. Et iterum inclinato capite, scribebat in terra. Audientes illi exire coeperunt singuli, incipentes a senioribus: vel quod ipsi plura haberent crimina, qui diu vixerant: vel quia priores vim intellexerunt sententia, quasi prudentiores, et coeperunt sua magis peccata deflere, qui alieni criminis venerant accusatores. Recedentibus ergo illis, remansit solus Jesus, et elevans caput ad mulierem, ait: Ubi sunt, qui te accusabant? Nemo te lapidavit? Et illa respondit: Nemo. Dicit ei Jesus: Nec ego te damnabo. Vade et vide amodo ne pecces. Non damnat, quasi redemptio; corrigit , ita: quasi vita: quasi fons, abluit. Et quia quando se inclinat Jesus, ideo inclinat, ut jacentes elevet: ideo ait remissio peccatorum: Nec ego te damnabo. Habes quod sequaris; potest enim fieri, ut ille criminosus possit habere spem correctionis: si sine baptismo est, ut possit accipere remissionem: si baptizatus, ut poenitentiam gerat, et corpus suum pro Christo offerat. Quantae sunt ad salutem viae. Sanctus Ambrosius Mediolanensis, Epistula XXV, Studio Source: Migne PL 16.1040b-1042a

See, then, that He who gives you power would persuade you to be merciful. You will be excused if you do it, praised if you do not. But if you are not able to do it, if you are unwilling to afflict the perpetrator with the squalor of a prison, I, a priest, shall approve of you far more. For it may well be that when the cause is set forth the guilty man may be reserved for judgment, who later may ask pardon for himself, or certainly may suffer what is called a less severe stay in prison. Even pagans, I know, are accustomed to boast that they have brought back the axes from their provincial government unstained with blood. And if pagans do this what should Christians to do? In all these matters receive the answer of the Saviour. The Jews brought an adulteress they had caught to the Saviour, so that they might seize on Him if He were to forgive her, because by doing that He would appear to flout the law, He who had said, 'I do not come to destroy the law, but to fulfil it,' and if He were to condemn her, He might seem to act against the purpose of His coming. Therefore the Lord Jesus, foreseeing this, inclined His head and wrote upon the earth. What did He write but that word of the prophet, 'O Earth, Earth, write these men deposed,' which was told of Jeconiah in the prophet Jeremiah. 1 When the Jews interrupt Him, their names are written in the earth, when the Christians draw near, the names of the faithful are not written on the earth but in heaven. For they are written on the earth as cast off by their Father, they who tempt their Father, and heap insult on the author of salvation. When the Jews interrupt Him, Jesus inclines His head, but not having anywhere to lay His head, 1 He raises it again, and as if about to give sentence, says, 'Let him that is without sin cast the first stone at her.' And again He inclined His head and wrote upon the ground. When they heard this they began to go out one by one beginning with the oldest, either because those who had lived the longest had committed the most sins, or because, being wiser, they were the first to understand His meaning, and so they began to lament their own sins who had come as the accusers of the evil of another. When they departed Jesus was left alone, and lifting up His head, He said to the woman, 'Woman, where are those who accused you? Has no man cast a stone at you?' She said, 'No one.' And Jesus said to her, 'Neither do I condemn you. Go, and sin no more.' He does not condemn because He is the Redemption, He corrects as the Life, He cleanses as the Fountain. For when Jesus bends down, He does so that He may raise up those who have fallen. Therefore the absolver of sins says, 'Neither do I condemn you.' You have here what you should follow, for it may be that there is hope of amendment for this guilty man, and if he is not baptised, that he may receive remission, and if he has been baptised that he may do penance and offer up his body for Christ. See how many ways there are to salvation. Saint Ambrose, from Letter 25, to Studius 1 Jn 8.3-, Mt 5.17, Jerem 22.29 2 Mt 8.20