The Punishments Of Indiscipline

At contra, Heli, quia filiorum peccata cognovit, sed eos invectione, qua digni erant, acerrima non corripuit, eisdem filiis a Philisthiim, in bello peremptis, ipse quoque de sella retrorsum cecidit, fractisque cervicibus exspiravit. Quin et arca Domini ab hostibus capta est, et prius quidem quatuor millia, deinde triginta millia virorum sunt, Philisthaeo trucidante, prostrata. Et quidem redarguit, et quidem corripuit: sed lenitate et mansuetudine Patris, non severitate, vel auctoritate pontificis: Quare inquit, facitis res hujusmodi quas ego audio, res pessimas, ab omni populo? Nolite, filii mei; non est enim bona fama quam audio. Audierat enim, Scriptura testante, quia dormiebant cum mulieribus quae observabant ad ostium tabernaculi. Porro quos inimicos Dei vidit, in perniciem suam filios recognovit: et quos hostili ferire gladio debuit, paternae blanditiae lenitate palpavit. Non sic ille fidelis in domo Domini famulus Moyses, magister videlicet ingenui Phinees. Stans enim in porta castrorum, ait, Si quis est Domini, jungatur mihi. Congregatique sunt ad eum omnes filii Levi, quibus ait: Haec dicit Dominus Deus Israel: Ponat gladium vir super femur suum: ite, et redite de porta usque ad portam per medium castrorum: et occidat unusquisque fratrem, et proximum, et amicum suum. Caesis itaque viginti tribus millibus hominum, ait Moyses: Consecrastis manus vestras hodie Domino, unusquisque in filio et fratre suo, ut detur vobis benedictio. Plane sicut benedictione digni sunt, qui culpas corrigunt, ita nihilominus maledictioni obnoxii sunt, qui peccantibus blandiuntur, sicut per prophetam dicitur: Maledictus qui prohibet gladium suum a sanguine. A sanguine quippe gladium suum prohibet, qui se ab inferenda reprobis dignae sententiae animadversione coercet. Facti siquidem culpam habet, qui quod potest, negligit emendare. Unde et praefato Heli dicit Dominus: Quare calce abjicitis victimam meam, et munera mea quia praecepti ut offerrentur in templo, et magis honorasti filios tuos quam me? Si ergo Heli propter duos duntaxat filios, quos non ea qua digni erant invectione corripit, eum eis simul, et cum tot hominum multitidune periit,; qua arbitramur dignos esse sententia, qui in aula ecclesiastica, et soliis judicantium praesident, et super non ignotis pravorum hominum criminibus tacent? Qui dum dehonestare homines in publico metuunt, ad contumeliam superni judicis divinae legis mandata confundunt: et dum perditis hominibus amittendi honoris officium servant, ipsum ecclesiasticae dignitatis auctorem crudeliter inhonorant. Unde et eidem Heli, qui Deum, suos filios honorando, contempserat, divina vox ait, Quicunque glorificaverit me, glorificabo eum; qui autem contemnunt me, erunt ignobiles. Ubi mox subditur: Ecce dies veniunt, et praecidam brachium tuum, et brachium domus patris tui. Ac si aperte dicat: Qui ego per pastoralis officii dignitatem contra inimicos meos brachium tibi fortitudinis contuli, sed tu ad eorum ultionem illud exerere noluisti; jam brachium a te praecidam, id est, vigorem tibi scardotalis culminis auferam: ut qui manceps fueras ad pugnandum pro me, jam nec manum habeas ad tuendum te. Ponamus plane, quod Ophni et Phinees, episcopi sint; Heli autem metropolitani vicem teneat: quid ergo deterius quis potest agere, quam si luxuriosis parcet, cum emendare praevaleat? Praesertim cum praefato Heli Dominus dicat: Praedixi ei, quod judicaturus esse domum ejus in aeternum, propter iniquitatem, eo quod noverat indigne agere filios suos, et non corripuerit eos; idcirco juravi domui Heli, quod non expietur iniquitas domus ejus victimis et muneribus, usque in aeternum. Si ergo victimis et muneribus omnia crimina diluuntur, sola autem falsa in episcopis pietas veniam non meretur; videat qui eorum dijudicare mala dissimulat, quam durae sententiae apud districtum judicem se obnoxium reddat. Peter Damianus, De Caelibatu Sacerdotum, Caput II Source: Migne PL 145.383a-384b

But on the contrary, Heli, since he was aware of the sins of his sons but did not correct them with the sharp invective of which they were worthy, with his sons, who were slain in war with the Philistines, he falling backward off his seat and breaking his neck, perished. And then the ark of the Lord was seized by the enemy, with first four thousand and then thirty thousand men slain, being cut down by the Philistines. 1 And yet he did reprove and he did admonish, but only with the lenity and meekness of a father, not with the severity or authority of a high priest. He said, 'Why do you do these things which I hear, the worse things, from all the people. Do not do so, my sons, for it is no good tale which I hear.'  For he heard, Scripture bears witness, that they coupled with the woman who kept watch at the entrance of the tabernacle. 2 Thus he saw those who were enemies of God, and he marked his sons in wickedness, but those against whom he should have borne a hostile sword, he caressed with gentle paternal blandishments. Not so that faithful servant in the house of the Lord, Moses, teacher of the upright Phineas. For standing in the gateway of the camps, he said, 'If someone is of the Lord, let him join with me. And they gathered to him all the sons of Levi, to whom he said, 'This does the Lord of Israel say: Gird your sword upon your thigh and go and return from gate to gate through the midst of the camps and kill every brother and neighbour and friend.'  And thus with the slaying of twenty three thousand men, Moses said: 'Today you have consecrated your hands to the Lord; each one in his son and his brother, that a blessing might be given you.' 3 Obviously they are worthy of a blessing, who correct fault, as they are worthy of a curse who indulge sins, as through the Prophet it is said: 'Cursed is he who withholds his sword from blood.' 4 From blood the sword is certainly withheld by him who restrains himself from the bringing of the words of reproof against those worthy of it. Whence the Lord said to Heli, 'Why now with your heel do you kick away my sacrifice and my gifts which I commanded to be offered in my temple, and you give more honour to your sons than Me?' 5 If therefore Heli who only on account of his two sons, whom he did not correct in those things in which they were worthy of invective, perished, and along with them, a whole multitude of men, what sentence shall we be deemed worthy of, who in the churches, sitting on the thrones of judgement, do not keep silent even over the undisclosed crimes of depraved men? While they who balk at disgracing men in public, confound unto insults the commands of the Divine law of the heavenly judge, and while they protect ruinous men from being expelled from offices of honour, cruelly disgrace the creator of ecclesiastical honour. Whence to that same Heli, who disdained God while honouring his sons, the Divine voice said, 'Whoever shall glorify Me, I will glorify him, and they who spurn me, they will be disgraced. ' And a little after: 'Behold, the days will come when I shall cut off your arm and the arm of the house of your father.' 6 As if He openly should say: Because I have brought my strong arm against enemies to you by the dignity of the pastoral office, but you are unwilling to exert yourself to the punishment of them, now I shall cut off that arm from you, that is, I shall take away from you the life of sacerdotal eminence, that you who were an agent in battle for me, no more shall have that hand for your protection. We shall propose plainly, then, that Ophnis and Phineas, the sons, are bishops, and Heli holds the archbishopric; and what therefore is worse to do, if he spares luxuriating bishops who is able to improve them? Especially when the Lord said concerning Heli, 'I said to him that judgement shall be passed on his house for eternity, because of iniquity, since he knew that his sons acted shamefully and he did not correct them, therefore I swear against the house of Heli, that the iniquity of his house shall not be expiated by sacrifices and gifts even unto eternity.'  7 If therefore sacrifices and gifts all crimes sweep away, and the false piety of bishops shall not merit forgiveness, let him see who dissembles over judgement of evils, what hard sentence shall be returned to the wavering judge who is guilty before Him. Peter Damian, from On The Celibacy of the Clergy, Chapter 2 1 1 Kings 4.1-18 2 1 Kings 2.22-24 3 Exodus 32.26-29 4 Jerem 48.10 5 1 Kings 2.29 6 1 Kings 2.30-31 7 1 Kings 3.13-14