Dissension And Difficulties

Rogo vos, fratres, ut observestis eos qui dissentiones et offendicula, praeter doctrinam, quam vos didicistis, faciunt; et declincate ab eis. Manifestum est ex offendiculis fieri dissensiones, ex dissensionibus divisiones, ex quibus haereses fiunt et schismata. Si autem praecipit Apostolus declinandum ab eis qui offendicula faciunt, quanto magis qui dissensionibus Eccleisam dividunt. Hujusmodi enim Christo Domino non serviunt, sed suo ventri... Non curantes cujus cor possint exinanire, dum suum ventrem possint implere. Videtur hic tangere aliquas haeresum pestes jam in Ecclesia pullulantes, per dulces, sicut ipse dicit, semones et benedictiones innocentium corda seducentes, ponentes secundum prophetam, tenebras lucem et lucem tenebras, amarum dulce, et dulce amarum; ad dulce placitum loquentes, vitiis adulantes; et in his omnibus, nonnisi quae ventris sunt, quaerentes. Guillelmus S Theodorici Abbas, Expositio In Epistolam Ad Romanos, Liber VII, Cap XVI Source: Migne PG 180.691d-692a

I beseech you, brothers, that you watch out for those who create dissensions and difficulties on account of the teaching which you were taught. Avoid them. 1 It is manifest that from difficulties comes dissent, and from dissent division, from which heresies and schisms arise. If the Apostle commands that we must withdraw from those who create difficulties, so much more from those who divide the Church with dissension. For these sort do not serve the Lord Christ but their own bellies...2 They who by lack of care make the heart empty while they fill their bellies. This seems to refer to some heretical pests polluting the Church, who with sweet words and blessings, as he then says, seduce the innocent of heart, and as the prophet says, place darkness for light and light for darkness, bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter, 3 speaking sweetly to please, praising vice, and in all these things, seeking nothing else but what is for the belly. William of St Thierry, Commentary on Romans, Book 7, Chap 16 1 Rom 16.17 2 Rom 16.18 3 Isaiah 5.20