Queries On The Achievements Of Clergy

Quis eorum mori exoptans mundo et vivere Christo luxuriosos gentium convivas laudantes deos suos, id est, sensus, extollentes divitias, ut apostolus et avaritia, inquit, quae est simulacrorum servitus, concussis duabus virtute bracchiorum columnis, quae intelleguntur in voluptatibus nequam animae carnisque, quibus domus humanae omnis nequitiae quodammodo pangitur ac fulcimentatur, tam innumerabiles, ut Sampson, prostravit? Quis orationibus holocaustoque lactantis agni Philistinorum metum depellens insperatas tonitruorum voces nubium imbres concitans absque adulatione regem constituens, eundum Deo non placentem abiciens, uncto pro illo meliore in regno, ut Samuel, valedicturus populo astabit hoc modo dicens: Ecce praesto sum, loquimini coram Domino et christo eius, utrum bovem cuiusquam tulerim an asinum, si quempiam calumniatus sum, si oppressi aliquem, si de manu cuiusquam munus accepi? cui a populo responsum est dicente: non es calumniatus nos neque oppressisti neque tulisti de manu alicuius quippiam. Quis eorum igne caelesti centum superbos exurens, quinquaginta humiles servans et absque adulationis fuco, non Deum per prophetas, sed idolum Accaron consulenti, mortem immimentem iniquo regi annuntians, omnes prophetas simulacri Baal, qui interpretati accipiuntur sensus humani invidiae avaritiae, ut iam diximus, semper intenti, mucrone corusco, hoc est verbo Dei, ut Helias egregius vates, prostravit et zelo Dei commotus, iniquorum terrae imbres adimens aetherales, ac si fortissimo penurii clustello tribus annis sexque mensibus obseratos, fame siti moribundus in deserto conquestus est: Domine, inquiens, prophetas tuos occiderunt et altaria tua suffoderunt et ego relictus sum solus et quaerunt animam meam? Quis eorum carissimum discipulum terrenis extra solitum ponderibus oneratum, quae ante ea a se magnopere licet rogato ut acciperet despecta fuissent, etsi non perpetua lepra, ut Helisaeus, saltim expulsione multavit? Et quis ex illis puero in vitae desperatione aestuanti atque inproviso super bellico hostium apparatu civitatem, in qua erant, obsidentium tremefacto inter nos, ut ille, animae visus, ferventi exoratione ad Deum facta, ita ut intueri poterit auxiiiarium caelestis exercitus, armatorum curruum ceu equitum ignito vultu fulgentium montem plenum, patefecit, et credere quin fortior fortior esset ad salvandum quam inimici ad pugnandum? Et quis eorum corporis tactu mortui scilicet mundo, viventis autem Deo, alii diverso funcre occubanti procul dubio mortuo Deo, vitiis vero viventi quasi supra dictus proficiet, ita ut statim prosiliens Christo grates pro sanitate agat cunctorum paene mortalium ore desperata? Cuius eorum, carbone ignito de altari forcipe Cherubin advecto, ut peccata sua delerentur humilitate confessionis, labia, ut Esaiae, mundata sunt et efficaci oratione sibi adiuncta pii regis Ezechiae, supplantatione centum octoginta quinque milia exercitus Assyriorum nullo apparente vulneris vestigio angeli manu, ut supra dicti, prostrata sunt ? Quis eorum ob praecepta Dei et minas caelitus datas veritatemque vel non audientibus proferendam squalores pedoresque carcerum, ut momentaneas mortes, ut beatus Ieremias excepit ? Et ne multa: quis eorum, ut magister gentium dixit, errare hi montibus et in speluncis, et in cavernis terrae, lapidari secari, totius mortis genere pro nomine Domini attemptari, sicut sancti prophetae, perpessus est? Sanctus Gildas Sapiens, De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae Source: Migne PL 69.371c-372d

Who among them, longing to die to the world and live for Christ, has cast down, like Samson, such a wealth of feasters praising their gods and extolling their riches, that is, the senses, for as the Apostle says, 'avarice which is the service of idols,' 1 and with the power of two arms has smashed and brought down the two columns, which are understood as the vile pleasures of the soul and the flesh by which the house of every human wickedness in a certain manner is fixed and established? 2 Who among them by prayers and the burnt offering of a suckling lamb, driving away the fear of the Philistines, has, like Samuel, brought on sudden thunder and rain from the clouds, and without flattery set up a new king, and cast away the same when he did not please God, having anointed a better man for the kingdom, he who then coming to bid farewell to the people, standing before them, did so in this way, saying: 'Behold, here I am; speak before the Lord and His anointed: if I have taken anyone's ox or ass, if I have calumniated anyone, if I have oppressed anyone, if I have taken a bribe from anyone's hand.' To which the people gave reply, saying, 'You have not calumniated us, nor oppressed us, nor have you taken a bribe from any hand.' 3 Who among them, burning a hundred proud men by fire from heaven, and protecting fifty humble ones, like Elijah the prophet, without the pretence of flattery, have announced an imminent death to an unrighteous king when he was taking counsel, not of God through His prophet, but of the idol Accaron? He who overthrew with a gleaming sword, that is, the word of God, all the prophets of the idol Baal, who, being interpreted, are understood to be the human passions, as we have already said, ever intent on envy and avarice. He who moved by zeal for God, deprived the land of the wicked of heaven's rain, as if were shut up in a stronghold of want, for three years and six months, and about to die of hunger and thirst in the waste, made lament, saying: 'Lord, they have slain your prophets and thrown down your altars, and I am left alone, and they seek my life.' 4 Who among them punished a beloved disciple, burdened beyond his need by the weight of earthly things which he had previously despised, though earnestly entreated to accept them, not by perpetual leprosy, it is true, yet by dismissal, as Elisha? Who among them, in despair of life, excited and trembling at the sudden warlike preparations of the enemies for a city's besieging, has given vision to the soul of a serving boy, so that he could see the mountain full of the heavenly army of allies, and of armed chariots or horsemen flashing with fiery countenances, and believe that God was stronger to save than enemies to fight? Who among them, like him, when dead to the world and yet living to God, has profited another laying in that different death, which is doubtless death to God but living for vice, by bodily contact, so that he should swiftly leap up and give thanks to Christ for a healing despaired of in the reckoning of almost all men? 5 Whom among them, with a fiery coal carried from the altar in the tongs of Cherubim, so that his sins should be blotted out, by humble confession, as Isaiah, have had lips purified, which with the aid of the efficacious prayer of the pious king Hezekiah, utterly overthrew that one hundred and eighty five thousand of the Assyrian army, like the men mentioned above, with no trace of wound, by the hand of the angel? 6 Who among them, like the blessed Jeremiah, because of the commands of God and threats given from heaven, for the offering of truth to men who heard not, suffered the squalor and filth of prisons, as heavy as death? 7 And lest we go on too long, who among them, as the teacher of the Gentiles said, has endured wandering on mountains, in caves and holes of the earth, stoning, cutting, and trial by every kind of death for the Lord's name, like the holy prophets ? 8 Saint Gildas The Wise, On The Destruction and Ruin of Britain 1 Colos 3.5 2 Judges 16.23-30 3 1 Kings 7.8-11, 9.15-10.1, 15.22-16.13, 12.1-5 4 4 Kings 1.9-17, 3 Kings 17.36-40, 1-2, 3 Kings 19.10 5 3 Kings 5, 4 Kings 6.8-18,4.32-37 6 Isaiah 6.6, 37 7 Jerem 201-2, 37.15, 26.1-15 8 Hebr 9.36-3