Living Among The Wicked

Et quia non sufficit fideli quod ordinate conversetur, et vivat cum his cum quibus est colligatus dicitis modis. Sed oportet quod virtuose vivat cum his qui adversantur, propter quod dicitur in laudem Iob: Quod vir erat in terra simplex et rectus. Super quod Gregorius Moralium i: Non multum laudabile et esse bonum cum bonis sed bonum cum malis. Et Ezechielem iii dicitur: frater fui draconum. Unde Gregorius xx ibidem, et Ezechielem iii: Cum scorpionibus habitas. Ibi Gregorius libro i omelia ix idem. Ideo dicitur iustus Loth aspectu et auditur ii Petri i Quia bonus inter malos, Genesis xix. Philippenses ii: In medio nationis prave and perverse. Canticum ii: Sicut lilium inter spinas. Sunt ergo fideles ammonendi, ut licet habitent inter malos iuste tamen vivant declinando a malis eorum, ad Romanos ultimo: Declinate a malos. Et ut etiam diligant orent et benefaciant eis qui sunt inimici et persequentes, Mathei v: Diligite inimicos vestros, et cetera. Inimicus enim diligendus est ratione nature, odeindus ratione cuple, ait Augustinus, Contra Faustum xiii. Et xix De Civitate Dei capitulo vi. Perfecto inquit odio odera illos. Idem Gregorius Pastoralis xxix. Johannes Gallensis, Communiloquium sive Summa Collationum, Pars secunda, Distinctio nona, secunde partis, Captiulum primum, De virtuali conversatione cum adversariis. Quod laudabile est bene vivere inter malos Source: here, p124

It is not enough for a faithful man to conduct himself in an orderly fashion and live among those with whom he has attachments in the various ways mentioned, but it is necessary that he should live virtuously with those who are averse to him, because of which it is said in praise of Job that he was an innocent and upright man on the earth, 1 concerning which Gregory says in the first book of his Moralia that there is not much that is praiseworthy in being good with the good, but rather in being good among the wicked. And on the third chapter on Ezekiel 'I was a brother of dragons.' 2 Whence Gregory in the tenth book of the same work and in the third chapter of Ezekiel 'You dwell with scorpions.' 3 And in the ninth homily of the first book on the same. Therefore it is said 'the righteous Lot by sight and hearing...' in the first chapter of the second letter of Peter. 4 And a good man among evil men is found in the nineteenth chapter of Genesis. In the second chapter of the Letter to the Philippians: 'In the midst of a depraved and perverse people.' In the second chapter of the Song of Songs: 'Like a lily among thorns.' 5 Therefore let the faithful be exhorted that it is possible to dwell righteously among the wicked, yet they who do so must live there while rejecting their evils, as in the last chapter of Romans: 'Stand apart from evil folk.' Even so that they love and pray and do good to those who are enemies and persecutors. In the fifth chapter of Mathew: 'Love your enemies,' and the rest. 6 An enemy is loveable because of his rational nature and worthy of hate because of his faults, says Augustine in the third chapter of Against Faustus, and in the sixth chapter of the nineteenth book of the City of God. 'With a perfect hatred I hated them.' 7 Likewise Gregory in the twenty ninth book of his Pastoral Guide. John of Wales, The Communiloquium, Second Part, Second Part of the Ninth Distinction, First Chapter, On living virtuously among enemies, and that it is praiseworthy to live well among evil folk. 1 Job 1.1 2 Job 30.29 3 Ezek 2.6 4 2 Pet 2.7 5 Phil 2.15, Song 2.2 6 Rom 16.17, Mt 5.44 7 Ps 138.22