Corruption And Resurrection

Corruptio duobus modis accidere dicitur: corporaliter et spiritaliter. Corporaliter accidit, cum evenerit illud quod scriptum est: Si quis templum Dei corruperit, corrumpet illum Deus. Spiritaliter vero, cum illud acciderit quod nihilominus Apostolus dicit: Vereor autem ne sicut serpens Evan seduxit astutua sua, sic corrumpantur sensus vestri a simplicitate fidei, quae est in Christo Jesu. Si quis ergo ab his quae supra diximus manserit corpore et spiritu incorruptus, iste incorruptionem quaerere dicitur, quo scilicet per hanc observantiae incorruptionem, illam quae ex resurrectione est incorruptionem consequi mereatur. Quid autem detur haec requirentibus videamus. Vita, inquit, aeterna, illa de qua Salvator docet, cum dicit: Haec est autem vita aeterna, ita cognoscant te solum verum Deum, et quem misisti Jesum Christum. Per quod ostendit in agnitione Dei, et Christi Jesu, vitae aeternae manere substantiam. Agnitio vero Dei quomodo haberi possit, docemur in Psamlis, cum dicitur: Vacate et agnoscite quoniam ego sum Deus. Origenes, Commentariorum In Epistolam Beati Pauli Ad Romanos, Liber II, Interprete Rufino Aquileiense Source: Migne PG 14.882c-883a

Corruption is said to happen in two ways, bodily and spiritually. It happens bodily when there comes about what has been written, 'If someone shall corrupt the temple of God, God shall corrupt him.' 1 But it is spiritual when it happens as the Apostle says, 'I fear lest as the serpent seduced Eve with its cleverness, so they are corrupting your minds from the simplicity of the faith which is in Jesus Christ.' 2 Therefore if someone keeps himself uncorrupted from the things we have spoken about, he is said to be one who seeks incorruption, because of which, through this observance of incorruption, he shall merit that incorruption which follows after the resurrection. Let us consider what is given to those who seek this. 'Eternal life,' it is said, concerning which the Saviour teaches when He says, 'This is eternal life, that they know that you alone are the true God, and Him whom you sent, Jesus Christ.' 3 By which it is shown that the substance of eternal life is found in the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ. And we are taught how it is possible to have this knowledge of God in the Psalms when it is said, 'Be at peace and know that I am God.' 4 Origen, from the Commentary on the Letter of Paul to the Romans, Book 2, Translated by Rufinus of Aquileia. 1 1 Cor 3.17 2 2 Cor 11.3 3 Jn 17.3 4 Ps 45.11

Power And Corruption

Ὡς ὁ πλοῦτος τοὺς οὐ προσέχοντας ἐκτραχηλίζειν εἲωεν, οὕτω καὶ ἡ ἀρχή. Ἐκεῖνος μὲν γὰρ εἰς πλεονεξίαν, αὕτη δὲ εἰς ἀπόνοιαν ἄγει. Ὄρα γοῠν τὸ ἀρχόμενον πλῆθος τῶν Ἰουδαίων ὑγιαῖον, τοὺς δὲ ἄρχοντας διεφθαρμένους. Ὅτι γὰρ οὕτοι αὐτῷ ἐπίστευον, λέγουσι μὲν συνεχῶς οἱ εὐαγγελισταὶ, ὅτι Πολλοὶ ἐκ τοῦ ὄχλου ἐπίστευσαν αὐτῷ. Ἐκ δὲ τῶν ἀρχόντων ἠπίστουν. Καὶ αὐτοὶ λέγουσιν, οὐχὶ ὁ ὄχλος, Μὴ τις τῶν ἀρχόντων ἐπίστευσεν εἰς αὐτὸν; Ἀλλὰ τί φησι; Τὸ πλῆθος, οἱ μὴ εἰδότες τὸν Θεὸν, ἐπικατάρατοί εἰσι. Τοὺς πιστεύοντας ἐπικαταράτους ἔλεγον, ἑαυτοὺς δὲ ἀναιροῦντας, συνετούς. Ἅγιος Ἰωάννης ὁ Χρυσόστομος, Υπόμνημα Εἰς τὸν ἅγιον Ἰωάννην τὸν Ἀπόστολον και Εὑαγγελιστην, Ὁμιλία ΞϚ’ Source: Migne PG 59.365

As wealth will ruin those who are not prudent, so it is with power. The first leads into covetousness, the second into pride. See how the subject multitude of the Jews is sound and the rulers are corrupt. For the Evangelists continually tell us that the former believed in Christ, saying, 'Many of the multitude believed in Him,' 1 but the rulers did not believe. And it is they themselves, not the multitude, who say, 'Has any of the rulers believed in Him?' But what says one of them? 'The multitude do not know God, they are accursed.' 2 They call the believers accursed, and themselves, the slayers, wise. Saint John Chrysostom, Commentary On The Gospel of Saint John, from Homily 66 1 Jn 7.31 2 Jn 7.48-49

Two Sorts Of Listeners

Exiit, qui seminat... Est igitur auditorum verb quadripartita differentia. Alii cor habentes conculcatum ac induratum, praedicationem aure foris audiunt, sed hanc in corde non recipiunt: quibus secus viam, non in via credulitatis vel obedientiae verba cadunt. Non enim omnium fides, nec omnes obediunt Evangelio. Inter aurem enim et cor daemon volitans, quod per unam aurem intrat, per alteram extrahit, ne ad cor descendat. Cum enim praedicator assurgit, ut foris loquatur, assurgit diabolus, ut intus obloquatur, aut falsum esse suggerens, aut pervertens quod dicitur, aut dimicans a quo dicitur, aut somno, aut aliis cogitationibus aggravans illum, cui dicitur. Alii facilitatem obedientiae habentes, sed virtute carentes constantiae, ut filii Ephream intendentes arcum, convertuntur in die belli, cito compuncti, citius arefacti, temporales et leves, non habentes altam radicem charitatis: tempore pacis credunt, tempore tentationis recedunt, dum nil intus prurit, coelibs: dum nil foris saevit, fortes: si nemo molescat, mansueti: si cuncta succedunt, devoti: quibus illud convenit: Confitebitur tibi, cum benefeceris ei. Vere filii Adam, ut qualis pater, tales illi: qui coneousque stetit, donec leviter pulsatus ruit. Sicut primi nimis duri, sic hi nimis molles: illi obstinati, hi pusillanimes; illi non recipiunt verbum, hi non retinent. Isaac, Cisterciensis Abbas, Sermo XVIII In Festum Omnium Sanctorum II Source: Migne PL 194.1751b-c

A sower went out to sow... 1 There are four types among those who hear. There are those with hearts which have been trodden down and made hard, and preaching reaches their outer ear but it is not received into the heart. The seed has fallen beside the path, because the words do not fall onto the way of belief and obedience. The faith is not for everyone, nor do all obey the Gospel. 2 A demon flits about between their ears and hearts, and what enters through one ear it drives out through the the other. When a preacher rises to speak exteriorly, the devil rises up within to speak against him, suggesting what is false, or perverting what is said, or disputing the preacher's good character, or distracting with sleep or other thoughts. Others are able to obey, but they lack the virtue of perseverance, so that they are like the sons of Ephraim bending the bow who are overturned on the day of battle. 3 They are quick to compunction and quicker to relapse. Transient and light, they do not have the taproot of love. 4 In times of peace they are faithful, but in trials they fall. When desire does not trouble them, they are chaste, when no one challenges them they are brave, and if no one irritates them they are peaceable. If all goes well, they are devout, and it was well said of them, 'He will confess you when you bless him.' 5 They are the true sons of Adam, for they are just like that father who stood firm until a light blow toppled him. As the first kind of hearer is too hard, the latter is too soft. As the first kind is obstinate, the latter is weak. The first kind do not receive the Word and the second kind do not keep hold of it. Isaac of Stella, from Sermon Eighteen, A Second on the Feast of All Saints  1 Lk 8.5 2 2 Thes 3.2, Rom 10.16 3 Ps 77.9 4 1 Cor 13.7 5 Ps 48.19

Bad Teachers

Εἰώθασιν γάρ τινες δόλῳ πονηρῷ τὸ ὄνομα περιφέρειν, ἄλλα τινὰ πράσσοντες ἀνάξια Θεοῦ· οὒς δεῖ ὑμᾶς ὡς θηρία ἐκκλίνειν· εἰσὶν γὰρ κύνες λυσσῶντες, λαθροδῆκται· οὓς δεῖ ὑμᾶς φθλάσσεσθαι ὄντας δυσθεραπεύτος. Eἷς ἰατρός ἐστιν, σαρκικός τε καὶ πνευματικός, γεννητὸς καὶ ἀγέννητος, ἐν ἀνθρώπῳ Θεός, ἐν θανάτῳ ζωὴ ἀληθινή, καὶ ἐκ Μαρίας καὶ ἐκ Θεοῦ, πρῶτον παθητὸς καὶ τότε ἀπαθής, Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς ὁ Kύριος ἡμῶν. Μὴ οὖν τις ὑμᾶς ἐξαπατάτω, ὥσπερ οὐδὲ ἐξαπατᾶσθε, ὅλοι ὄντες Θεοῦ. ὅταν γὰρ μηδεμία ἔρις ἐνήρεισται ἐν ὑμῖν ἡ δυναμένη ὑμᾶς βασανίσαι, ἄρα κατὰ Θεὸν ζῆτε. περίψημα ὑμῶν καὶ ἁγνίζομαι ὑμῶν Ἐφεσίων, ἐκκλησίας τῆς διαβοήτου τοῖς αἰῶσιν. Oἱ σαρκικοὶ τὰ πνευματικὰ πράσσειν οὐ δύναται, οὐδὲ οἱ πνευματικοὶ τὰ σαρκικά, ὥσπερ οὐδὲ ἡ πίστις τὰ τῆς ἀπιστίας οὐδε ἡ ἀπιστία τὰ τῆς πίστεως. Ἃ δὲ καὶ κατὰ σάρκα πράσσετε, ταῦτα πνευματικά ἐστιν· ἐν Ἰησοῦ γὰρ Χριστῷ πάντα πράσσετε. Ἔγνων δὲ παροδεύσαντάς τινας ἐκεῖθεν, ἔχοντας κακὴν διδαχήν· οὓς οὐκ εἰάσατε σπεῖραι εἰς ὑμᾶς, βύσαντες τὰ ὦτα, εἰς τὸ μὴ παραδέξασθαι τὰ σπειρόμενα ὑπ’ αὐτῶν, ὡς ὄντες λίθοι ναοῦ Πατρός, ἡτοιμασμένοι εἰς οἰκοδομὴν θεοῦ Πατρός, αναφερόμενοι εἰς τὰ ὕψη διὰ τῆς μηχανῆς Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, ὅς ἐστιν σταυρός, σχοινίῳ χρώμενοι τῷ Πνεύματι τῷ ἁγίῳ· ἡ δὲ πίστις ὑμῶν ἀναγωγεὺς ὑμῶν, ἡ δὲ ἀγάπη ὁδὸς ἡ ἀναφέρουσα εἰς θεόν. Ἐστὲ οὖν καὶ σύνοδοι πάντες, θεοφόροι καὶ ναοφόροι, χριστοφόροι, ἁγιοφόροι, κατὰ πάντα κεκοσμημένοι ἐντολαῖς Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ· οἷς καὶ ἀγαλλιώμενος ἠξιώθην δι’ ὧν γράφω προσομιλῆσαι ὑμῖν καὶ συγχαρῆναι, ὅτι κατ’ ἄλλον βίον οὐδὲν ἀγαπᾶτε εἰ μὴ μόνον τὸν θεόν. Ἅγιος Ἰγνάτιος Ἀντιοχείας, Ἐπιστολή Προς Ἐφεσιους Source: Migne PG 5.649b-653a

For some with wicked guile carry about the name but do things unworthy of God, whom you must flee as wild beasts, for they are rabid dogs, biters in secret, whom you must guard against since they are so difficult to cure. There is one physician of flesh and spirit, made and unmade, God in man, true life in death, from Mary and God, first passible and then impassible, Jesus Christ our Lord. Let no one deceive you, as you are not deceived being wholly of God. For when there is no strife raging among you that is able to grieve you, you are certainly living according to God. As an offscouring I require sanctification by your Church of Ephesus, so renowned for the ages. Those who are carnal cannot do spiritual things, nor can they that are spiritual do carnal things, just as faith cannot accomplish the works of unbelief, nor unbelief the works of faith. But even the things you do according to the flesh are spiritual things, for you do all things in Jesus Christ. But I have learnt that some with evil teaching came from elsewhere, whom you did not allow to sow among you, but you stopped your ears so that you might not receive the things sown by them, like stones of the temple of the Father, prepared for the building of God the Father, 1 and drawn up on high by the device of Jesus Christ, which is the cross, making use of the Holy Spirit as a rope, and your faith was how you ascended, and your love was the way which led to God. You, therefore, and all who travel with you, are God-bearers, temple-bearers, Christ-bearers, bearers of holiness, adorned all over with the commandments of Jesus Christ, in whom I also exult, I who have been found worthy through what I write to converse and rejoice with you, because according to your different way of life you love nothing but God alone. Saint Ignatius of Antioch, from the Letter to the Ephesians 1 1 Pet 2.5

The Corrupted Mountain

Ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ πρὸς σὲ τὸ ὄρος τὸ διεφθαρμένον τὸ διαφθεῖρον πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν καὶ ἐκτενῶ τὴν χεῖρά μου ἐπὶ σὲ καὶ κατακυλιῶ σε ἀπὸ τῶν πετρῶν καὶ δώσω σε ὡς ὄρος ἐμπεπυρισμένον. Ὅρος τὴν Βαθυλῶνα διὰ τὸ τῆς βασιλείας ὕψος kαλεῖ' ὅπερ ἦν ἐξ εἰδωλολατρείας καὶ τῶν ἀδίχων ἔργων, δι᾿ ὧν διέφθειρε τοὺς ἄλλους διεφθαρμένον. Ἦν δὲ καὶ ἐφ᾽ ὕψους ἡ πόλις διὰ τὸν παραχεΐμενον ποταμὸν, ἐξ οὗ τινες ἀναδαθμοὶ πρὸς τὴν πόλιν ἀνέφερον, διμερῆ, τε οὖσαν καὶ ἐξ ἑχατέρας ὄχθης παραχειμένην τῷ ποταμῷ, πρὸς τῷ καὶ εἶναι τὰ τείχη τῆς πόλεως ὑψηλότατα. Χεῖρα δὲ τὴν τιμωρητιχὴν δύναμιν τὴν τῆς ἰδίας αὐτὴν ὡς ἐχ πετρῶν χαθαεροῦσαν ἀσφαλείας τε χαὶ φρουρᾶς εἰς ἄχρηστον δὲ χαὶ τοὺς λίθους αὐτῆς διὰ τὸ πῦρ ἀφανίζουσαν, ὡς μὴ συνίστασθαι λίθον πρὸς στεῤῥοϊέραν οἰχοδομίαν. ᾿Αναγωγῆς δὲ λόγῳ καὶ ὁ διάδολος ὄρος ὠνόμασται, ὡς ἐν τῷ Ζαχαρίᾳ' Τίς εἶ σὺ τὸ ὄρος τὸ μέγα, τὸ πρὸ προσὠπου Ζοροδάδε; Καὶ περὶ τοῦ ἔχοντος χωφὸν καὶ ἄλαλον δαιμόνιον ἔλεγεν ὁ Σωτήρ' Ἑὰν ἔχητε κίστιν ὡς χόχχον σιγάπεως, ἐρεῖτε τῷ ὄρει τούτῳ' Μετάδηθι, καὶ μεταδήσεται. Ὅρος οὖν ὁ διάδολος ἀπὸ τῆς ἰδίας διεφθαρμένον kαkίας, καὶ διαφθεῖρον τοὺς, ὅσοι φρονοῦσι τὰ γήϊνα. Ὠριγένης, Ἐκλογαι Εἰς Ἱερεμαιν Source: Migne PG 13.603b-c

Behold I am against you, corrupted mountain that corrupts the whole earth, with my hand stretched out against you I shall tear you from your stones, and I shall make of you a burnt heap. 1 Babylon is called a mountain because of the eminence of its kingdom, which being corrupted with its idolatry and wicked works corrupted others. And the city itself was set on a high place because of the proximity of the river, from which steps rose up to the city, on two sides, even from both banks of the river. And besides this the city walls were very high. But the hand is the punishing power that tears it from its own security and fortifications, as from a stone foundation, and its stones will be of no more use because of the coming fire, and there shall not be one of them able to make firm its construction. And by reason of anagoge the devil is also called a mountain, as in Zachariah, 'Who are you, great mountain, who are before the face of Zorobabel?' 2 And concerning him who had a deaf and dumb demon, the Saviour said, 'If you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say to this mountain, Go, and it would go.' 3 Thus the mountain is the devil corrupted by his own depravity, and he corrupts those who know the things of the earth. Origen, Commentary On Jeremiah, Fragment 1 Jerem 51.25 2 Zach 4.7 3 Mt 17.19

Achan And Corruption

Furatur interea de anathemate urbis Jericho Achan pallium, et linguam auream, pro quo, irascente Deo, perierunt quidam manu hostili ex populo. Jericho itaque, ut dictum est, mundi gerit figuram. De anathemate ergo ejus fraudans in tabernaculo suo abscondit, qui saeculares mores in secretis Ecclesiae inserit; qui, sub cultu Dei manens, solemnitates saeculi vel spectacula diligit; qui sortilegos, haruspices et augures inquirit, vel qui caeteros ritus persuadet, qui prius in Jericho, id est, in hoc saeculo habebantur; ipse ergo, quia post fidei indumentum conversationis saecularis cultum inducit, quasi pallium de anathemate tollit. Sed et ille de anathemate Jericho fraudat, qui in Ecclesia haereticorum infert dogmata, vel superstitiosa saecularium litterarum studia. Haec est enim lingua aurea luculento sermone aptate. Hanc furati sunt Arius, Marcion et Basilides. Furati sunt enim isti regulas aureas de Jericho, qui philosophorum sectam conati sunt in Ecclesiam introducere et maculare omnem Ecclesiam Domini, uta ut disperderentur multi per eos; ideoque abjecti sunt per anathema, et quasi acervo lapidum, ita multitudine peccatorum suorum oppressi atque exstincti sunt. Quorum errore perempto, rex Hai, hoc est, diabolus, qui per illorum impietatem fidelium quosdam evicerat, rursum superatus evincitur, atque a populo Dei suspensus, ligni crucis virtute necatur. Sanctus Isidorus Hispalensis,Mysticorum Expositiones Sacramentorum Seu Quaestiones In Vetus Testamentum, In Josue, Caput VIII Source: Migne PL 83.374d-375b

Meanwhile Achan, despite the ban on the city of Jericho, plundered a cloak and a bar of gold, by which,  because of the anger of God, he perished by the hostile hands of the people. 1 Thus Jericho, as has been said, is a figure of the world, and against the ban he hides his deceit in his tent who brings worldly customs into the sanctuary of the Church, he who though he remains within the worship of God, loves the weighty things of the world and its amusements, who enquires of fortune tellers, haruspices, and augers, and persuades others to do such things which were once done in Jericho, that is, in this world. Therefore he who brings in the cult of worldly cares after putting on the clothing of faith is he who takes a cloak against the ban. And he also flouts the ban concerning Jericho who brings heretical teachings into the Church, or the superstitious studies of worldly letters, for this is the golden tongue which fair speech furnishes. Whence Arius and Marcion and Basilides are plunderers, since they are plunderers of the golden bars of Jericho who try to introduce the schools of the philosophers into the Church and sully the whole of the Church of the Lord so that they might ruin many by it, and thus they are cast down by the ban, and with the mass of their sins, as with a heap of stones, they are burdened and perish. And with their fatal error, because of the impiety of those who were faithful, king Ai, that is, the devil, conquered them, but he in turn is conquered, and by the people of God hung up, slain with the power of the wood of the cross. Saint Isidore of Seville, Expositions of Sacred Mysteries or Questions on the Old Testament, On Joshua, Chapter 8 1 Joshua 7

A Great Commotion

Bene autem subditur: Et audivi post me vocem commotionis magnae. Propheta, sancto Spiritu repletus, quasi transacta narrat, quae facienda praevidet, quia et in praedestinatione jam facta sunt, quae adhuc in opere sequuntur. Unde et in translatione veteri per Isaiam dicitur: Qui fecit quae futura sunt. Quid est ergo quod post se propheta vocem audivit commotionis magnae, nisi quod post sermonem praedicationis, qui fit ad corda peccantium, lamenta poenitentium sequuntur? Perversi etenim quique dum prava agunt, et a justis recta non audiunt, nesciunt quam sint gravia quae committunt, atque ex ipsa sua ignorantia, in suo stupore securi sunt; et jacentes in culpis, quasi molliter quiescunt, sicut de quodam peccatore et securo populo dicitur: Requievit in faecibus suis, quia securus jacuit in peccatis. Sanctus Gregorius Magnus, In Ezechielem Prophetam, Liber Primus, Homilia X Source: Migne PL 76.896c-897a

Well it is added, 'And I heard the sound of a great commotion behind me. 1 The prophet, filled with the Holy Spirit, speaks of things having happened which he foresees shall be, because in predestination things are already done that are to follow from the deed. Whence in an old translation of Isaiah it is said: 'He who made the things that will be.' 2 What, then, is the sound of a great commotion that the prophet hears behind himself, unless what happens after the act of preaching, which strikes the hearts of sinners so that the lamentations of penance follow? They who do not hear the right things of the righteous while they do vile things are perverse, and they do not know how grave are the things that they do, and because of their own ignorance they are confident in their foolishness and they exult in faults, as if they were happily at peace. So it was said of a certain sinner and a people who felt secure, 'He rested in his own filth,' 3 because as one confident he exulted in his sins. Saint Gregory the Great, On the Prophet Ezekiel, Book 1, from Homily 10 1 Ezek 3.12 2 Isaiah 45.11 translation from the Septuagint 3 Jerem 48.11

Withering And Flowering

...ἐπαλαιώθην ἐν πᾶσιν τοῖς ἐχθροῖς μου ... Ὅρα εἰ δύναται τὸ, Ἐπαλαιώθν ἐν πᾶσι τοῖς ἐχθροῖς μου, καὶ ἑτέραν νόησιν ἔχειν. Ὅτε σὺν δικαιοσύνῃ ἔζων, ἐνέαζον ἀεὶ ζῶν κατὰ τὴν καινότητα τοῦ πνεύματος καὶ τὴν καινὴν διαθήκην· ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἐξ ἀποροσεξίας ἡμετέρας μετέστην τοῦ ἐπαινετῶς ζῇν παρὰ τοῖς ἑχθροῖς γενάμενος, πεπαλαίωμαι, κατὰ τὴν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐκείνου παλαιότητα, ὄν ἐνδυσώμεθα τὸν νέον ἄνθρωπον, τὸν κατὰ Θεὸν κτισθέντα ἐν ὁσιότητι καὶ γνώσει τῆς ἀληθείας· οὗτος δὲ ἐστιν ὁ βίος ὁ ἀκηλίδωτος. Δίδυμος Αλεξανδρεύς, Εἰς Ψαλμούς, Ψαλμος Ϛ’ Source: Migne PG 39.11177c-d

...I withered amid all my enemies... 1 Note that 'I have withered amid all my enemies' can have another meaning. 'When I was living righteously, I was always being renewed in my life according to the newness of the spirit and new faith. But after, because of fault, cut off from the midst of that glorious life, I withered among enemies, as if with old age, like that old man whom Paul exhorts us to slough off, so that we may put on the new man, who is created according to God in holiness and the knowledge of the truth, 2 and this is the immaculate life. Didymus the Blind, Commentary on The Psalms, from Psalm 6 1 Ps 6.8 2 Ephes 4.24

Corruption And Cleansing

Nescitis quia modicum fermentum totam massam corrumpit? Ita et peccatum unius, quod cognitum non arguitur, multos contaminat; immo omnes qui norunt, et non devitant, aut cum possint arguere, dissimulant. Non enim sibi videtur peccare, quando a nullo corripitur aut vitatur. Expurgate vetus fermentum, ut sitis nova conspersio. Hoc duplici genere accipiendum est, quia est et fermentum humana doctrina, dicente Salvatore: Cavete a fermento Pharisaeorum, id est a doctrina. Et ad malam ergo doctrinam cavendam, et ad hanc causam dictum est, quia eiecto fornicatore, vetus fermentum eiicitur. Ideo autem vetus quia antiqui erroris peccatum est. Nova autem compositio, Christi doctrina est. Ambrosiaster, In Epistolam Beati Pauli Ad Corinthios Primam, Caput V Source: Migne PL 17.209a-c

Do you not know that a little leaven corrupts the whole mass? 1 Thus even one sin, which is known and not disputed, infects many. Indeed all who know and do not admonish it or dispute it when they are able to do so, they lie. For it does not seem a sin to a man when he is not corrected nor condemned by anyone. Clean out the old leaven that you may be a new lump. This must be understood in two ways, because there is a leaven of human teaching, concerning which the Saviour says: 'Beware the leaven of the Pharisees.' 1 That is, beware their teaching, and therefore it is a warning against wicked teaching, and for this reason it was said, because with the ejection of the fornicator, the old leaven is ejected. Therefore it is old because it is the sin of the old error. But the new lump is the teaching of Christ. Ambrosiaster, Commentary On The First Letter of Saint Paul To The Corinthians, Chapter 5 1 1 Cor 5.6 2 Mt 16.11

A Notable Church

Notandum autem, quod haec ecclesia, sicut et aliae per Hiberniam et Walliam plures, abbatem laicum habet. Usus enim inolevit et prava consuetudo, ut viri in parochia potentes, primo tanquam oeconomi seu potius ecclesiarum patroni et defensores a clero constituti: postea processu temporis aucta cupidine totum sibi jus usurparent, et terras omnes cum exteriore possessione sibi impudenter appropriarent, solum altaria cum decimis et obventionibus clero relinquentes; et haec ipsa filiis suis clericis et cognatis assignantes. Tales itaque defensores seu potius ecclesiarum destructores abbates se vocari fecere, et tam nomen indebitum quam rem quoque sibi assignari praesumpsere. In hoc statu ecclesiam hanc invenimus capite destitutam, veteri quodam et inveterato dierum malorum, cui nomen Eden Oen filius Gwaithvoed, se abbatem gerente, et filiis ejusdem altari incumbentibus. Tempore tamen Regis Henrici Primi Anglorum potestate per Cambriam vigente, coenobium S. Petri Gloverniae, praedictam ecclesiam quiete possedit ; sed post obitum regis ejusdem, Anglis expulsis, monachi quoque sunt ejecti, et more praefato tam clerici interius quam laici exterius violenter intrusi. Contigit autem regnante Stephano, qui successit Henrico Primo, militem quendam de Armorica oriundum Britannia, peragratis regionibus multis, ut variarum gentium tam urbes quam mores discerneret, huc tandem forte fortuitu advectum esse; cum itaque die quodam festivo ad missae celebrationem adventum abbatis tam clerus quam populus expectaret, demum abbati venienti cum aliis occursans, vidit turbam juvenum venire circiter viginti more gentis expeditam, et armis munitam: cumque quaerenti, quisnam illorum abbas esset, virum quendam ostenderent cum lancea longa praecedentem: intuens in eum, et admirans ait: Nunquid alium habitum aliumve baculum abbas iste, quam illum, quem nunc praefert, habet? Responderunt, Nequaquam. At ille: Sat, inquit, hodie novitatis vidi, satque miraculi jam audivi. Et ab illa statim hora reversus finem labori posuit et explorationi. Jactat autem gens haec et generatio prava, episcopum quendam ecclesiae istius, quia cathedralis aliquando fuerat, a decessoribus suis interemptum; et hac praecipue allegatione in loco eodemjus sibi vendicant et proprietatem. Elegimus itaque has potius enormitates ad praesens sub dissimulatione transire, quam, nullo ibidem querimoniam deponente, gentem iniquam exasperare. Giraldus Cambrensis, Itinerarium Cambriae, Liber II Caput IV Source: Here, p45-46

It is notable that the church at Llanbardarn Fawr, like many others in Ireland and Wales, has a lay abbot, for a bad custom has prevailed among the clergy of appointing the most powerful men of a parish as stewards, or, rather, patrons and protectors of the churches, who later, with a growing desire for gain, have usurped all rights and insolently appropriated for themselves the possession of all the land, leaving only the altars, with their tenths and oblations, to the clergy, and even assigning these to their sons and other family members attached to the church. Such defenders, or rather destroyers, of the churches, have made themselves be called abbots and presumed to attach to themselves a title, as well as estates. In this condition, without a head, we found the church of Llanbadarn. A certain old man, grown old in wickedness, whose name was Edynwain son of Gwaithfoeth, was abbot and his sons officiated at the altar. But in the time of Henry the First, when the power of the English prevailed throughout Wales, the monastery of Saint Peter of Gloucester held peaceful possession of the church, until with the death of that king, the English were expelled and the monks driven off, and their places were taken by the violent intrusion of native clergy and laymen, as had formerly been the case. In the reign of Stephen, who succeeded Henry the First, a knight who had been born in Brittany and who had travelled in many lands out of a desire to see the cities and ways of living of various peoples, came by chance to this place, and on a certain feast day when the clergy and people were awaiting the arrival of the abbot with others for the celebration of Mass, looking on a crowd of about twenty youths nearing the church who were armed according to the manner of their people, he asked which one of them was the abbot and was shown that it was the man walking at the front bearing a long spear. Staring at him in amazement, he said: 'Does this abbot have no other garments or staff but the one he bears before him now?' They answered, 'Not at all.' And he said: 'I have certainly seen a novelty today and now I have heard of a wonder.' And at that hour he returned home and put an end to his labours and travelling. This wicked people and generation boasts that a certain bishop of this church, for it was once a cathedral, was murdered by his predecessors, and it is especially on this that they base their claims for right and possession. At the time, since no public complaint had been made, we chose to pass over their enormities, lest we exasperate a wicked people. Gerald of Wales, The Journey Through Wales, Book 2, Chapter 4

Care And Correction

Quod si emendare neglegis cum videas emendandum, adversus caritatem facis: si autem tibi emendandus propterea non videtur, quia putas eum recte ista sensisse; adversus veritatem sapis. Et ideo ille melior, qui emendari est paratior, si non defuerit emendator, quam tu, si vel sciens irridenter contemnis errantem, vel nesciens pariter sectaris errorem. Omnia itaque in eisdem libris ad te scriptis et tibi traditis sobrie vigilanterque considera, et plura quam ego invenies fortasse culpanda. Et quaecumque ibi sunt approbanda atque laudanda, si quid in eis revera forsitan ignorabas, atque isto disserente didicisti, evidenter profitere quid illud sit; ut de hoc te gratias egisse, non de his quae illic improbanda tam multa sunt, omnes noverint, qui vel recitante illo tecum simul audierunt, vel eosdem postea libros legerunt: ne in eius ornato eloquio tamquam in pretioso poculo te invitante, etsi non bibente, venenum bibant, si tu quid inde biberis, et quid non biberis nesciunt, et propter laudem tuam omnia illic bibenda salubriter arbitrantur. Quamvis et audire, et legere, et quae dicta sunt haurire memoria, quid est nisi bibere? Sed praedixit Dominus de fidelibus suis, quod et si mortiferum quid biberint, non eis nocebit. Ac per hoc qui cum iudicio legunt, et secundum regulam fidei approbanda approbant, et improbant improbanda; etiamsi commendant memoriae quae improbanda dicuntur, nulla venenata sententiarum pravitate laeduntur. Haec me Gravitatem et Religionem tuam, sive mutua, sive praevia caritate monuisse vel commonuisse minime poenitebit, Domino miserante, quomodolibet accipias, quod tibi praerogandum putavi. Agam vero ei uberes gratias, de cuius misericordia saluberrimum est fidere, si ab his pravitatibus et erroribus, quos ex libris huius hominis ostendere his litteris potui, alienam atque integram fidem tuam, vel invenerit epistola ista, vel fecerit. Sanctus Augustinus Hipponensi, De Anima et eius Origine, Liber II, Caput XXIII Source: Migne PL 44.510

If you neglect to correct another when you see something that requires amendment, you act in opposition to love, but if it does not appear to you that another requires correction because you think that he is right in his understanding, you are wise against the truth. And thus he is a better man than you who is prepared to be corrected if a corrector is not lacking, if either aware that he errs you scorn him in derision, or being ignorant you also follow after the error. Therefore with sobriety and vigilance consider everything in the books another addressed and sent to you, and you will perhaps find more things there that are flawed than I have. And as for whatever is approvable and praiseworthy, if perhaps by his instruction you have learnt something in them that you did not know, openly declare what it is, so that all may know it was for this you thanked him and it was not for the many things which are worthy of reproof, things which many heard spoken at the time, or later read in the same books, lest because of his ornate style it be as if they drink poison from a precious goblet which you offer to them, even if you do not partake, those who do not know if you have tasted it or not, but because of your good character judge that they shall be drinking for the good of their health. Hearing and reading and drawing things once said from the memory, what are they but drinking? But the Lord foretold to his faithful ones that even if they drank something fatal it would not harm them. 1 Because of this, they who read with discernment and according to the rule of faith give their approval to what is approvable and disapprove of what is not, and even if they commit to memory what is not approved, they suffer no harm from the depraved poison of such things. That I have given your earnest and pious self warning and counsel because of our mutual and long standing love, which I have thought to be my first duty to you, by the Lord's mercy I shall not regret however you should receive it. But I shall give abundant thanks to Him in whose mercy it is most salutary to trust, if from these depravities and errors which I have been able to show in this man's books, this letter finds your faith far distant and unharmed by them, or it makes it so. Saint Augustine of Hippo, On the Soul and its Origin Book 2, Chapter 23 1 Mk 16.18

Considering The Dead

Ἀλλ' ἢ ὅτι οὐδὲ τὸν τυχόντα καιρὸν παραπολλύναι χρὴ, κἂν μυρία τὰ κατεπείγοντα ᾖ, ἀλλὰ πάντων καὶ τῶν ἀναγκαιοτάτων τὰ πνευματικὰ προτιθέναι, καὶ εἰδέναι, τί μὲν ζωὴ, τί δὲ θάνατος. Πολλοὶ γὰρ καὶ τῶν ζῇν δοκούντων νεκρῶν οὐδὲν διαφέρουσιν, ὅταν ἐν κακίᾳ ζῶσι· μᾶλλον δὲ καὶ ἐκείνων οὗτοι χείρους. Ὁ μὲν γὰρ ἀποθανὼν, φησὶ, δεδικαίωται ἀπὸ τῆς ἁμαρτίας· οὗτος δὲ δουλεύει τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ. Μὴ γάρ μοι τοῦτο εἴπῃς, ὅτι Ὑπὸ σκωλήκων οὐ κατεσθίεται, οὐδὲ ἐν λάρνακι κεῖται, οὐδὲ ἀπέκλεισε τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς, οὐδὲ κειρίαις δέδεται. Καὶ γὰρ ταῦτα χαλεπώτερα ὑπομένει τοῦ τετελευτηκότος, οὐ σκωλήκων αὐτὸν κατεσθιόντων, ἀλλὰ θηρίων σφοδρότερον τῶν παθῶν τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτὸν σπαραττόντων. Εἰ δὲ ἀνεῴγασιν οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ, καὶ τοῦτο πολὺ χεῖρον πάλιν τοῦ μεμυκέναι. Οἱ μὲν γὰρ τοῦ νεκροῦ οὐδὲν ὁρῶσι πονηρόν· οὗτος δὲ μυρίας ἑαυτῷ συνάγει νόσους, ἀνεῳγμένων αὐτοῦ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν. Καὶ ὁ μὲν ἐν λάρνακι κεῖται, πρὸς πάντα ἀκίνητος ὤν· οὗτος δὲ ἐν τῷ τάφῳ τῶν μυρίων κατορώρυκται νοσημάτων. Ἀλλὰ τὸ σῶμα αὐτοῦ σηπόμενον οὐχ ὁρᾷς; Καὶ τί τοῦτο; Πρὸ γὰρ τοῦ σώματος αὐτοῦ ἡ ψυχὴ διέφθαρται καὶ ἀπόλωλε, καὶ πλείονα ὑπομένει τὴν σηπεδόνα. Ὁ μὲν γὰρ δέκα ὄδωδεν ἡμέρας· οὗτος δὲ ἅπαντα τὸν βίον δυσωδίας ἀποπνεῖ, στόμα ἔχων ὀχετῶν ἀκαθαρτότερον. Ὥστε τοσοῦτον αὐτοῦ διενήνοχεν ἐκεῖνος, ὅσον ὁ μὲν τὴν ἀπὸ τῆς φύσεως ὑπομένει μόνον φθορὰν, οὗτος δὲ μετ' ἐκείνης καὶ τὴν ἀπὸ τῆς ἀσωτίας ἐπεισάγει σηπεδόνα, μυρίας καθ' ἑκάστην ἡμέραν ἐπινοῶν ὑποθέσεις διαφθορᾶς. Ἀλλ' ἐφ' ἵππου φέρεται; Καὶ τί τοῦτο; Καὶ γὰρ ἐκεῖνος ἐπὶ κλίνης· καὶ τὸ δὴ χαλεπὸν, λυόμενον μὲν ἐκεῖνον καὶ σηπόμενον οὐδεὶς ὁρᾷ, ἀλλ' ἔχει τὴν λάρνακα παραπέτασμα· οὗτος δὲ ὀδωδὼς πανταχοῦ περίεισι, καθάπερ ἐν τάφῳ τῷ σώματι νενεκρωμένην ψυχὴν περιφέρων. Καὶ εἴγε ἦν ψυχὴν ἀνδρὸς ἰδεῖν τρυφῇ καὶ κακίᾳ συζῶντος, εἶδες ἂν ὅτι πολὺ βέλτιον ἐν τάφῳ κεῖσθαι δεδεμένον, ἢ ταῖς τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν σφίγγεσθαι σειραῖς· καὶ λίθον ἔχειν ἐπικείμενον, ἢ τὸ βαρὺ τῆς ἀναισθησίας πῶμα. ∆ιὸ δὴ μάλιστα τοὺς τούτοις προσήκοντας τοῖς νεκροῖς, ἐπειδὴ οὗτοι ἀναλγήτως διάκεινται, προσιέναι δεῖ περὶ αὐτῶν τῷ Ἰησοῦ, καθάπερ ἡ Μαρία τότε ἐποίησεν ἐπὶ τοῦ Λαζάρου. Κἂν ὀδωδὼς ᾖ, κἂν τεταρταῖος ᾖ, μὴ ἀπογνῷς, ἀλλὰ πρόσελθε, καὶ τὸν λίθον ἄνελε πρῶτον. Καὶ γὰρ τότε ὄψει κείμενον, ὥσπερ ἐν τάφῳ, καὶ ταῖς κειρίαις δεδεμένον. Καὶ εἰ βούλεσθε, τῶν μεγάλων τινὰ καὶ περιφανῶν εἰς μέσον ἀγάγωμεν. Ἀλλὰ μὴ δείσητε· ἀνωνύμως γὰρ ἐρῶ τὸ ὑπόδειγμα· μᾶλλον δὲ, εἰ καὶ τὴν προσηγορίαν ἔλεγον, οὐδὲ οὕτω δεδοικέναι ἐχρῆν. Τίς γάρ ποτε νεκρὸν δέδοικε; Καὶ γὰρ ὅσα ἂν πράξῃ, μένει νεκρὸς ὤν· νεκρὸς δὲ ζῶντα οὐ μικρὸν, οὐ μέγα ἀδικῆσαι δύναται. Ἴδωμεν τοίνυν τὴν κεφαλὴν αὐτῶν δεδεμένην. Καὶ γὰρ ὅταν μεθύωσι διηνεκῶς, καθάπερ οἱ νεκροὶ τοῖς πολλοῖς ἐπιβλήμασιν ἐκείνοις καὶ ταῖς κειρίαις, οὕτω πάντα τὰ αἰσθητήρια ἀποκλείεται καὶ δεσμεῖται. Εἰ δὲ βούλει καὶ τὰς χεῖρας ἰδεῖν, ὄψει καὶ ταύτας τῇ γαστρὶ προσδεδεμένας, καθάπερ τῶν οἰχομένων, καὶ περιεσφιγμένας, οὐ κειρίαις, ἀλλ' ὃ πολλῷ χαλεπώτερόν ἐστι, τοῖς τῆς πλεονεξίας δεσμοῖς. Οὐ γὰρ ἀφίησιν αὐτὰς ἐκταθῆναι πρὸς ἐλεημοσύνην ἐκείνη, οὐδὲ πρὸς ἄλλο τι τῶν τοιούτων κατορθωμάτων, ἀλλὰ τῶν νενεκρωμένων ἀχρηστοτέρας ἐργάζεται. Βούλει καὶ τοὺς πόδας ἰδεῖν συνδεδεμένους; Ὅρα αὐτοὺς πάλιν περιεσφιγμένους φροντίσι, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο οὐδέποτε δυναμένους εἰς οἶκον Θεοῦ δραμεῖν. Εἶδες τὸν νεκρόν; βλέπε καὶ τὸν ἐνταφιαστήν. Τίς οὖν ἐστιν ὁ ἐνταφιαστὴς τούτων; Ὁ διάβολος, ὁ ἀκριβῶς αὐτοὺς περισφίγγων, καὶ οὐκ ἀφιεὶς λοιπὸν τὸν ἄνθρωπον ἄνθρωπον φαίνεσθαι, ἀλλὰ ξύλον ξηρόν. Ὅπου γὰρ οὐκ ὀφθαλμὸς, οὐ χεῖρες, οὐ πόδες, οὐκ ἄλλο τῶν τοιούτων οὐδὲν, πῶς ἂν ὁ τοιοῦτος ἄνθρωπος φανείη; Οὕτω καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτῶν ἐσπαργανωμένην ἔστιν ἰδεῖν, καὶ εἴδωλον μᾶλλον ἢ ψυχὴν οὖσαν. Ἅγιος Ἰωάννης ὁ Χρυσόστομος, Υπόμνημα Εἰς τὸν Ἅγιον Ματθαίον Εὐαγγέλιον, Ὁμιλία ΚΖ´ Source: Migne PG 59.348-9

It is needful that no time be lost, though a thousand things press, but before everything, before even the most necessary things, let us attend to what is spiritual, even that we might know both what is life and what is death. For many, even though they seem to live, are no different from the dead, since they live in wickedness. Or rather they are worse than the dead, 'For he that is dead,' it is said, 'is freed from sin,' 1 but this man is a slave to sin. For do not say this to me, that he is not worm-eaten, nor does he lie in a coffin, nor are his eyes closed, nor is he bound in cerements. He suffers these things more wretchedly than the dead, for though no worms devour him, yet the passions of his soul tear him to pieces more fiercely than beasts. And if his eyes are open, this again is much worse than having them closed up. For the eyes of the dead man see no evil, but this man, with his eyes wide open, gathers to himself a thousand infections. And while one man lies in a coffin, unmoved by anything, this man is buried in a tomb of countless diseases. You do not see his body rotting? What of that? Before his body his soul is corrupted and destroyed, and it suffers from a worse rottenness. The body stinks for several days, but for the whole of his life his soul breathes out evil odors, with a mouth more unclean than any sewer. So the one differs from the other, by just so much as this, that the one man suffers that decay that comes of nature, but the other, along with that, brings in that rottenness born of intemperance, every day fashioning a thousand causes of corruption. Is he carried along on horseback? What of that? So the other man is carried along on a bier. And this is worse, that while the one man is not seen by anyone in his rotting state and his decay, but he has a coffin covering him up, the other is going about everywhere with his foul stench, bearing about, as in a tomb, a dead soul in his body. If you could see the soul of a man who is living amid luxury and vice, you would know that it is far better to lie bound up in a tomb than to be wrapped tightly in the chains of sins, and to have a stone laid over you rather than the heavy weight of senselessness. Therefore, above all things, it very much befits the associates of these dead folk who have themselves passed beyond feeling, to approach Jesus on their behalf, as Mary once did for the sake of Lazarus. 2 Though he stinks, though he has been dead for four days, do not despair, but approach and first remove the stone, for then you will see him lying as in a tomb, and bound in cerements. And if you will have it, let it be someone who is great and celebrated whom we present to you in such a manner. But do not fear, for I will speak the example without a name, or rather, if I may mention a name, there need be no fear, for who fears a dead man? Whatever one may do, he remains dead, and the dead cannot harm the living, neither a little or much. Let us then behold the head which has been bound up. For indeed when such folk are always drunk, so are all their senses closed and bound up, just as the dead with their many cloths and cerements. And if you will look to their hands, you shall see these again fixed to their belly, like the departed, and fastened not by the cerements, but with what is far worse, the bonds of covetousness, for they have no allowance to reach their hands out for the giving of alms, or for any other good deed, but rather their hands are made more useless than the hands of the dead. Will you also look to see their feet tied together? See them again fastened with cares, because of which they are never able to hurry to the house of God. Do you see the dead? Look also to the embalmer. Who embalms these folk? It is the devil who carefully binds them up, he who does not allow a man to seem to be a man, but a dried up lump of wood. For where there are no eyes, nor hands, nor feet, nor any other such thing, how can one appear to be a man? Thus see the soul bound up, or rather an image, not a real soul. Saint John Chrysostom, Commentary On The Gospel of Saint Matthew, from Homily 27 1 Rom 6.7 2 Jn 11.17-

The Devil's House

Quae est domus illius? Mundus iste. Et vasa illius? Peccatores et infideles, habitantes in eo. Audiens ergo, mundum domum esse diaboli, fuge mundum, ne diutius habitans in domo diaboli, iterum fias servus ipsius. Sicut enim in domo Dei malum non est, ita in domo diaboli non invenitur bonum. Nam sicut Deus in domo sua non vult videre malum, sustinere autem videtur pro tempore malum, non quia delectatur in malo, sed ut convertat eum ad bonum: sic et diabolus in domo sua non vult videre bonum, sustinere vero videtur bonum, non quia delectatur in bono, sed ut suadeat eum in malum. Et Deus quidem per suam benevolentiam vocat malum ad bonum, ita non necessitate, sed voluntate corrigatur ad bonum. Diabolus autem per suam violentiam persequitur bonum, ut etsi non voluntate, vel ex necessiate cogatur ad malum. Fuge autem mundum, conversatione, non corpore. Nam et ipse mundus non natura diaboli est, sed corruptione. Nec ab initio fecit hunc mundum diabolus, sed Deus: postea corruptione factus est diaboli. Ergo mundus quidem ipse Dei est: corruptio autem mundi diaboli est. Si ergo de mala conversatione recesseris, etsi corpore sis in mundo, recessisse videris de mundo diaboli, et esse in mundo. Nunc quod vivimus, in Dei mundo vivimus: quod autem peccamus, in diaboli mundo peccamus. Fuge ergo de mundo, id est, de voluptatibus mundi, ne forte diutius vivens in possessione operum ejus, fias proprius servus ipsius. Sicut ingenuus homo si diutius in possessione vel domo potentis alicujus et violenti fuerit commortatus, per possessionem longi temporis usu capit eum in servitute: sic et homo si diutius fuerit in possessione diaboli, usu longi temporis vindicat sibi dominum super eum, ita ut nemo se possit a dominatione diaboli liberare, nisi sola potentia Dei. Opus Imperfectum in Matthaeum, Homilia XXIX Source: Migne PG 56.786

What is Satan's house? It is this world. And his vessels? Sinners and the faithless, those who dwell in it. Hearing, therefore, that the world is the house of the devil, flee the world, lest dwelling for a long time in the house of the devil you are made his slave. For as in the house of God there is no evil, so no good is found in the house of the devil. For as God does not wish to see evil in His own house, yet seems to endure evil for a time, this is not because He takes any joy in evil, but that He might convert a man to the good, and so the devil, who does not wish to see good in his house, is seen to suffer good there, not because he delights in goodness, but that he might persuade a man to become evil. And certainly God by His own benevolence calls evil to goodness, and thus correction to the good is not by necessity but by free will, but the devil by his own violence oppresses the good, so that if not by free will, then by necessity he will drive to evil. Flee the world, that is, its conduct, not the body. For even this world is not by nature the devil's, but it is his in its corruption. The devil did not make this world in the beginning, but God did, and later the devil corrupted it. Therefore certainly the world is God's, but the corruption of the world is the devil's. If, therefore, you withdraw from a wicked way of life, even if living in the body, you shall be seen to have withdrawn from the world of the devil, even while you are in the world. Now in that we live, we live in the world of God, but because we sin, we sin in the world of the devil. Flee, then, the world, that is, the pleasures of the world, lest living long in the possession of its works, you be made its slave. If a free born man is a strong man's possession, or if by violence he is constrained to stay in his house, the long duration of possession puts him in a state of servitude. So it is with a man who is in the long possession of the devil, for by the usage of long time the devil establishes himself as his master over him, so that no one is able to liberate him from the devil's domination, unless only the power of God. Opus Imperfectum on Matthew, from Homily 29 1 Mt 8.5-6 2 Lk 1.38

Confession And The Devil

Non enim ante ad confessionem venitur, nisi prius fuerit diabalo renuntiatum. Sicut nec aurilegus ante aurum mittit in sacculum, nisi prius terram vel limum laverit universum. Ideo oportet prius repudium dicere diabolicae vanitati, et amara ejus studia abrenuntiando projicere. Abrenuntiare autem oportet non nudo sermone neque solis labiis, sed fide fortissima, et indubitata scientia, id est ut Christo se homo tota animi virtute committat, confidens, quia Christi factus desinat timere diabolum. Deinde abrenuntiat et operibus ejus malignis, id est culturis et idolis, sortibus et auguriis, pompis et theatris, furtis et fraudibus, homicidiis et fornicationibus, superbiae et jactantiae, irae et avaritiae, commessationibus et ebriositatibus, choris atque mendaciis, et his similibus malis. Quid dicimus de his, qui superfluo carnis ornatu jactare se volunt, et videri mirabiles? Taceo de exquisitis inutiliter vestimentorum subtilitatibus. Oro vos, quid faciunt in viris capilli acu crispati, comae retro quidem cervicem cooperientes, ante autem frontem penitus abscondentes, ita ut nec signo Christi locus liber relinquatur in fronte; et unde se putant habere aliquam gloriam vel decorem, inde turpitudinem et ignominiam contrahant? Similiter et mulieres caput ligantes ut scutum, ut frons tamquam vallis inter duos subsidat colles; ut de auribus pondera lapillorum auro ligata dependeant, ut brachia onerentur auro, ut cervicem premant catenae vel lapides, et pedibus sanguineae calceamentis flammulae rutilent. Quis usus in his, quae utilitas invenitur, nisi sola inanis pompa, et mens desiderio infantili corrupta? Nicetas Episcopus Aquileiensis, Fragmenta Sex, III Source: Migne PL 52.873d-875a

No one shall come to confession, unless first he shall have renounced the devil. Just like a gold prospector does not place gold in his sack, unless first he has washed off all the earth or mud from it. Therefore it necessary that one should declare that one repudiates the vanity of the devil, and cast it from one in denunciation of his bitter desires. And this renunciation should not only be in speech, not only with the lips, but with strong faith, and certain knowledge, that is, so that the man commits himself with all the virtue of his soul to Christ, confident that in Christ he does not fear the devil. Finally let him renounce his wicked works, that is his cults and idols, with fortune telling and auguries, with pomp and theatre, with thefts and deceits, with murder and fornication, with pride and boasting, with anger and avarice, with gluttony and drunkenness, with dances and delusions, and other similar evils. What then do we say of those who are pleased to vaunt themselves in the superfluous ornamentation of the flesh and be seen as wonders? I am silent regarding exquisite and intricate and useless garments. But I pray you, why do they style men's hair in tight curls, and comb it fiercely over the head so as to leave no sight of the brow at all, so that there is no place free there for the sign of Christ? And why do they think they have any glory or beauty when they are the cause of depravity and disgrace? Likewise even women bind their heads like shields, so that the brow is like a valley sunk between two hills, and from their ears hang a weight of gems bound with gold, and the arms are loaded with gold, and the neck is bound with chains and stones, and the feet are ablaze with the red flames of slippers. What use in these things, what benefit do we find in them, but empty pomp, and minds corrupted by infantile desires? Nicetas of Aquileia, Fragment 1 Titus 3.8 2 Jn 14.27 3 Rom 11.20

Signs And Salvation

Nec difficile arbitror nosse, quemadmodum intelligi signa possint praesentia, ut sint indubitata signa credulitatis, ac per hoc et salutis. Primum enim opus fidei per dilectionem operantis, cordis compunctio est, in qua sine dubio ejiciuntur daemonia, cum eradicantur e corde peccata. Exinde qui in Christum credunt, linguis loquuntur novis, cum jam recedunt vetera de ore eorum, nec de caetero vetusta protoparentum lingua loquuntur, declinantium in verba malitiae ad excusandas excusationes in peccatis. Ubi vero compunctione cordis et oris confessione priora sunt deleta peccata, nec recidivam patiantur, et jam sint posteriora pejora prioribus, serpentes tollant necesse est, id est, ut venenatas suggestiones exstinguant. Quid tamen agendum, si qua forte radix pullulat, quae tam velociter nequeat exstirpari, sed stimulat animum concupiscentia carnis? Profecto si mortiferum quid biberint, non eis nocebit; quoniam juxta Salvatoris exemplum, cum gustaverint, nolent bibere, id est cum senserint, nolent consentire. Sic enim non eis nocebit, quia nulla damnatio est his qui sunt in Christo Jesu, concupiscentiae sensus absque consensu. Quid tamen? Molesta certe et periculosa est sic corruptae et infirmae affectionis lucta; sed qui crediderint, super aegros manus imponent, et bene habebunt, id est aegras affectiones bonis operibus operient, et hoc remedio curabuntur. Sanctus Bernardus Clarae Vallensis, Sermones De Tempore, Sermones de Tempore Ascension, Sermo I Source: Migne PL 183.301a-c

I do not judge it difficult to know, as present signs may be understood, that there are undoubtable signs of belief, and through this even salvation. For the first work of faith through the work of love is compunction of heart, in which without doubt demons are cast out when sin is torn up from the heart. Whence they who believe in Christ speak with new tongues when they take old things out of their mouths, no more speaking the bygone things of our first parents who fell to wicked words of excuse for the excusing of sins. 1 But when with compunction of heart and the confession of the mouth previous sins are wiped out, so that they might not suffer revival and the later state be worse than the first, 2 it is necessary to handle serpents 3, and this so that venomous suggestions may be extinguished. Yet what must be done if perhaps the root send forth shoots which are not able to be torn up quickly, but they provoke the soul with the lusts of the flesh? Even so, if what they drink is fatal, there is no harm to them, 4 because according to the example of the Saviour, when they taste they are unwilling to drink, 5 that is, when they are aware they do not consent. For it shall not be harmful to them, since there is no damnation for those who are in Christ, when the feeling of lust is without consent. What then? Certainly it is a troublesome and dangerous struggle for anyone with a corrupt and infirm condition, but they who have believed, they will place their hands on every sickness and be well, that is, they will cover up the disturbances of sickness with good works, and with this medicine they will be cured. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons for the Season, Sermons on the Ascension, from Sermon 1 1 Ps 140.4, Gen 3.11-13 2 Mt 12.45, Lk 11.26 3 Mk 16.18 4 Mt 16.18 5 Mt 27.34

Making The Face Firm

Fili hominis, obfirma faciem tuam super filias populi tui quae prophetant de corde suo... Primum de eo quod dicitur: Obfirma faciem tuam, requirendum. Deinde si Dominus dederit, investigare debemus filias populi prophetantes de corde suo, et facientes ea, in quibus eas Dei sermo corripiat. Et quod sit alia facies praeter hanc corporis nostri faciem, licet ex multis manifestum sit, attamen et ex his, quae Apostolus memorat, indicatur: Nos vero omnes revelata facie gloriam Domini speculantes, in eamdem imaginem transformamur a gloria in gloriam, quasi a Domini spiritu. Hanc faciem corporalem omnes homines habemus revelatam, nisi forte calamitatibus et angustiis premimur. Vultus autem ille, de quo sermo Apostoli est, in multis tectus est, et in paucis revelatus. Qui enim fiduciam habet in vita immaculata, in sensu sano, in fide vera, iste tantummodo non habet confessionis, fraudulentiae, peccatique velamen; sed propter puram conscientiam, revelata facie gloriam Domini contemplatur. Procul autem absit a nobis, ut velatam habeamus hanc faciem. Haec pauca de facie, ut possimus intelligere quid sit, quod sequitur: Obfirma faciem tuam super filias populi tui. Ista facies, id est, principale ( ἡγεμονικὸν) cordis nostri, nisi obfirmata fuerit super eo, quod intelligendum est, ut quomodo videt, sic annuntiet gentibus, illud quod aspicitur, non videtur. Impossibile quippe est, ut aliquis sine obfirmatione vultus, vagus, fluctuabundus, circumlatus omni vento doctrinae, videat quod debet, videat ut debet. Oportet enim volentem intelligere habere faciem, in eo quod intelligere nititur, obfirmatam: ob hanc semper causam prophetaturis primum jubetur, ut faciem suam obfirment; ut nostram autem et nos possimus obfirmare faciem in Evangelio, in Lege, in Prophetis, in apostolis, obfirma eam super Christo, et non super saeculi negotiis. Sed cum in mundialibus curis anima nostra versetur, cum semper ardeat habendi fame, non obfirmamus faciem nostram super ea, quae imperavit Deus, sed super ea, quae Dei sunt adversa praeceptis. Quis, putas, in nobis immundus est ob obfirmationem faciei super his, quae interdicta sunt? Quis in tantum sollicitus et cautus, ut diebus ac noctibus in ea obfirmet cordis sui faciem, quae jubentur? Nunc quoque si intellecturi fuimus praesentem scripturam quomodo prophetae dicatur: Obfirma faciem tuam super filias populi tui, ut videat ea quae dicturus est, debemus obfirmare intelligentiam, plenum in intentatione cordis habere tractatum, quod sit hoc, quod significetur, ut tandem ratione superati, recedamus a littera. Ac secundum communem quidem intellectum, videntur quaedam filiae populi prophetantes hoc quod sequitur admisisse peccatum. Assumentes cervicalia consuebant; consuentes non ponebant ea sub capite, sed sub cubito audientium, et velaminibus quibusdam tegebant capita universae aetatis. Haec sunt, quae prophetantibus filiabus populi reputantur quasi magna peccata. Quis autem potest in verbo consistens dicere, quia si quis cervicalia consuat, et consuta sub cubito ponat alterius, delinquat, et a Deo corripiatur? Quis potest asserere, quia si quis velamina faciat ad tegendum caput universae aetatis, impie agat? Invitis nobis ab ipsa Scriptura necessitas imponitur, ut ab apicibus litterae recedentes, verbum, et sapientiam, et voluntatem ejus requiramus ad aperienda peccata, quae clausa sunt, ad illuminanda quae caligant, ut possimus a maledicto extranei fieri, omni cubito manuum, sive manus. Qui in victu corporis occupati sunt, et ne per somnium quidem spirituales videre delicias, quas nos habere vult sermo divinus dicens: Delectare in Domino, et dabit tibi petitiones cordis tui; qui non noverunt voluntatem beatorum, de qua scribitur: Torrente voluptatis tuae potabis eos: requirunt quasi amatores luxuriae, et non amatores Dei, semper in corporalibus esse deliciis. Signum autem mihi videtur voluptatis carneae, sub cubito manuum cervical assutum. Quia enim in tempore discumbendi ad beneficia corporalia videmur uti consutis quibusdam, et acu pictis sub cubito manuum nostrarum, forsitan sermo divinus per istius modi figuram et argumentum eos culpat magistros, qui per vaniloquentiam, et beatas quasque repromissiones, multitudinem audientium libidini, vitiis, voluptatique permittunt. Debet enim Dei verbum, et Deus homo ea proferre, quae saluti sunt audienti, quae illum hortentur ad continentiam, ad conversationem sanorum actuum, ad cuncta, quae homo studiosus laborum, et non libidinum, debet incumbere, ut possit ea consequi, quae a Deo sunt repromissa. Cum ergo aliquis aptus moribus populi, ut placeat eis, quibus aures pruriunt, loquitur quae gratanter accipiant, loquitur quae vicina sunt voluptati, talis magister consuit cervicalia sub omni cubito manus. Sequitur hoc peccatum habentem, ut faciat etiam amictus ad velandum caput omnis aetatis. Cujus autem rei figura sit etiam velamen, cautius consideremus. Qui fiduciam habet, et vere vir est, velamen non habet super caput suum, sed intecto capite orat Dominum, intecto capite prophetat: per signum corporalis rei etiam spiritalem latenter ostendens, ut quomodo non habet velamen super caput carnis suae, ita non habeat velamen super principale cordis sui. Si quis vero confusionis velamen gerit, et peccati, iste quasi muliebria velamina habet super caput suum. Itaque cum aliquis docuerit ea, quae aurem populi mulceant, et strepitum potius laudatorum, quam gemitum moveant, si blandus inimicus palpaverit potius quam secuerit vulnera, talis homo amictus contexit in capite. Cum autem in luxuriosam orationem dicentis se sermo fuderit, et in lascivum persultaverit eloquium, contexit velamen super caput omnis aetatis; non modo puerorum et juvenum, verum et senum. Quomodo enim faciat signa et portenta ad decipiendos, si fieri potest, etiam electos falsus Christus, et falsus propheta: similiter et hi, qui ad voluptatem meditata deportant, et ista semper inquirunt, quae delectent potius audientes, quam convertant a vitiis, faciunt velamina super caput non modo puerorum et juvenum, sed, si fieri potest, senum quoque et patrum, intantum ut etiam eos decipiant, qui juxta laborem animae in spiritali aetate et senio processerunt Origenes, Homila Tertia Ezekial, Interprete Hieronymo Source Migne PG 13.687c-690a

Make firm your face over the daughters of your people who prophesy from their own hearts... 1 First we shall look into that which is said, 'Make firm your face,' and then, if the Lord allows, we shall investigate the daughters of the people who prophesy from their own hearts, and do things for which the word of the Lord corrects them. Now what the other faces might be apart for this bodily face we possess has been made manifest in many places, but from these, let what the Apostle mentions be declared: 'But we all with uncovered face looking on the glory of the Lord, being transformed into that image, from glory to glory, as by the spirit of the Lord.' 2 This bodily face which all of us men have is uncovered, unless perhaps because of calamity and distress we hide it away, but the face of which the Apostle speaks is hidden in many ways and is rarely revealed. For he who has confidence in the immaculate way, in good sense, in true faith, he alone does not wear the veil of guilt and deceit and sin, but because of a pure conscience he contemplates the glory of the Lord with the face uncovered. May it be far from us that we should have this face covered. And with these things briefly said about the face, so we may understand what follows: 'Make firm your face over the daughters of your people.' The face, then, that is the ruling part of the heart, which unless it has been been made firm about what should be understood, it does not appear how it may see what it should that it might announce it to the people. For it is impossible that someone who does not have a firm face, but a wandering one that shifts about, and is tossed about by the winds of teaching, 3 shall see what he should and shall see as he should. It is necessary to understand the will as the face, which is made firm by the struggle to understand, because of which, for the cause of prophesying, it is always first commanded that the face be made firm. And so even we can make our face firm, in the Gospel and the Law and the Prophets and in the Apostles, making it firm concerning Christ, and not about worldly affairs. For when our soul is turned to worldly cares, when it is always burning with a hunger for things there, we do not make our face firm in what God has commanded, but for those things which are inimical to His teaching. Do you not think that he who has been made unclean among us is he who strengthens his face over those things which are prohibited? And who is the man so intently concerned and prudent over those things which are commanded, so that day and night he makes firm the face of his heart concerning those things? Now also, if we are to understand this present passage of Scripture, how it was said to the prophet: 'Make firm your face over the daughters of your people,' we should make firm our understanding, so that it might look on the things which are to be said, having the intent of our heart fully taut about what this may be and what it means, so that with elevated reason, we pass beyond the letter. According to a certain sort of common understanding, these daughters of the people who prophesy appear to be those who have permitted sin. They embroider the cushions, and do not place them under the head but beneath the arm of the hearer, and they cover the head with a covering that endures. 4 These things, which the prophesying daughters of the people did, are reputed to be weighty sins. But who is able to speak a word about what they are? Because if someone embroiders a cushion, and places it beneath the arm of someone else, should they be corrected by God? And will insist that because someone makes a covering to cover the head for all time, he acts wickedly? Even to those who are unwilling among us, this Scripture imposes the necessity of withdrawing from the sense of the letter to seek its word and wisdom and will for the uncovering of sins which are hidden, and the illumination of what is obscure, so that we can remove ourselves from the exterior curse of every arm or hand. Those who have been seized by the conquest of the body, and in a dream do not look on spiritual joys, which the Divine word wishes us to have, saying, 'Delight in the Lord, and He shall give to you the petition of your heart,' they who do not know the wish of those who are blessed, when it is written: 'A torrent of your joy you shall give them to drink,' 5 they seek as lovers of luxury, and not lovers of God, since they always have their pleasures in the body. Now to place the cushion beneath the arm seems to me to be a sign of carnal pleasure. For when for a time we recline for the sake of corporeal goods, we appear as having something embroidered and decorated with the needle beneath the arm, so perhaps the Divine word by the manner of this figure and argument reproves those teachers who through vain eloquence and certain pleasing promises, permit a multitude of lusts and vices and pleasures to those who listen to them. For it is of the word of God and the God man to offer those things which save to those who hear, which exhort them to continence and to their conversation to a sound life, and to everything which belongs to a studious man of labour, and not of lust, whence the things that are required are those that lead to what has been promised by God. When, then, someone is aware of the ways of people, and so that he might gratify them who have vile ears he speaks what may please them, that is, he speaks of things which lead to pleasure, such a teacher embroiders the cushion to be placed under the arm. It then says that with this sin there is also made a covering that veils the head forever. Let us carefully consider what this veil could be a figure of. He who has faith, and truly is a man, he has no veil upon his head, but with his head uncovered he prays to the Lord, and with his head uncovered he makes prophecy. By the corporeal sign the hidden spiritual thing of the matter is revealed, so that he who does not have a veil upon the head is he who does not have a veil upon the principle part of his heart. If, however, someone bears the veil of confusion, and sin, he is as one who has a woman's veil upon his head. Thus when someone teaches things which softly caress the ears of the people, and he incites a clamour of praise rather than groans, and he strokes rather than cauterises wounds, such a man weaves a covering for the head. And when with luxurious rhetoric he pours out his speech and he makes his eloquence dance about in pleasure, he weaves an enduring veil for the head, and not only for boys and youths, but truly even for the old. For as the false Christ and the false prophet shall make signs and portents for deceiving, if it were possible, even the elect, 6 so likewise these have meditated to carry off with pleasure, and so always seeking what delights those who listen, rather than what turns them from evil, they make a veil for the head, and not only for boys and youths, but even, if it is possible, for the old, even for fathers, inasmuch as they can deceive those who because of the labour of the soul have advanced in spiritual age and seniority. Origen, from the Third Homily on Ezekiel, translated by Jerome 1 Ezek 13.17 2 2 Cor 3.18 3 Ephes 4.14 4 Ezek 3.18 5 Ps 36.4, Ps 35.9 6 Mt 24.24

Perilous Lips And Tongues

Domine libera animam a labiis iniquis et a lingua dolosa.... Haec enim sola tribulatio justiis periculosa est, malae adhortationis societas, et pestiferi consilii consuetudo, a qua animus referendus est, et aures obstruendae sunt. Distinxit autem labia iniqua et linguam dolosam. Et quidem iniquitas inverecunda est, palam audet, palam molitur, palam perficit. Hi sunt, qui abnegantes Deum, nullum humanis rebus asserunt reliquum esse in religione Dei profectum; sed solum hoc sibi bonum esse, quod luxui et corpori vivant, adimentes Deo curam, providentiam, arbitrium, potestatem. Horum ergo labia sunt iniqua. Dolosae autem linguae opus fallax est, et per simulationem noxium, quod sub religionis nomine evertat religionem, et per vitae spem deducat in mortem. Haereticorum quoque ista mendacia sunt, prophetarum dictis et Evangeliorum virtutibus et Apostolorum praescriptionibus mendacio occultatis, aliter omnia tradere et docere quam scripta sunt. Ab his igitur per Dei misericordiam orantes liberamur: et inter illorum tribulationes, clamantes ad Deum exaudiemur. Sanctus Hilarius Pictaviensis, Tractatus super Psalmos, Tractatus in Psalmus CXIX Source: Migne PL 9.647a-c

O Lord, free from my soul from wicked lips and the deceitful tongue... 1 For this alone is a dangerous tribulation for the righteous, association with wicked exhortations and familiarity with harmful counsels, from which the soul should be withdrawn and the ears blocked up. But he distinguishes between wicked lips and the deceitful tongue. And certainly wickedness is immodest, it openly dares and strives and accomplishes. These are men who deny God and assert that for human affairs there is no profitable peace in the religion of God but the only thing that is good for them is to live in bodily luxury, dismissing God's care, providence, judgement and power. Therefore these lips are wicked. But the work of the cunning tongue is deceit, and through criminal dissimulation they overturn religion in the name of religion, and through hope of life they lead to death. These are the lies of heretics who with lies obscure the words of the prophets and the virtues of the Evangelists and the commands of the Apostles, and hand on and teach anything but what has been written. From these, therefore, we pray to be freed by the mercy of God, and amid the tribulations they bring, crying out to God, may we be heard. Saint Hilary of Poitiers, Homilies on the Psalms, Psalm 119 1 Ps 119.2

The Serpent And The Woman

Non autem inimicitiae ponuntur inter ipsum et virum, sed inter ipsum et mulierem. Numquid quia viros non decipit et tentat? Sed manifestum est quod decipit. An quia ipsum Adam non decepit, sed mulierem eius? Sed numquid propterea non est inimicus eius, ad quem pervenit per mulierem suam illa deceptio, maxime quia de futuro iam dicitur: Inimicitias ponam inter te et mulierem? Si autem quod non deinceps decepit Adam, nec ipsam Evam deinceps decepit. Quare ergo ita dicitur, nisi quia hic manifeste ostenditur non posse nos a diabolo tentari, nisi per illam animalem partem, quae quasi mulieris imaginem vel exemplum in uno ipso homine ostendit, de qua superius iam multa diximus? Quod autem etiam inter semen diaboli, et semen mulieris ponuntur inimicitiae, significatur semine diaboli perversa suggestio; semine autem mulieris, fructus boni operis, quo perversae suggestioni resistit. Et ideo observat ipse plantam mulieris, ut si quando in illicita labitur delectatio, tunc illam capiat: et illa observat caput eius, ut eum in ipso initio malae suasionis excludat. Sanctus Augustinus Hipponensi, De Genesi Contra Manichaeos, Liber Secundus, Caput XVIII Source: Migne PL 34.210

But hostility was not set between the serpent and the man but between it and the woman. 1 Is it that he does not deceive and tempt men? It is manifest that he does deceive them. But he did not deceive Adam though he did deceive his woman? But is he not his enemy to whom deception came through his woman, especially because concerning the future it is now said: 'I shall place hostility between you and the woman?' But if he did not deceive Adam, then he did not deceive Eve. Why therefore is it said, unless that it manifestly shows that it is not possible for us to be tempted but through our animal parts, which is shown by the image or example of the woman to the one man, concerning which we have spoken much above? Because that hostility which is placed between the seed of the devil and the seed of the woman shows that the seed of the devil is perverse suggestion, but the seed of the woman is the fruit of good works, which resists perverse suggestion. And therefore he observes the heel of the woman, that if there is any time delight falls into forbidden things, then it seizes her, and she observes its head, that she stop him at the beginning of his wicked persuasion. Saint Augustine of Hippo, On Genesis Against the Manichees, Book 2, Chap 18 1 Genes 3.15

Fasting And Conflict

Neque cautos, vigilantes, sobrios, diabolus perturbare suis superventionibus praevalebit; certe neque nos taliter armatos publico conflictu provocare audebit: dolis appetere non praesumet. Animus in coelesti speculo perseveret; diaboli fraudulentas et occultas deprimat et declinet insidias. Est quidem diabolus per se nequam, fit tamen nequior provocatus. Audi Apostolum dicentem: Diabolus sicut leo rugiens circuit, quaerens quem devoret. Jejunantibus nobis, diabolus esurit, qui nostris semper saturatur ex culpis. Ille cibum nostrum deducit in crapulam: potum nostrum in ebrietatem diffundit, ut mentem faciat amentem, carnem luteam reddat, corpus animi domicilium, animae vas, murum spiritus, virtutum scholam, Dei templum, in scenam criminum, in vitiorum pompam, voluptatem redigat in theatrum. Capit ille satietatem, voluptatem percipit, expletur epulis, quando nos luxus solvit, libido stimulat, pompa rapit, impellit ambitio, urget ira, furor implet, succendit invidia, cupiditas inflammat, curae sollicitant, lites vexant, lucra capiunt, usurae vinciunt, chirographa ligant, premunt sacculi, elidit aurum. Quando moriuntur virtutes, vivunt vitia, voluptas effluit, honestas perit, misericordia deficit, abundat avaritia, regnat confusio, succumbit ordo, prosternitur disciplina. Ista militant adversum militem Christi; istae sunt satanae cohortes, istae diaboli legiones, ista sunt quae mundum sepulcris obsederunt, debellaverunt populos, vastarunt gentes, orbem totum duxere captivum. Ista sunt quibus nullus per se potuit obviare mortalis: et ideo ad vincenda ista Deus venit ipse, coeli rex ipse descendit, ipse victor singularis advenit, jejunium quadragesimae statuens in procinctu, ut quaterna decade jejunii quadraturam mundi totam muro inexpugnabili communiret. Sanctus Petrus Chrysologus, Sermo XII, De Jejunio Et Tentationibus Christi Source: Migne PL 52.223b-224c

With the trouble of his coming, the devil shall not overthrow the cautious or the vigilant or the sober. Certainly he does not dare provoke us who are so armed to open conflict, but rather he seeks to seize us with trickery. Let the mind persevere in looking to heaven and it shall crush down the hidden deceits of the devil and undo his plots. Certainly the devil is wicked on his own but he is more wicked when he is summoned. Hear the Apostle saying: 'The devil is like a roaring lion that goes about in search of someone to devour.' 1 While we fast, the devil hungers, he who is always filled by our sins. He brings our eating to excess and extends our drinking to drunkenness, so that he might make the mind mindless, and fashion the flesh as good for nothing, and reduce the body, the house of the soul and its vessel, the walls of our spirit, the school of the virtues, the temple of God, to a stage of crimes, a spectacle of vice, a theatre of pleasure. He is filled to satiety when he receives pleasure, gorged with a feast when luxury undoes us, and lust excites, and extravagance seizes, and ambition drives, and anger compels, and fury possesses, and envy incenses, and desire inflames, and cares trouble, and disputes vex, and profits take hold, and usury conquers, and contracts bind, and money burdens, and gold crushes. When the virtues die, the vices live, pleasure bursts forth, uprightness perishes, mercy withers, avarice abounds, confusion reigns, order collapses, discipline is cast down. These war against the soldier of Christ, these are the companies of Satan, the legions of the devil, these have laid siege to the world with tombs, have destroyed peoples, lay waste nations, have led the whole world into captivity. Against these no mortal can stand on his own, and therefore God Himself came to conquer them, the king of heaven descended, the only conqueror approached, establishing the forty day fast as a preparation for battle, that the four decades of the days of fasting might fortify with an impregnable wall the four corners of the world. Saint Peter Chrysologus, from Sermon 12, On Fasting And The Temptations of Christ 1 1 Pet 5.8

A Cause Of Damnation

Ἐνεπάγησαν ἔθνη ἐν διαφθορᾷ ᾗ ἐποίησαν ἐν παγίδι ταύτῃ ᾗ ἔκρυψαν συνελήμφθη ὁ ποὺς αὐτῶν Τῆς ἀρετῆς ἀφθαρσίας λεγομένης ἐν τῳ, Ἡ χάρις μετὰ τῶν ἀγαπώντων τὸν Κύριον ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν ἐν ἀφθαρσίᾳ, ἡ ἀπεναντίως ἔχουσα κακία, διαφθορὰ καὶ φθορὰ ἀκολούθως κληθήσεται. Παρίσταται τὸ φθορὰν τὴν κακίαν λέγεσθαι, ἐκ τοῦ· Εἴ τις τὸν ναὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ φθείρει· καὶ ἐκ τοῦ ἐν τῷ προφήτῃ λεγομένου πρὸς τοὺς φαύλους Ἔνεκεν ἀφθαρσίας διεφθείρητε φθορᾷ. Σύμφωνον τούτοις καὶ τὸ, Τῇ διαφθορᾷ σου, Ἰσραὴλ, τίς βοηθήσει; Ἥ οὕτω λεγομένη διαφθορὰ, ἐν τῷ πράττεσθαι τὸ εἴναι ἔχουσα, πεποιῆσθαι ὑπὸ τῶν ἐχόντων αὐτὴν ἐπαγγέλλεται. Φησὶν ὁ λόγος ἐμπεπῆχθαι τὰ ἔθνη ἐν ᾖ ἐποίησαν διαφθορᾷ· οὐ γὰρ ἄλλος τῇ ἄλλου ἀσεβείᾳ καὶ ἁμαρτία ἐνέχεται· ἔκαστος γὰρ τῇ ἑαυτοῦ ἁμαρτίᾳ ἀποθανεῖται. Εἴτ' ἐπεὶ οἱ κακοὶ πρότερον ἑαυτοὺς βλάψαντες, καὶ ἑτέρους εἰς τὴν αὐτὴν βλάβην δι' ἀπάτης ἄγειν πειρῶνται, σκευάζουσιν καὶ λόγοις αὐτῶν, ἐπὶ τῷ ἀγρεῦσαι τὸν ἀπροοράτως ἔχοντα· αὐτῇ δὲ τῇ παγίδι ᾖ ἔκρυψαν τιμωροῦνται· δίκας γὰρ διδόασιν καὶ δι' οὔς ἡπάατησαν. Γίνεται δὲ τὸ παθεῖν οὕτως διακρίσει τοῦ προνοουμένου Θεοῦ. Πῶς γὰρ οὐ κρῖμα αὐτοῦ, τὸ ἐν τοῖς ἔργοις αὐτοῦ συλλαμβάνεσθαι τὸν ἁμαρτωλὸν, ἔχοντα τὴν πρόφασιν τοῦ καταδικάζεσθαι ἐξ ὦν ἔδρασεν πονηρῶς; Τούτῳ συνᾴδει τὸ ὀλίγῳ πρότερον λεχθὲν, ἔχον ὦδε· Ὁ ὀρύσσων βόθρον τῷ πλησίον, ἐμπεσεῖται εἰς αὐτόν. Δυδύμος του Ἀλεξανδρέως, Εἰς Ψαλμους, Ψαλμος θ' Source: Migne PG 39.1196b-c

'The peoples have been caught in the corruption they have wrought; their feet have been seized in the snares which they hid;' 1 Here virtue is named incorruption, 'Grace be to those lovers of our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption,' 2 and that which is its utter opposite is vice, which is rightly named a corrupting influence and a corruption. So vice is invoked under the name of corruption, whence it says, 'If someone corrupts the temple of God.' 3 And similarly the Prophet says to the unclean: 'On account of incorruption you have become corrupt.' 4 And accordingly it says, 'Who will be of help in your corruption, O Israel?' 5 And this corruption spoken of is possessed by the practitioners of it, they being made so by the possession of it. So here it says that the nations are fixed in the corruption which they have made, for no other impiety or sin has hold of them; each man perishes because of his own sin. Then the wicked, before they destroy themselves, they deceitfully strive to drive others into the same damnation; they construct traps with cunning counsel and words, so that the careless might be caught up in them. But to him who sets down the trap, the trap is a punishment, because those who deceive shall have their reward. They shall suffer the same by the judgement of the provident God. For what is His judgement, but that the sinner is caught in his own works and foretells his own damnation by the wicked acts he performs? Thus it befits that a little while before this it was said, 'He who digs a pit for his neighbour, he shall fall into it.' 6 Didymus the Blind, Commentary on the Psalms, from Psalm 9 1 Ps 9.16 2 Ephes 6.24 3 1 Cor 3.17 4 Mich 2.10 5 Lam 2.13 6 Ps 7.16