Speech And Requital

Quoniam auris zeli audit omnia, et tumultus murmurationum non abscondetur. Et bene dixi, quod veniet etc; quoniam auris zeli, zeli, inquam, Dei animas tanquam sponsas zelantis, audit omnia, scilicet verba tam mala quam bona quam indifferentia, sicut zelotypus homo diligenter audit et notat verba sponsae et loquentium cum ea; Exodi vigesimo: Ego sum Deus fortis zelotes, etc. Et tumultus murmurationum, quibus homines murmurant contra Deum; Ecclesiastici trigesimo tertio: Praecordia fatui quasi rota plaustri. Et dicitur tumultus, quia homo murmurans, quasi intra dentes suos tumultuet, non clare enuntiat. Non abscondetur, sed toti mundo propalabitur; Lucae duodecimo: Nihil opertum , quod non reveletur; neque absconditum, quod non sciatur. Exodi decimo: Audivi murmurationes filiorum Israel. Custodite ergo vos a murmuratione quæ nihil prodest, et a detractione parcite linguæ: quoniam sermo obscurus in vacuum non ibit, os autem quod mentitur occidit animam. Hic monet ad pravae locutionis cautelam: et primo ponit suam exhortationem; secundo, exhortationis necessitatem. Quoniam sermo, etc. Construendum autem, sive continuandum sic: Ex quo non abscondetur tumultus, etc, custodite ergo vos a murmuratione , scilicet contra Deum. Quae nihil prodest, imo multum obest; unde primo ad Corinthios decimo: Quidam eorum murmuraverunt, et perierunt ab exterminatore. Et a detractione , scilicet contra proximum; Iob sexto: Quare detraxistis sermonibus sanctis veritatis? Parcite linguae: non dicitur: Parcite proximo, sed linguae, scilicet vestrae; quia detrahens alteri, primo seipsum laedit. Unde pejor est detractio serpentino veneno. Seneca: Illud venenum, quod serpentes in aliorum perniciem ferunt, sine sua continent malitia; ipsa detractio partem sui veneni bibit. Glossa: Perniciosae sunt murmurationes et detractiones; ad Romanos primo: Detractores Deo odibiles. Detractores dicit pluraliter, quia detractio fit pluribus modis, scilicet: vel cum occultum bonum negatur; vel cum apertum diminuitur; vel cum occultum malum propalatur; vel quando apertum amplius divulgatur. Et bene dixi: Parcite linguae: quoniam sermo obscurus: Glossa: Occultus, ut est verbum murmuris: In vacuum non ibit, id est, sine poena non remanebit; quia nec sermo otiosus, Matthaeus: De omni verbo otioso, etc. Ergo multo magis de verbo malitioso. Verbum otiosum, ut dicit ibi Glossa, est quod dicitur sine utilitate loquentis, vel audientis. Hieronymus: Omne quod non aedificat loquentes, in periculum vertitur loquentium. Os autem quod mentitur, scilicet detrahendo, occidit animam: Glossa: mucrone peccati animam mentientis. Psalmus: Perdes omnes, qui loquuntur mendacium. Et notandum, quod loquitur de mendacio pernicioso, quod est mortale; non de jocoso, vel officioso. Unde Glossa: Est mendacium levioris culpae, cum quis praestando beneficium, mentitur. Sed videtur, quod aliquod mendacium sit bonum et meritorium, quia obstetrices mentientes meruerunt praemium apud justum judicem, scilicet Deum, qui falli non potest, ut patet. Dicendum secundum Glossam , quod non est remunerata mendacii , sed pietatis earum benevolentia. Sed numquid unum et idem factum fuit peccatum, et tamen habuit benevolentiae meritum? Et videtur, quod sic: dicit enim Glossa: Deus unum idemque factum , propter bonum, malum condonat , et bonum remunerat. Dicendum, quod unum fuit connexione, non indivisibile; quia aliud fuit intentio liberandi, aliud voluntas mentiendi, licet coordinata. Sanctus Bonaventura, Commentarius In Librum Sapientiae, Caput I Source: Here, 362b-363a

Because the zealous ear hears all, and a tumult of murmuring shall not be hidden. 1 And well I have said that a report will come, 2 because the zealous ear, I say, of the zeal of God, who is zealous for souls as for brides, hears all things, that is, words whether they be evil, good or indifferent, just as a jealous man carefully listens and takes note of the words of the bride, and of those speaking with her: 'I am the Lord your God, mighty, zealous,' 3 Even 'a tumult of murmuring,' by which men murmur against God: 'The heart of a fool is like a wheel of a cart.' 4 And it says 'tumult' because a man murmuring is as one making a noise within the teeth but not speaking clearly. 'Shall not be hidden,' but it shall made known to the whole world:'There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, nor hidden that shall not be known.' 5 'I have heard the murmuring of the children of Israel.' 6 Therefore keep yourselves from murmuring, which profits nothing, and spare the tongue detraction, because a word  that is secret shall not go for nothing and the mouth which lies kills the soul. 7 This exhorts caution against evil speech, and firstly gives its exhortation, secondly the necessity for the exhortation: 'Because a word...' must understood or put in connection with: 'a tumult of murmuring shall not be hidden...' 'Keep yourselves from murmuring,' that is, against God. 'Which profits nothing,' rather it is harmful; whence: 'Some of them murmured and they were destroyed by the destroyer.' 8 And from detraction, that is, against a neighbour: 'Why have you detracted the words of truth?' 9 'Spare the tongue...' It does not say: 'spare a neighbour,' but the tongue, that is, yours, because, by detraction one first harms oneself. So detraction is worse than the venom of a snake. Seneca: 'The poison that snakes have to harm others does not harm them, but detraction drinks a part of its own poison.' 10 Gloss: 'Murmurings and detractions are ruinous.' 'Detractors, hateful to God.' 11 He says detractors in the plural because there are many ways of detraction, that is: when a hidden good is denied, or when it is diminished when it is revealed, or when a hidden evil is revealed, or when it is disseminated further when it is revealed. And well I have said: 'Spare the tongue, because a secret word...' Gloss: 'Secret, just as is a word of murmuring,' 'Shall not go for nothing,' that is, it will not go without punishment, as neither will an idle word; Matthew: 'For every idle word...' 12 therefore, much more for a malicious word. 'An idle word,' as the Gloss says, 'is spoken without profit for speaker or listener.' Jerome: 'Everything that does not edify listeners becomes a danger for the speakers.' 13 'The mouth which lies...' that is, by detraction, 'kills the soul.' The Gloss: 'By the sword's point of sin the soul of a liar is slain.' 'You will destroy all who speak a lie.' 14 Note that it speaks here about the destructive lie, one that is mortal, not a facetious or official one, whence a Gloss says: 'A lie has less fault when someone lies to gain a benefit.' But it seems that a certain lie can be good and meritorious because by lying the midwives merited a reward from the just judge, that is, God, who cannot be deceived, as is clear in the first chapter of Exodus. 15 But according to a Gloss it must be said that 'it was not a reward for a lie but for the goodness of their piety.' But can one and the same action be a sin and also have merit as a good? It would seem that it can, for a Gloss says: 'For one and the same deed, God pardons evil for the sake of good and rewards the good.' It must be said that it was one action by connection not by indivisibility, because the intention to free was different from the will to lie, even though they are connected. Saint Bonaventura, Commentary On Wisdom, Chapter 1 1 Wisd 1.10 2 Wisd 1.9 3 Exod 20.5 4 Sirach 33.5 5 Luke 12.2 6 Exod 16.12 7 Wisd 1.11 8 1 Cor 10.10 9 Job 6.25 10 Seneca Epis 81.22 11 Rom 1.30 12 Mt 12.36 13 Jerome Epis 64.5 14 Ps 5.7 15 Exod 1.15-21

Prostitutes And Heretics

Μὴ πρόσεχε φαύλῃ γυναικί μέλι γὰρ ἀποστάζει ἀπὸ χειλέων γυναικὸς πόρνης ἣ πρὸς καιρὸν λιπαίνει σὸν φάρυγγα...  Στωμυλεύονται γὰρ αἴτε πρόδηλοι πόρναι, καὶ αἰ τῶν ἑτεροδόξων διδασκαλίαι, ἀπατῶσαι διὰ τῆς χρηστολογίας τὰς τῶν ἀκάκων καρδίας· μεγίστη οὖν ἀσφάλεια τὸ μὴ ἀλῶναι τὴν ἀρχήν· ἀλόντα γὰρ, δὺσκολον διαφυγεῖν. Ὠριγένης, Ἐκλογαὶ Εἰς Παροιμίας  Source: Migne PG 17.173a

Give no heed to a deceitful woman, for honey drips from the lips of a public courtesan, or at the appropriate time she anoints your throat with oil...1 For as the public courtesans chatter, so are the teachers of heresy, who by golden speech deceive the hearts of the guileless. Of great importance then it is that one is not caught at the beginning, for once one is made a captive, it is difficult to escape. Origen, On Proverbs, Fragment 1 Prov 5.3 LXX

Holiness And Truth

Σῶσον με, Κύριε, ὅτι ἐκλέλοιπεν ὅσιος, κ.τλ. Ἐκλείποντος ὁσίου, σωτηρίας δεῖται ὡς χαλεπώτερον περιγενόμενος. Ὅτι ὠλιγώθησαν αἱ ἀλήθεισι ἀπὸ τῶν υἱῶν τῶν ἀνθρώπων. Εἰ οἱ ὅσιοι ἐκλελοίπασιν, αἱ δὲ ἀλήθειαι ὠλιγώθησαν, οὐκ ἐν μόνοις τοῖς ὁσίοις αἱ ἀλήθειαι, καὶ οὑκ ἐν τοῖς ἀληθέσιν ὁσιότης. Καί ἐπειδὴ οἱ ὅσιοι ἐκλελοίπασι, διὰ τοῦτο ὠλιγώθησαν αἱ ἀλήθειαι. Καὶ τάχα ἡ σπάνις τῶν ὁσίων αἰτία γέγονε τῶν πολλῶν τούτων αἱρέσεων. Μετὰ δόλου ἀλλήλοις προσδιαλέγονται, διὰ πονηρῶν χειλέων εἰς τὴν ἀλλήλων καρδίαν τὰ ψευδῆ παραπέμποντες· ὅτε δὲ περὶ γνῶσιν οὐκ ἀσχολούμεθα, ὀλιγοῦνται αἱ ἀλήθειαι. Ὠριγένης, Εἰς Ψαλμους, Ψαλμος ΙΑ' Source:Migne PG 12 1200c

Save me, O Lord, because holiness has declined... 1 Holiness having declined, he prays that he might delivered from troubles. 'Because truth has diminished among the sons of men.' 1 If the holy has declined and truth has diminished, not in holiness alone is there truth, nor in truths holiness. But because the holy have declined, truths have indeed diminished. And perhaps the paucity of the holy is a cause of the multitude of heresies. With mutual cunning they converse together, and through wicked lips they send forth the falsehoods of their hearts to one another. Indeed when we do not attend to knowledge then truth diminishes. Origen, On the Psalms, from Psalm 11 1 Ps 11. 2

Counsel in Trials

Unusquisque se a proximo suo custodiat: et in omni fratre suo non habeat fiduciam, quia omnis frater supplantatione supplantabit, et omnis amicus fraudulenter incedet; et vir fratrem suum deridebit et veritatem non loquentur. Docuerunt enim linguam suam loqui mendacium, sive didicit enim lingua eorum loqui mendacium, ut inique agarent, laboraverunt. sive inique egerunt et non intermiserunt ut converterentur. Habitation tua in medio doli, in dola, sive usura super usuram et dolus in dolo, renuerunt, sive noluerunt, scire me, dicit Dominus.  Hoc loco utendum est in tempore persecutionis et angustiae, quando aut rara, aut nulla fides est: quando nec fratri nec proximo credendum est et inimici hominis domestici eius, quando juxta Evangelium: Tradet pater filium, et filius patrem, et dividentur duo in tres et tres in duo. Quodque infert, 'Docuerunt linguam suam loqui mendacium', sive 'didicit lingua eorum loqui mendacium,' ostendit consuetudinem mentiendi quodamodo in naturam verti: studioseque eos agere, ut agant iniqua. Quodque sequitur, Habitatio tua in medio doli, in dolo, proprie ad Prophetam sermo dirigitur, quod habitet in medio populi mentientis; sive ut Septuaginta transtulerunt: Usura super usuram et dolus super dolum: et quod quotidie augeant scelera, et nequaquam eos prioris facti poeniteat, sed novis praeterita cumulent. Haec facientes, omni aguat studio, ut nesciant Dominum, qui haec non facienda praecepit. Propterea haec dicit Dominus exercituum: Ecce ego conflabo, sive, igne examinabo et probabo eos. Quid enim aliud faciam a facie filiae populi mei, sive quid faciam a facie malitiae filiae populi mei?   Quotiescumque angustiis subjacemus, mala recipimus a Deo, et examinamur persecutionibus, ut quidquid in nobis adulterinae materiae est, tribulationum et miseriarum exuratur ardoribus: 'Argentum enim Domini igne examinatum probatum terrae, purgatum septuplim.' Sanctus Hieronymus, Commentariorum In Jeremiam Propheta, Lib II, Cap IX

Let everyone guard himself against his neighbour and have no trust in any brother, for every brother is a supplanter and every friend walks along with deceit, every man derides his brother and no one speaks the truth; they have shown their own tongues to speak lies, or they have taught their tongue to speak lies; 'they exert themselves so that they may do iniquity, or they do iniquity and do not cease, so as to repent. Your habitation is in the midst of deceit, in deceit, or usury on usury and deceit on deceit, they refuse, or they do not wish, to know me, says the Lord. This passage should be used in time of persecution and distress, when faith is either rare or does not exist at all, when neither brother nor neighbour can be trusted, when a man's enemies are of his own house, when, in accordance with the Gospel: Father deliverers up son, and son father, and two are divided against three and three against two. And by adding 'They have shown their own tongues to speak lies,' or 'They have taught their own tongues to speak lies,' he shows that their habit of lying turns into a lying nature, and that they are diligent to act, that is, iniquitously. And as for what follows, 'Your habitation is in the midst of deceit,' properly this word is addressed to the Prophet since he dwells in the midst of a lying people, or, as the Septuagint has translated: ' Usury on usury and deceit on deceit,' because every day they augment their crimes and they will not repent of what they have done but heap new evils on the old. They do such things, as they do all things with eagerness, so that they do not know the Lord, who commanded that these things should not be done. Therefore the Lord of Hosts says this: 'Behold I will burn them 'or 'I will examine them with fire, 'and test them, for what else can I do, because of my people,' or 'because of the evil of my people?' Whenever we are subject to trials, receive evil from God, and are tested by persecutions, it is so that whatever in us is impure material  may be burnt away by the fires of tribulation and mercy:  'We are silver examined by the fire of the Lord, refined on the ground, purified seven times.' Saint Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah, Book 2

Four Kinds Of Apostles

Quatuor autem genera apostolorum sunt. Unum, quod neque ab hominibus est, neque per hominem, sed per Jesum Christum, et Deum Patrem; aliud, quod a Deo quidem est sed per hominem; tertium, quod ab homine, non a Deo; quartum, quod neque a Deo, neque per hominem, neque ab homine, sed a semetipso. De primo genere potest esse Isais, caeterique prophetae, et ipse apostolus Paulus, qui neque ab hominibus, neque per hominem, sed a Deo Patre et Christo missus est. De secduno, Jesus filius Nave, qui a Deo quidem est apostolus constitutus, sed per hominem, Moysen. Tertium genus est, cum hominum favore et studio aliquis ordinatur. Ut nunc videmus plurimos non Dei judicio, sed redempto favore vulgi in sacerdotium subrogari. Quartum est pseudoprophetarum et pseudoapostolorum, de quibus apostolus: 'Istiusmodi, inquit, pseudoapostolorum, operarii iniquitatis, transfigurantes se in apostolos Christi, qui dicunt: Haec dicit Dominus: et Dominus non misit eos.' Sanctus Hieronymus, Commentariorum in Epistolam ad Galatas, Liber Primus Source: Migne PL 26.312

There are four kinds of Apostles. The first is the one who is sent not by men nor through men but through Jesus Christ and God the Father. 1 The second is from God but through man. The third is sent by man but not by God. The fourth is sent not by God, nor by man, nor from men, but from the man himself. Of the first type are Isaiah, the other Prophets, and the Apostle Paul himself, who was sent not by man nor through men but by God the Father and Christ. Of the second type are Joshua son of Nun, he who was made an apostle of God but through the man Moses. The third type is when someone is ordained because of the favour and support of the people, as now we see many appointed to the priesthood not because God has deemed them worthy but because they have gained the favour of a mob. The fourth type is of false Prophets and false Apostles, about whom the Apostle says, 'False prophets like these are workers of iniquity, transforming themselves into Apostles of Christ, those who say that the Lord said these things, and the Lord has not sent them.' 2 Saint Jerome, from the Commentary on the Letter of St Paul To The Galatians, Book 1 1 Galat 1.1  2 2 Cor 10.13

The Balance Of Words

Nemo etiam in dolo loquatur ad proximum suum. Laqueus est in labiis nostris, et saepe unusquisque sermonibus suis non explicatur, sed involvitur. Fovea alta est os malevoli: grande innocentiae praecipitium, sed majus malevolentiae. Innocens dum credit facile, cito labitur sed tamen iste lapsus resurgit: maledictus autem suis artibus praecipitatur, unde numquam exsiliat atque evadat. Ponderet ergo unusquisque sermones suos, non cum fraude et dolo: Statera fallax improbabilis apud Deum: non illam stateram dico, quae mercem appendit alienam, et in vilibus quidem rebus caro constat fallacia, sed statera verborum ipsa apud Deum est exsecrabilis, quae praetendit pondus gravitatis sobriae, et subnectit versutias fraudulentiae. Sanctus Ambrosius Mediolanensis, Epistola II, Ad Constantium Episcopum Source: Migne PL 16.882d-883a

Let no one speak deceitfully to his neighbour. There is a snare on our lips, and often is it that a man is not freed but trapped by his speech. 1 The mouth of the malevolent is a deep pit; great is the fall of innocence, but more is that of malevolence. 2 The innocent man, when he too easily trusts, quickly falls, but fallen he rises again; yet the man who speaks evil is thrown headlong by his art so that he can never recover and escape. Therefore let every man weigh his words, but not with deceit and guile, for: 'a false balance is abomination to the Lord.' 3 And I do not mean that balance which weighs the wares of others, though even in minor matters deceit often costs dear, but that balance of words which is detestable to the Lord, that which pretends to the weight of sober gravity but rests on deceitful artifices. Saint Ambrose, from Letter 2, To the Bishop Constantius 1 Prov 6.2 2 Prov 22.14 3 Prov 11.1