Migne Reading Room
PL 38 · cols. 270–294
Augustine, Sermones 46 et 47 (De pastoribus, De ovibus, in Ezechiel 34)
Sermon XLVI
SERMO XLVI. De Pastoribus in Ezechiel cap. XXXIV, 1-16, ab illis verbis, Et factum est, etc., usque, Et pascam eas cum judicio. Contra Donatistas.
SERMON XLVI. On Pastors, on Ezechiel chapter XXXIV, 1-16, from those words, And it came to pass, etc., as far as, And I will feed them with judgement. Against the Donatists.
CAPUT PRIMUM. — 1. De pastoribus non oves, sed se ipsos pascentibus. Spes tota nostra quia in Christo est, et quia omnis vera et salubris gloria nostra ipse est, non nunc primum didicit Charitas vestra. Estis enim in ejus grege, qui intendit et pascit Israel (Psal. LXXIX, 2). Sed quoniam sunt pastores, qui pastorum nomine gaudere volunt, pastoris autem officium implere nolunt; quid ad eos per Prophetam dicat, sicut lectum audivimus, recenseamus. Audite vos cum intentione, audiamus nos cum tremore.
CHAPTER THE FIRST. — 1. On shepherds who feed not the sheep, but themselves. That our whole hope is in Christ, and that He Himself is all our true and wholesome glory, your Charity has not learned now for the first time. For you are in the flock of Him Who gives heed to and feeds Israel (Ps. 79:2). But since there are shepherds who wish to rejoice in the name of shepherds, yet are unwilling to fulfil a shepherd's office, let us go over what He says to them through the Prophet, as we have heard it read. Listen, you, with attention; let us listen, we, with trembling.
2. Christiani, propter nos; praepositi, propter alios. — Et factum est ad me verbum Domini, dicens: Fili hominis, propheta super pastores Israel. Hanc lectionem modo, cum legeretur, audivimus: hinc cum vestra Sanctitate aliquid loqui decrevimus. Adjuvabit ipse, ut vera dicamus, si non nostra dicamus. Nam si nostra dixerimus, pastores erimus pascentes nos, non oves: si autem illius sunt quae dicimus, per quemlibet ipse vos pascet. Haec dicit Dominus Deus: O pastores Israel, qui pascunt se solos! Numquid non oves pascunt pastores?
2. Christians, for our own sake; set over you, for the sake of others. — And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. This lesson we heard just now, while it was being read; from it we have resolved to say something with your Holiness. He Himself will help us, that we may say true things, if we do not say our own. For if we say our own, we shall be shepherds feeding ourselves, not the sheep; but if what we say is His, He Himself will feed you through whomever [He will]. Thus says the Lord God: O shepherds of Israel, who feed themselves alone! Do not the shepherds feed the sheep?
Editors' notes and page, col. 270
Footnotes
(1) ‹anchor: implere nolunt› · call in col 270
Hinc tractatus pluribus in manuscriptis incipit in hunc modum : Qui pastorum nomen (vel, nomina) audire volunt, pastorum officium implere nolunt, quid ad eos, etc.
From this point the treatise begins in several manuscripts in this manner: "Those who wish to hear the name (or, the names) of shepherds, but do not wish to fulfil the office of shepherds, what to them," etc.
(printed under page 141)
(2) ‹anchor: Fili hominis, propheta› · call in col 270
Sic Mss. Editi vero, prophetiza.
So the manuscripts. The printed editions, however, "prophesy" (prophetiza).
(printed under page 141)
(3) ‹anchor: pascunt pastores› · call in col 270
Editi : Vae pastoribus qui pascunt se solos! Numquid oves pascunt pastores? At manuscripti, juxta LXX, O pastores Israel, etc.
The printed editions: "Woe to the shepherds who feed themselves alone! Do the shepherds feed the sheep?" But the manuscripts, following the Septuagint, "O shepherds of Israel," etc.
(printed under page 141) (*) ‹anchor: SERMO XLVI› · call in col 270 Recognitus est ad b. cs. fl. gr. l. pr. r. rm. s. Am. Er. Ulim. Lov. et ad veterem codicem D. de S. Georges, canonici comitis Lugdunensis, a Rege nominati ad episcopatum Claromontanum.
It has been revised against b. cs. fl. gr. l. pr. r. rm. s. Am. Er. Ulim. Lov. and against an old codex of M. de S. Georges, canon-count of Lyons, nominated by the King to the bishopric of Clermont.
(printed under page 141)
(a) ‹anchor: SERMO XLVI› · call in col 270
Alias de Tempore 165, vel in tomo 9 editus.
Elsewhere de Tempore 165, or published in volume 9.
(printed under page 141)
(b) ‹anchor: Contra Donatistas› · call in col 270
Ex hoc sermone plura Florus ad Pauli Epistolas.
Florus has a good many things from this sermon on the Epistles of Paul.
(printed under page 141)
Id est, non se pascunt pastores, sed oves. Haec prima causa est quare arguantur pastores isti, quia se ipsos pascunt, non oves. Qui sunt qui se ipsos pascunt? De quibus Apostolus dicit: Omnes enim quae sua sunt quaerunt, non quae Jesu Christi (Philipp. II, 21). Nos enim, quos in isto loco, de quo periculosa ratio redditur, Dominus secundum dignationem suam, non secundum meritum nostrum constituit, habemus quo quaedam: unum, quod christiani sumus; alterum, quod praepositi sumus. Illud quod christiani sumus, propter nos est: quod autem praepositi sumus, propter vos est. In eo quod christiani sumus, attenditur utilitas nostra: in eo quod praepositi, nonnisi vestra. Sunt autem multi christiani, et non praepositi, qui perveniunt ad Deum, faciliore fortasse itinere, et tanto forte expeditius ambulantes, quanto minorem sarcinam portant. Nos autem, excepto quod christiani sumus, unde rationem reddemus Deo de vita nostra, sumus etiam praepositi, unde rationem reddemus Deo de dispensatione nostra. Ad hoc istam difficultatem propono, ut compatientes nobis, oretis pro nobis. Veniet enim dies, quo cuncta adducantur in judicium (Eccle. XII, 14). Et ille dies, si saeculo longe est, unicuique homini vitae suae ultimus prope est. Tamen utrumque latere Deus voluit, et quando veniat finis saeculi, et quando sit in unoquoque homine hujus vitae finis. Vis non timere diem occultum? Dum venerit, inveniat te paratum. Cum ergo praepositi ad hoc sint, ut his qui subjecti sunt consulant; non in eo quod praesunt, omnino utilitatem suam attendant, sed eorum quibus ministrant. Quisquis ita praepositus est, ut in eo quod praepositus est, gaudeat, et honorem suum quaerat, et commoda sua sola respiciat, se pascit, non oves. Ad hos sermo dirigitur. Audite tanquam oves Dei, et videte quemadmodum vos securos fecerit Deus: qualescumque sint qui vobis praesunt, id est, qualescumque nos simus; vobis securitatem dedit, qui pascit Israel. Nam Deus non deserit oves suas; et mali pastores poenas debitas luent, et oves promissa percipient.
That is, shepherds feed not themselves, but the sheep. This is the first cause why these shepherds are reproved: that they feed themselves, not the sheep. Who are they that feed themselves? Those of whom the Apostle says: For all seek the things that are their own, not the things that are Jesus Christ's (Phil. 2:21). For we, whom the Lord has set in this place, of which a perilous account is rendered, according to His own condescension, not according to our merit, have two things: one, that we are Christians; the other, that we are set over you. That we are Christians is for our own sake; but that we are set over you is for yours. In that we are Christians, our own profit is looked to; in that we are set over you, nothing but yours. Now there are many Christians, and not set over [others], who come through to God, by an easier road perhaps, and walking the more unencumbered, perhaps, the lesser the burden they carry. But we, besides being Christians, for which we shall render God an account of our life, are also set over you, for which we shall render God an account of our stewardship. I set this difficulty before you for this: that, suffering with us, you may pray for us. For the day will come on which all things are to be brought into judgement (Eccl. 12:14). And that day, if it is far off for the world, is near to each single man as the last [day] of his life. Yet God has willed both to lie hidden: both when the end of the world is to come, and when the end of this life is to be in each single man. Do you wish not to fear the hidden day? When it comes, let it find you ready. Since, then, those set over [others] exist for this, that they may take counsel for those who are subject [to them], let them not, in that they preside, look at all to their own profit, but to that of those whom they serve. Whoever is so set over [others] that he rejoices in being set over them, and seeks his own honour, and looks only to his own comforts, feeds himself, not the sheep. To these the discourse is directed. Listen as the sheep of God, and see how God has made you secure: whatever sort they are who are set over you, that is, whatever sort we are, He Who feeds Israel has given you security. For God does not desert His own sheep; and the bad shepherds will pay the penalties they owe, and the sheep will receive what was promised.
CAPUT II. — 3. Pastores qui se pascunt, non oves. Videamus ergo quid alloquatur pastores se ipsos pascentes, non oves, sermo divinus neminem palpans. Ecce lac consumitis, et lanis vos tegitis, et quod crassum est interficitis, et oves meas non pascitis: quod infirmatum est, non confortastis; et quod aegrotum est, non corroborastis; et quod contribulatum est, non colligastis; et quod errabat, non revocastis; et quod periit, non inquisistis; et quod forte fuit, confecistis: et dispersae sunt oves meae, eo quod non sit pastor. Dicitur in pastores pascentes semetipsos, non oves, quid diligant, quid negligant. Quid ergo diligunt? Lac consumitis, et lanis vos tegitis. Propter quod Apostolus dicit, Quis plantat vineam, et de fructu ejus non sumit? Quis pascit gregem, et de lacte gregis non percipit (I Cor. IX, 7)? Invenimus ergo esse lac gregis, quidquid a
CHAPTER II. — 3. Shepherds who feed themselves, not the sheep. Let us see, then, what the divine word, which flatters no one, says to shepherds who feed themselves, not the sheep. Behold, you consume the milk, and you cover yourselves with the wool, and what is fat you kill, and my sheep you do not feed: what was weakened, you have not strengthened; and what was sick, you have not made strong; and what was crushed, you have not bound up; and what was straying, you have not called back; and what was lost, you have not sought out; and what was strong, you have worn out: and my sheep are scattered, because there is no shepherd. It is said against shepherds who feed themselves, not the sheep, what they love [and] what they neglect. What, then, do they love? You consume the milk, and you cover yourselves with the wool. On account of which the Apostle says: Who plants a vineyard, and does not take of its fruit? Who feeds a flock, and does not take of the milk of the flock (1 Cor. 9:7)? We find, then, that the milk of the flock is whatever is bestowed by
Editors' notes and page, col. 271
Footnotes
(1) ‹anchor: perveniunt ad Deum› · call in col 271
Aliquot Mss.: Et sunt multi, qui Christiani et non Praepositi, perveniunt ad Deum.
Some manuscripts: "And there are many who, being Christians and not set over others, come through to God."
(printed under page 142)
(2) ‹anchor: non in eo› · call in col 271
Omnes Mss., nec in eo.
All the manuscripts, "nor in this" (nec in eo).
(printed under page 142)
plebe Dei tribuitur praepositis ad sustentandum victum temporalem. Inde enim loquebatur Apostolus, cum haec diceret quae commemoravi.
the people of God upon those set over them for the support of their temporal livelihood. For it was of this that the Apostle was speaking, when he said these things that I have recalled.
4. Lactis percipiendi potestas data pastoribus. Et quidem Apostolus quanquam elegerit manibus suis transigi, et nec ipsum lac quaerere ab ovibus (II Thess. III, 8); tamen lactis percipiendi potestatem habere se dixit, et sic Dominum disposuisse, ut qui Evangelium annuntiant, de Evangelio vivant. Et dicit alios coapostolos suos usos fuisse hac potestate; non usurpata, sed data. Plus ille fecit, ut nec quod debebatur acciperet (I Cor. IX, 4-15). Ipse ergo donavit et debitum: sed alius non exigit indebitum: ille plus fecit. Fortassis enim ipsum significabat, qui aegrum cum adduceret ad stabularium, dixit: Si quid amplius erogaveris, in redeundo reddam tibi (Luc. X, 35). De his ergo qui non indigent lacte gregis, quid plura dicamus? Misericordiores sunt, vel potius ipsius misericordiae officium largius impendunt. Possunt enim; et quod possunt, faciunt. Laudentur hi, nec damnentur illi. Nam et ipse Apostolus datum non quaerebat; fructuosas tamen oves esse cupiebat, non steriles sine lactis ubertate. Itaque cum esset quodam tempore in magna indigentia, vinctus in confessione veritatis, missum est illi a fratribus unde necessitati et indigentiae ejus ministraretur. Respondit autem illis gratias agens, et dixit: Bene fecistis communicare necessitatibus meis. Ego enim didici in quibus sum sufficiens esse: scio et abundare, et penuriam pati; omnia possum in eo qui me confortat. Verumtamen vos bene fecistis usibus meis mittere. Sed ut ostenderet, in eo quod illi bene fecerunt, quid ipse quaereret, ne inter illos esset qui se ipsos pascunt, non oves, non tam suae gaudet subventum esse necessitati, quam illorum gratulatur fecunditati. Quid ergo ibi quaerebat? Non quia quaero, inquit, datum, sed requiro fructum (Philipp. IV, 11-17). Non ut ego, inquit, explear, sed ne vos inanes remaneatis.
4. The power of receiving the milk is given to shepherds. And indeed the Apostle, although he chose to get his living by his own hands, and not to seek even the milk itself from the sheep (2 Thess. 3:8), yet said that he had the power of receiving the milk, and that the Lord had so appointed, that those who proclaim the Gospel should live by the Gospel. And he says that others, his fellow apostles, had used this power, not usurped but given. He did more, in that he did not receive even what was owed [to him] (1 Cor. 9:4–15). He, then, remitted even what was owed; while another does not exact what is not owed: he did more. For perhaps he [the Samaritan] was signifying him [the Apostle], who, when he brought the sick man to the innkeeper, said: Whatever more you lay out, I will repay you on my return (Luke 10:35). Of those, then, who have no need of the milk of the flock, what more shall we say? They are more merciful, or rather they lay out the office of mercy itself more generously. For they are able; and what they are able [to do], they do. Let these be praised, and let those not be condemned. For the Apostle himself too did not seek the gift; yet he desired the sheep to be fruitful, not barren, without abundance of milk. And so, when at a certain time he was in great want, bound for the confession of the truth, there was sent to him by the brethren that whereby his necessity and want might be served. And he answered them giving thanks, and said: You have done well to share in my necessities. For I have learned, in whatever [state] I am, to be sufficient: I know both how to abound, and how to suffer want; I can do all things in Him Who strengthens me. Nevertheless you have done well to send for my uses. But to show, in that they had done well, what he himself was seeking, lest he be among those who feed themselves, not the sheep, he does not so much rejoice that his own necessity was relieved, as congratulate them on their fruitfulness. What, then, was he seeking there? Not because I seek the gift, he says, but I look for the fruit (Phil. 4:11–17). Not that I, he says, may be filled, but that you may not remain empty.
5. Lac sic sumant, ut ovibus prosint: non sumpto lacte, oves negligant. Qui ergo non possunt facere quod Paulus, ut manibus suis se transigant, accipiant de lacte ovium, sustentent suam necessitatem, sed non negligant ovium infirmitatem: non hoc sibi quaerant, tanquam commodum suum, ut ex necessitate suae penuriae videantur annuntiare Evangelium; sed hominibus illuminandis praebeant lucem verbi veritatis. Sunt enim tanquam lucernae, sicut dictum est, Sint lumbi vestri accincti, et lucernae ardentes (Luc. XII, 35); et, Nemo accendit lucernam, et ponit eam sub modio, sed super candelabrum, ut luceat omnibus qui in domo sunt: sic luceat lumen vestrum coram hominibus, ut videant bona opera vestra, et glorificent Patrem vestrum qui in coelis est (Matth. V, 15, 16). Si ergo tibi
5. Let them so take the milk as to profit the sheep; let them not, the milk taken, neglect the sheep. Those, then, who cannot do what Paul [did], so as to get their living by their own hands, let them receive of the milk of the sheep, let them support their necessity, but let them not neglect the weakness of the sheep: let them not seek this for themselves as their own advantage, so as to seem to proclaim the Gospel out of the necessity of their own want; but let them afford to men who are to be enlightened the light of the word of truth. For they are as lamps, as it is said: Let your loins be girded, and your lamps burning (Luke 12:35); and: No one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel, but upon a lampstand, that it may give light to all who are in the house: so let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father Who is in heaven (Matt. 5:15, 16). If, then, a lamp were lit for you
Editors' notes and page, col. 272
Footnotes
(1) ‹anchor: plebe Dei tribuitur› · call in col 272
Lov. et aliquot Mss, a plebe distribuitur. Alii, a plebe Dei tribuitur.
The Louvain edition and some manuscripts, "is distributed by the people." Others, "is bestowed by the people of God."
(printed under page 142)
(2) ‹anchor: victum temporalem› · call in col 272
Mss. fl. et r., ad sustentandam vitam temporalem.
The manuscripts fl. and r., "for sustaining temporal life."
(printed under page 142)
(3) ‹anchor: magna indigentia, vinctus› · call in col 272
Sic Florus et Mss. Editi vero, in magna indigentia victus, in confessione veritatis.
So Florus and the manuscripts. The printed editions, however, "in great want of food, in the confession of the truth."
(printed under page 142)
(4) ‹anchor: quid ipse quaereret› · call in col 272
Editi, quod ipse non quaereret. Abest, non, a plerisque Mss., e quibus unus Cisterciensis pro, quod, habet, quid.
The printed editions, "which he himself was not seeking." The word "not" (non) is absent from most manuscripts, of which one, the Cistercian, has "what" (quid) in place of "which" (quod).
(printed under page 142)
lucerna accenderetur in domo, nonne adjiceres oleum, ne exstingueretur? Porro si lucerna, accepto oleo, non luceret, non erat plane digna quae in candelabro poneretur, sed quae continuo frangeretur. Unde ergo vivitur, necessitatis est accipere, charitatis est praebere: non tanquam venale sit Evangelium, ut illud sit pretium ejus, quod sumunt qui annuntiant unde vivant. Si enim sic vendunt, magnam rem vili vendunt. Accipiant sustentationem necessitatis a populo, mercedem dispensationis a Domino. Non enim est idoneus populus reddere mercedem illis, qui sibi in charitate Evangelii serviunt. Non exspectent illi mercedem, nisi unde et isti salutem. Quid ergo isti increpantur, unde arguuntur? Quia cum lac consumerent, et lanis se tegerent, oves negligebant. Sua ergo tantum quaerebant, non quae Jesu Christi (Philipp. II, 21).
in the house, would you not add oil, so that it should not go out? And again, if the lamp, having received the oil, did not give light, it was plainly not worthy to be set upon the lampstand, but [worthy] to be broken at once. That whereby one lives, then, it is [a matter] of necessity to receive, of charity to give; not as though the Gospel were for sale, so that what they take who proclaim it, whereby they may live, should be its price. For if they sell it so, they sell a great thing cheap. Let them receive the support of their necessity from the people, the wage of their stewardship from the Lord. For the people is not fit to render a wage to those who serve it in the charity of the Gospel. Let those look for their wage from nowhere but whence these [look for] their salvation. Why, then, are these [shepherds] rebuked, on what ground are they reproved? Because, while they consumed the milk and covered themselves with the wool, they neglected the sheep. They sought, therefore, only their own things, not those of Jesus Christ (Phil. 2:21).
CAPUT III. — 6. Quid sit lanis se tegere. Lana, honor. Sed quoniam diximus quid sit lac consumere, quaeramus quid sit lanis se tegere. Qui praebet lac, victum praebet; qui praebet lanam, honorem praebet. Ista sunt duo quae a populis quaerunt, qui se ipsos pascunt, non oves; commodum supplendae necessitatis, et favorem honoris et laudis. Etenim vestimentum propterea bene intelligitur in honore, quia nuditatem contegit. Est enim unusquisque homo infirmus. Et quid est quisquis vobis praeest, nisi quod vos estis? Carnem portat, mortalis est, manducat, dormit, surgit, natus est, moriturus est. Si ergo cogitas quid sit secundum se ipsum, homo est: tu tamen honorando eum velut angelum, contegis quod infirmum est.
CHAPTER III. — 6. What it is to cover oneself with the wool. The wool, honour. But since we have said what it is to consume the milk, let us ask what it is to cover oneself with the wool. He who offers milk offers sustenance; he who offers wool offers honour. These are the two things which those who feed themselves, not the sheep, seek from the peoples: the advantage of supplying their necessity, and the favour of honour and praise. For clothing is rightly understood as honour for this reason, that it covers nakedness. For every man is weak. And what is whoever is set over you, but what you are? He bears flesh, he is mortal, he eats, sleeps, rises; he was born, he is going to die. If, then, you consider what he is in himself, he is a man: yet you, by honouring him as an angel, cover what is weak.
7. Paulus eorum vitiis, a quibus sibi honor exhibetur, non parcit. Hujusmodi indumentum acceperat a bona Dei plebe idem Paulus, cum diceret: Sicut angelum Dei suscepistis me: testimonium vobis perhibeo, quia si fieri posset, oculos vestros eruissetis, et dedissetis mihi. Sed cum tantus illi honor exhibitus esset, numquid propter ipsum honorem sibi exhibitum, ne forte cum argueret, negaretur, et minus ipse Apostolus laudaretur, pepercit errantibus? Nam si hoc fecisset, esset inter illos qui se ipos pascunt, non oves: diceret apud se ipsum, Quid ad me pertinet? Quisque quod velit agat: victus meus salvus est, honor meus salvus est; et lac et lana, satis est mihi: eat quisque qua potest. Ergo integra tibi sunt omnia, si eat quisque qua potest? Nolo te praepositum facere, unum te constituo de ipsa plebe: Si patitur unum membrum, compatiuntur omnia membra (I Cor. XII, 26). Proinde ipse Apostolus, cum eos commemoraret quales fuerint erga illum, ne quasi oblitus eorum honorificentiae videretur, testimonium perhibet, quod sicut angelum Dei susceperint eum; et quod, si fieri posset, oculos suos vellent eruere, et illi dare: et tamen accedit ad ovem languidam, ad ovem putridam, secare
7. Paul does not spare the vices of those by whom honour is shown him. Clothing of this kind the same Paul had received from the good people of God, when he said: As an angel of God you received me: I bear you witness that, if it could have been done, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me. But when so great an honour had been shown him, did he, on account of that very honour shown him, lest perhaps, if he rebuked them, it should be refused him, and the Apostle himself be the less praised, spare those who were going astray? For if he had done this, he would be among those who feed themselves, not the sheep: he would say within himself, What does it matter to me? Let each do what he will: my sustenance is safe, my honour is safe; there is both milk and wool, it is enough for me: let each go where he can. Are all things, then, whole for you, if each goes where he can? I will not make you one set over [others]; I set you as one of the people itself: If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it (1 Cor. 12:26). Accordingly the Apostle himself, when he recalled what they had been towards him, lest he should seem as it were forgetful of their honouring [of him], bears witness that they received him as an angel of God, and that, if it could have been done, they would have wished to pluck out their eyes and give them to him: and yet he comes to the languishing sheep, to the festering sheep, to cut
Editors' notes and page, col. 273
Footnotes
(1) ‹anchor: Non exspectent› · call in col 273
Mss., Non exspectant.
The manuscripts, "They do not look for" (Non exspectant).
(printed under page 143)
(2) ‹anchor: Hujusmodi indumentum› · call in col 273
Plures Mss., et tu honorando tamen amplius, veluti contegis quod infirmum est. Videte cujusmodi indumentum, etc.
Several manuscripts, "and yet you, by honouring him the more, cover as it were what is weak. See what kind of garment," etc.
(printed under page 143)
(3) ‹anchor: qua potest› · call in col 273
Am. Er. et Corbeiensis Ms. hic et paulo post, quo potest.
Amerbach, Erasmus and the Corbie manuscript, here and a little further on, "whither he can" (quo potest).
(printed under page 143)
vulnus, non parcere putredini. Ergo, inquit, inimicus factus sum vobis, verum praedicans (Galat. IV, 14-16)? Ecce et accepit de lacte ovium, sicut paulo ante commemoravimus, et indutus est lanis ovium; sed tamen oves non neglexit. Non enim sua quaerebat, sed quae Jesu Christi.
the wound, not to spare the rottenness. Have I then, he says, become your enemy, speaking the truth (Gal. 4:14–16)? See: he both received of the milk of the sheep, as we recalled a little before, and was clothed with the wool of the sheep; but yet he did not neglect the sheep. For he was not seeking his own things, but those of Jesus Christ.
8. Pastores ne vitiis parcant, multitudinis conciliandae causa. Absit ergo ut dicamus vobis: Vivite ut vultis, securi estote, Deus neminem perdet, tantummodo fidem christianam tenete; non perdet ille quos redemit, non perdet pro quibus sanguinem fudit. Et si spectaculis volueritis oblectare animos vestros, ite; quid mali est? Et festa ista quae celebrantur per universas civitates in laetitia convivantium, et publicis mensis se ipsos ut putant jucundantium, re vera magis perdentium, ite, celebrate: magna est Dei misericordia, quae totum ignoscat. Coronate vos rosis, antequam marcescant (Sap. II, 8). In domo Dei vestri quando volueritis, convivamini; implemini cibo et vino cum vestris: ad hoc enim data est ista creatura, ut ea perfruamini; non enim impiis et Paganis eam dedit Deus, et vobis non dedit. Haec si dixerimus, forte congregabimus turbas ampliores: et si sunt quidam qui nos sentiant haec dicentes non recte sapere, paucos offendimus, sed multitudinem conciliamus. Quod si fecerimus, non verba Dei, non verba Christi dicentes, sed nostra; erimus pastores nosmetipsos pascentes, non oves.
8. Shepherds must not indulge vices, for the sake of winning over the crowd. Far be it, then, that we should say to you: Live as you wish, be at ease, God will destroy no one, only hold the Christian faith; He will not destroy those whom He redeemed, He will not destroy those for whom He shed His blood. And if you wish to delight your minds with the shows, go; what harm is there? And those festivals that are celebrated throughout all the cities amid the joy of the feasters, and of those who suppose themselves to be enjoying themselves at public tables, but in truth are rather destroying themselves — go, celebrate: great is the mercy of God, which forgives everything. Crown yourselves with roses before they wither (Wis. 2:8). In the house of your God, when you wish, feast together; be filled with food and wine along with your own: for this creature was given for this very purpose, that you should enjoy it; for God did not give it to the impious and to pagans, and deny it to you. If we should say these things, we would perhaps gather larger crowds: and if there are some who feel that in saying this we do not think rightly, we offend a few, but we win over the multitude. But if we do this, speaking not the words of God, not the words of Christ, but our own, we shall be shepherds feeding ourselves, not the sheep.
CAPUT IV. — 9. De mactantibus oves pingues. Exempla mala praepositorum. Cum autem dixisset quae diligant isti pastores, dicit et quae negligant. Vitia enim ovium late patent; sanae atque crassae oves perpaucae sunt, id est, solidae in cibo veritatis, utentes pascuis bene de munere Dei. Sed mali illi pastores non parcunt talibus. Parum est quod illas languentes et infirmas et errantes et perditas non curant; etiam istas fortes et pingues necant, quantum in ipsis est. Illae vivunt de misericordia Dei: tamen quantum ad pastores malos attinet, occidunt. Quomodo, inquis, occidunt? Male vivendo, malum exemplum praebendo. An frustra dictum est servo Dei, eminenti in membris summi pastoris, Circa omnes te ipsum bonorum operum praebe exemplum (Tit. II, 7); et, Forma esto fidelibus (I Tim. IV, 12). Attendit enim ovis etiam fortis plerumque praepositum suum male viventem: si declinet oculos a regulis Domini, et intendat in hominem, incipit dicere in corde suo, Si praepositus meus sic vivit, ego quis sum qui non faciam quod ille facit? Occidit ovem fortem. Si fortem ergo occidit ovem; jam de caeteris quid faciet, qui illud quod non ipse fortificaverat, sed forte aut robustum invenerat, male vivendo interfecit? Dico Charitati vestrae, iterum dico: etsi vivunt oves, etsi fortes sunt oves in verbo Domini, et tenent illud quod audierunt a Domino suo, Quae dicunt, facite; quae autem faciunt, facere nolite (Matth. XXIII, 3); tamen qui in conspectu populi male vivit, quantum in illo
CHAPTER IV. — 9. On those who slaughter the fat sheep. The bad examples of those set over [others]. Now when He had said what these shepherds love, He says also what they neglect. For the faults of the sheep lie open far and wide; healthy and fat sheep are very few, that is, solid in the food of truth, making good use of the pastures by the gift of God. But those bad shepherds do not spare such [sheep]. It is too little that they do not care for those that are languishing and weak and straying and lost; even these strong and fat ones they kill, so far as in them lies. These live by the mercy of God; yet so far as concerns the bad shepherds, they kill them. How, you say, do they kill them? By living badly, by giving a bad example. Or was it said in vain to the servant of God, eminent among the members of the chief Shepherd: Towards all show yourself an example of good works (Titus 2:7); and: Be a pattern to the faithful (1 Tim. 4:12)? For even a strong sheep often looks at the one set over it living badly: if it turns its eyes aside from the rules of the Lord and fixes them on a man, it begins to say in its heart: If the one set over me lives so, who am I not to do what he does? He has killed a strong sheep. If, then, he has killed a strong sheep, what will he do now with the rest, he who by living badly has slain that which he had not himself strengthened, but had found strong or robust? I say to your Charity, I say again: even if the sheep live, even if the sheep are strong in the word of the Lord, and hold fast that which they have heard from their Lord, What they say, do; but what they do, do not do (Matt. 23:3); yet he who lives badly in the sight of the people, so far as in him
Editors' notes and page, col. 274
Footnotes
(1) ‹anchor: per universas civitates› · call in col 274
Plures Mss., per universam civitatem. Iidemque libri paulo post, ite, celebrate securi: magna est, etc.
Several manuscripts, "through the whole city." And the same books a little further on, "go, celebrate without care: great is," etc.
(printed under page 143)
est, eum a quo attenditur occidit. Non sibi ergo blandiatur, quia ille non est mortuus. Et ille vivit, et ille homicida est. Quomodo cum lascivus homo intendit in mulierem ad concupiscendum eam; ecce illa casta est, et moechus est iste. Domini enim vera et aperta sententia est: Quisquis viderit mulierem ad concupiscendum eam, jam moechatus est eam in corde suo (Matth. V, 28). Non pervenit ad illius cubiculum, et in interiore jam suo cubiculo volutatur. Sic omnis qui male vivit in conspectu eorum quibus praepositus est, quantum in ipso est, occidit et fortes oves. Qui ergo imitatur praepositum malum, moritur; qui non imitatur vivit: tamen quantum ad illum pertinet, ambos occidit. Et quod crassum est, inquit, interficitis, et oves meas non pascitis.
lies, kills him by whom he is watched. Let him not flatter himself, then, because that one has not died. Both that one lives, and this one is a murderer. As when a wanton man fixes [his gaze] upon a woman to lust after her: see, she is chaste, and he is an adulterer. For the Lord's sentence is true and plain: Whoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matt. 5:28). He has not reached her chamber, and already he wallows within his own chamber. So everyone who lives badly in the sight of those over whom he is set kills, so far as in him lies, even the strong sheep. He, then, who imitates the bad one set over him dies; he who does not imitate him lives: yet so far as concerns that one, he kills both. And what is fat, He says, you kill, and my sheep you do not feed.
CAPUT V. — 10. Ovis infirma, unde confortanda. Jam audistis quid diligant, audite quid negligant. Quod infirmum est, non confortastis; et quod male habuit, non corroborastis; et quod contribulatum est, id est, confractum, non colligastis; et quod errabat, non revocastis; et quod periit, non inquisistis; et quod forte fuit, confecistis, id est, interfecistis et occidistis. Infirmum quippe animum gerit ovis, quando tentationes sibi futuras non credit. Pastor negligens, quando sic credit talis infirmus, non illi dicit: Fili, accedens ad servitutem Dei, sta in justitia et timore, et prepara animam tuam ad tentationem (Eccli. II, 1). Qui enim hoc loquitur, confortat infirmum, et ex infirmo facit firmum, ut non ille cum crediderit, prospera hujus saeculi speret. Si autem doctus fuerit sperare prospera hujus saeculi, ipsa prosperitate corrumpitur: supervenientibus enim adversitatibus sauciatur, aut fortassis exstinguitur. Non ergo eum aedificat super petram qui sic aedificat, sed super arenam. Petra autem erat Christus (I Cor. X, 4). Christi passiones imitandae sunt, non a christiano deliciae conquirendae. Confortatur infirmus, cum ei dicitur: Spera quidem tentationes hujus saeculi, sed ab omnibus eruet te Dominus, si ab illo non recesserit retro cor tuum. Nam ad confortandum cor tuum venit ille pati, venit ille mori, venit sputis illiniri, venit spinis coronari, venit opprobria audire, venit postremo ligno configi: omnia haec ille pro te; tu nihil pro illo, sed pro te.
CHAPTER V. — 10. The weak sheep, whence it is to be strengthened. You have now heard what they love; hear what they neglect. What was weak, you have not strengthened; and what was ill, you have not made strong; and what was crushed, that is, broken, you have not bound up; and what was straying, you have not called back; and what was lost, you have not sought out; and what was strong, you have worn out, that is, you have slain and killed. For the sheep bears a weak mind when it does not believe that temptations are to come upon it. The negligent shepherd, when such a weak one so believes, does not say to him: Son, coming to the service of God, stand in justice and fear, and prepare your soul for temptation (Sir. 2:1). For he who speaks thus strengthens the weak, and out of the weak makes him firm, so that he, when he has believed, may not hope for the prosperous things of this world. But if he has been taught to hope for the prosperous things of this world, he is corrupted by that very prosperity: for when adversities come upon him he is wounded, or perhaps destroyed. He, then, who builds so does not build him upon the rock, but upon the sand. And the rock was Christ (1 Cor. 10:4). The sufferings of Christ are to be imitated; delights are not to be sought out by a Christian. The weak is strengthened when it is said to him: Expect indeed the temptations of this world, but the Lord will deliver you from them all, if your heart has not drawn back from Him. For to strengthen your heart He came to suffer, He came to die, He came to be smeared with spittle, He came to be crowned with thorns, He came to hear reproaches, He came at last to be fastened to the wood: all these things He [did] for you; you [do] nothing for Him, but for yourself.
11. In arena aedificant, qui felicitatem terrenam promittunt. Quales autem sunt, qui timentes eos laedere quibus loquuntur, non solum non praeparant ad imminentes tentationes, sed etiam promittunt felicitatem hujus saeculi, quam Deus ipsi saeculo non promisit. Ille praedicit labores super labores usque in finem
11. They build on the sand who promise earthly happiness. But what sort are they who, fearing to hurt those to whom they speak, not only do not prepare them for the temptations that threaten, but even promise the happiness of this world, which God has not promised to the world itself? He foretells labours upon labours even to the end
Editors' notes and page, col. 275
Footnotes
(1) ‹anchor: futuras non credit› · call in col 275
Editi, profuturas. Sed verius optimae notae Corbeiensis Ms., futuras. Regius autem habet sic : Infirmatur ovis, id est, infirmum cor gerit, ut possit cedere tentationibus, quae incauto et imparato superveniunt. Pastor negligens, etc. Ad hanc lectionem prope accedunt plures codices Mss., necnon Benedictus Anianae abbas, in Concordia Regularum, cap. 35.
The printed editions, "that will profit" (profuturas). But more truly the Corbie manuscript, one of the best quality, "that are to come" (futuras). The Royal manuscript, however, has it thus: "The sheep is weakened, that is, it carries a weak heart, so that it may give way to the temptations which come upon one who is incautious and unprepared. The negligent shepherd," etc. Several manuscript codices come close to this reading, as does Benedict, abbot of Aniane, in the Concordia Regularum, ch. 35.
(printed under page 144)
(2) ‹anchor: opprobria audire› · call in col 275
Regius Ms., opprobria sufferre. Cisterciensis et Florus, opprobria bibere. Sic legendum conjiciebat Hugo Menardus in Concordia Regularum, cap. 35.
The Royal manuscript, "to bear reproaches." The Cistercian manuscript and Florus, "to drink reproaches." Hugo Menardus conjectured that it should be read so, in the Concordia Regularum, ch. 35.
(printed under page 144)
(3) ‹anchor: imminentes tentationes› · call in col 275
Ulim. et Lov., horum corda non per labores praeparant ad imminentes tentationes ; dissentientibus libris aliis editis et Mss.
Ulimmerius and the Louvain edition, "do not prepare their hearts through labours for the temptations that threaten"; the other books, printed and manuscript, disagreeing.
(printed under page 144)
venturos ipsi saeculo, et tu vis ab istis laboribus exceptum esse christianum? qui quia christianus est, aliquid plus passurus est in hoc saeculo. Etenim ait Apostolus: Omnes qui volunt in Christo pie vivere, persecutionem patientur. Jam si tibi placet, o pastor tua quaerens, non quae Jesu Christi, ille dicat, Omnes qui volunt in Christo pie vivere, persecutionem patientur (II Tim. III, 12): et tu dic, Si volueris in Christo pie vivere, abundabunt tibi omnia bona; et si filios non habes, suscipies, et enutries omnes, nemo tibi morietur. Haeccine est aedificatio tua? Attende quid facias, ubi ponas: super arenam est quem constituis, venturus est imber, influxurus est fluvius, flaturus est ventus, et impingent in domum istam, et cadet, et fiet ruina ejus magna. Leva de arena, pone supra petram (Matth. VII, 24-27): in Christo sit quem vis esse christianum. Attende ad passiones Christi, attende ad illum sine ullo peccato, quae non rapuit, exsolventem (Psal. LXVIII, 5): attende Scripturam dicentem tibi, Flagellat autem omnem filium quem recipit (Hebr. XII, 6). Et para te flagellari, aut certe non quaeras recipi. Flagellat autem, inquit, omnem filium quem recipit; et tu forte exceptus eris? Si exceptus a passione flagellorum, exceptus a numero filiorum. Itane, inquies, flagellat omnem filium? Prorsus ita flagellat omnem filium, ut et Unicum. Unicus ille de Patris substantia natus, aequalis Patri in forma Dei, Verbum per quem facta sunt omnia, non habebat unde flagellaretur: ad hoc carne indutus est, ut sine flagello non esset. Qui ergo flagellat Unicum sine peccato, numquid relinquit adoptivum cum peccato? In adoptionem vocatos nos esse Apostolus dicit. Adoptionem filiorum accepimus (Galat. IV, 5), ut essemus Unici cohaeredes, essemus etiam haereditas ejus. Postula, inquit, a me, et dabo tibi gentes haereditatem tuam (Psal. II, 8). Exemplum nobis proposuit in passionibus suis.
to come upon the world itself, and do you wish the Christian to be exempt from these labours? He who, because he is a Christian, is going to suffer something more in this world. For the Apostle says: All who will live piously in Christ shall suffer persecution. Now if it pleases you, O shepherd seeking your own things, not those of Jesus Christ, let him say: All who will live piously in Christ shall suffer persecution (2 Tim. 3:12); and do you say: If you will live piously in Christ, all good things shall abound to you; and if you have no sons, you shall receive them, and you shall rear them all, none shall die on you. Is this your building? Look at what you are doing, where you are placing him: he whom you set up is upon the sand; the rain will come, the river will flow in, the wind will blow, and they will beat upon that house, and it will fall, and great will be its ruin. Lift him from the sand, set him upon the rock (Matt. 7:24–27): let him whom you wish to be a Christian be in Christ. Look to the sufferings of Christ, look to Him Who, without any sin, paid back what He did not steal (Ps. 68:5); look to the Scripture saying to you: But He scourges every son whom He receives (Heb. 12:6). And prepare yourself to be scourged, or at least do not seek to be received. But He scourges, it says, every son whom He receives; and will you perhaps be exempt? If exempt from the suffering of the scourges, exempt from the number of the sons. Is it so, you will say, does He scourge every son? Just so does He scourge every son, as [He scourged] even the Only one. That Only one, born of the Father's substance, equal to the Father in the form of God, the Word through Whom all things were made, had nothing for which He might be scourged: for this He was clothed with flesh, that He might not be without the scourge. He, then, Who scourges the Only one without sin, does He leave the adopted one, with sin, [unscourged]? The Apostle says that we are called into adoption. We have received the adoption of sons (Gal. 4:5), that we might be co-heirs of the Only one, that we might also be His inheritance. Ask of me, He says, and I will give Thee the nations for Thine inheritance (Ps. 2:8). He set forth an example for us in His sufferings.
12. Infirmus quomodo confirmandus. Sed ne in futuris tentationibus deficiat infirmus; nec falsa spe decipiendus est, nec terrore frangendus. Dic ei, Praepara animam tuam ad tentationem. Sed forte incipit labi, contremiscere, nolle accedere; habes aliud: Fidelis Deus, qui non vos sinat tentari supra quam ferre potestis (I Cor. X, 13). Illud autem promittere, et praedicare futuras passiones, infirmum confirmare est. Timenti autem nimium, et ex hoc deterrito, cum polliceris misericordiam Dei, non quia tentationes deerunt, sed quia non permittit tentari supra quam ferre potest, fractum colligare est. Sunt enim qui cum audierint venturas tribulationes, armant se magis, et quasi potum suum sitiunt: parvam enim sibi putant fidelium medicinam, sed quaerunt et martyrum gloriam. Sunt autem alii qui auditis futuris et necessario venientibus tentationibus, quas proprie oportet venire christiano; quas nemo sentit, nisi qui voluerit esse vere christianus: imminentibus
12. How the weak is to be made firm. But lest the weak fail in the temptations to come, he is neither to be deceived by false hope, nor to be broken by terror. Say to him: Prepare your soul for temptation. But perhaps he begins to slip, to tremble, to be unwilling to come forward; you have something else: God is faithful, Who will not let you be tempted beyond what you are able to bear (1 Cor. 10:13). Now to promise that, and to foretell the sufferings to come, is to make the weak firm. But to one who fears too much, and is frightened off by this, when you promise the mercy of God, not that temptations will be lacking, but that He does not permit [one] to be tempted beyond what he can bear, that is to bind up the broken. For there are some who, when they have heard of tribulations to come, arm themselves the more, and thirst [for them] as for their drink: for they think the medicine of the faithful a small thing for themselves, and seek also the glory of the martyrs. But there are others who, having heard of the temptations to come and necessarily coming, which properly must come to a Christian, which no one feels except he who has willed to be truly a Christian — [when] impending
Editors' notes and page, col. 276
Footnotes
(1) ‹anchor: quem constituis› · call in col 276
Sic Mss. Editi vero, quod constituis.
So the manuscripts. The printed editions, however, "which you establish" (quod constituis).
(printed under page 144)
ergo sibi aliquibus, franguntur et claudicant. Affer consolationis alligamentum, alliga quod fractum est: dic, Ne timeas, non deserit in tentationibus ille in quem credidisti; fidelis Deus, qui te non sinit tentari supra quam potes ferre. Non hoc a me audis, Apostolus dicit: qui etiam dicit, An vultis experimentum ejus accipere, qui in me loquitur Christus. (II Cor. XIII, 3)? Haec ergo cum audis, ab ipso Christo audis: audis et ab illo pastore qui pacit Israel. Illi enim dictum est, Potabis eos in lacrymis, in mensura (Psal. LXXIX, 6). Quod enim ait Apostolus, Non sinit tentari supra quam ferre potestis; hoc ait Propheta, In mensura. Tantum tu noli dimittere corripientem et hortantem, terrentem et consolantem, percutientem et sanantem.
then over them are some [temptations], they are broken and go lame. Bring the bandage of consolation, bind up what is broken: say, Do not fear; He in Whom you have believed does not desert you in temptations; God is faithful, Who does not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. You do not hear this from me; the Apostle says it: who also says, Do you wish to receive proof of Him Who speaks in me, Christ (2 Cor. 13:3)? When, therefore, you hear these things, you hear them from Christ Himself: you hear them also from that shepherd Who feeds Israel. For to Him it was said: Thou wilt give them to drink in tears, in measure (Ps. 79:6). For what the Apostle says, He does not let you be tempted beyond what you are able to bear, this the Prophet says: In measure. Only do not you let go of Him Who rebukes and exhorts, Who terrifies and consoles, Who strikes and heals.
CAPUT VI. — 13. Infirmus et aegrotus, in quo differant. Christiana firmitas. — Quod infirmum est, inquit, non confortastis. Pastoribus malis dicit, pastoribus falsis, pastoribus sua quaerentibus, non quae Jesu Christi, ex commodo lactis et lanae gaudentibus, oves omnino non curantibus, et quod male habuit non corroborantibus. Inter infirmum, id est, non firmum: nam dicuntur infirmi etiam aegrotantes: sed inter infirmum et aegrotum, id est, male habentem, hoc mihi videtur interesse. Etenim ista, fratres, quae distinguere utcumque conamur; forte et nos possumus majore diligentia melius distinguere, et alius peritior vel lumine cordis plenior: interim ne fraudemini, quantum ad verba attinet Scripturae, quod sentio loquor. Infirmo ne accidat tentatio, et eum frangat, timendum est: languens autem jam cupiditate aliqua aegrotat, et cupiditate aliqua impeditur ab intranda via Dei, a subeundo jugo Christi. Attendite illos homines volentes bene vivere, jam statuentes bene vivere, et minus idoneos mala pati, sicut parati sunt bona facere. Pertinet autem ad christianam firmitatem, non solum operari quae bona sunt, sed et tolerare quae mala sunt. Qui ergo videntur fervere in operibus bonis, sed imminentes passiones tolerare nolle, aut non posse, infirmi sunt. Qui vero aliqua cupiditate mala amatores mundi ab ipsis bonis operibus revocantur, languidi et aegroti jacent: quippe qui ipso languore, tanquam sine ullis viribus, nihil boni possunt operari. Talis in anima paralyticus ille fuit, quem cum ad Dominum inferre non possent, qui eum portabant, tectum aperuerunt, et deposuerunt (Marc. II, 3, 4): id est, tanquam si in anima hoc velis facere, ut tectum aperias, et deponas ad Dominum animam paralyticam, dissolutam omnibus membris, et vacantem ab omni opere bono, gravatam utique peccatis suis, et languentem morbo cupiditatis suae. Si ergo dissoluta sunt membra omnia, et est paralysis interior, ut pervenias ad medicum (forte enim latet medicus, et intus est; hoc est, iste verus intellectus in Scripturis occultus est), exponendo quod occultum est aperi tectum, et depone paralyticum. Quod qui non faciunt, et qui facere negligunt,
CHAPTER VI. — 13. The weak and the sick, in what they differ. Christian firmness. — That which was weak, He says, you have not strengthened. He says it to bad shepherds, to false shepherds, to shepherds seeking their own things, not the things of Jesus Christ, rejoicing in the profit of milk and wool, not caring for the sheep at all, and not making strong that which was ill. Between the weak, that is, the not firm (for the sick too are called weak), but between the weak and the sick, that is, the one who is ill, this seems to me to be the difference. For indeed these things, brethren, which we are trying as best we can to distinguish, perhaps even we could distinguish better with greater diligence, and another [could], more skilled or fuller in the light of the heart: meanwhile, lest you be defrauded, so far as concerns the words of Scripture, I say what I think. For the weak man it is to be feared that temptation may befall him and break him; but the languishing man is already sick with some desire, and by some desire is hindered from entering the way of God, from submitting to the yoke of Christ. Consider those men who wish to live well, who have already resolved to live well, and are less fit to suffer evils than they are ready to do good things. Yet it belongs to Christian firmness not only to work the things that are good, but also to endure the things that are evil. Those therefore who seem to be fervent in good works, but are unwilling, or unable, to endure impending sufferings, are weak. But those who, lovers of the world, are called back from good works themselves by some evil desire, lie languid and sick: since by that very languor, as if without any strength, they can work nothing good. Such in soul was that paralytic whom, when they could not bring him in to the Lord, those who carried him opened the roof and let down (Mark 2:3, 4): that is, as if you wished to do this in the soul, to open the roof and let down to the Lord the paralytic soul, loosened in all its members, and empty of every good work, weighed down indeed by its sins, and languishing with the disease of its desire. If therefore all the members are loosened, and there is an inward paralysis, then in order that you may reach the physician (for perhaps the physician lies hidden, and is within; that is, this true sense is hidden in the Scriptures), by expounding what is hidden open the roof, and let down the paralytic. Those who do not do this, and who neglect to do it,
Editors' notes and page, col. 277
Footnotes
(1) ‹anchor: sibi aliquibus› · call in col 277
Aliquot Mss., sibi talibus.
Some manuscripts, "such [temptations] over them" (sibi talibus).
(printed under page 145)
(2) ‹anchor: non deserit› · call in col 277
Sic Mss. Editi vero, deerit.
So the manuscripts. The printed editions, however, "will be lacking" (deerit).
(printed under page 145)
(3) ‹anchor: Inter› · call in col 277
Apud. Ulim. et Lov. omissa fuerat particula, Inter ; cujus loco Am. et Er. habebant, Aut. Emendantur ope Mss.
In Ulimmerius and the Louvain edition the particle "between" (inter) had been omitted; in its place Amerbach and Erasmus had "or" (aut). They are corrected with the help of the manuscripts.
(printed under page 145)
(4) ‹anchor: ad christianam firmitatem› · call in col 277
In Mss., ad christiani firmitatem.
In the manuscripts, "to the firmness of a Christian."
(printed under page 145)
audistis quae audiant: Quod male habuit, non corroborastis; et quod contribulatum est, non colligastis. Jam hinc diximus. Fractus enim erat terrore tentationum: accidit aliquid unde quod fractum est, colligetur, consolatio illa, Fidelis Deus qui non vos sinat tentari supra quam potestis ferre; sed faciet cum tentatione etiam exitum, ut possitis sustinere.
you have heard what they are to hear: That which was ill, you have not made strong; and that which was crushed, you have not bound up. On this we have already spoken. For he was broken by the terror of temptations: something befalls whereby what is broken shall be bound up, that consolation: God is faithful, Who will not let you be tempted beyond what you are able to bear; but will make with the temptation also a way out, that you may be able to endure.
CAPUT VII. — 14. Errantes oves revocare tenentur pastores. Donatistarum stulta objectio. — Et quod errabat, non revocastis. Ecce unde inter haereticos periclitamur. Et quod errabat, non revocastis; et quod periit, non inquisistis. Hinc inter manus latronum et dentes luporum furentium utcumque versamur: et pro his periculis nostris ut oretis, oramus. Et contumaces sunt oves, quia quaeruntur errantes, alienas se a nobis dicunt errore suo et perditione sua. Quid nos vultis? quid nos quaeritis? Quasi non ipsa causa sit quare eas velimus, et quare quaeramus, quia errant et pereunt. Si in errore, inquit, sum, si in interitu, quid me vis? quid me quaeris? Quia in errore es, revocare volo: quia peristi, invenire volo. Sic volo errare, sic volo perire. Sic vis errare, sic vis perire! Quanto melius ego nolo? Prorsus audeo dicere, importunus sum. Audio enim dicentem Apostolum, Praedica verbum, insta opportune, importune (II Tim. IV, 2). Quibus opportune? quibus importune? Opportune utique volentibus, importune nolentibus. Prorsus importunus sum, audeo dicere. Tu vis errare, tu vis perire: ego nolo. Non vult postremo ille qui me terret. Si voluero, vide quid dicat, vide quid increpet: Quod errabat, non revocastis; et quod periit, non inquisistis. Te magis timebo quam ipsum? Oportet nos omnes exhiberi ante tribunal Christi (II Cor. V, 10). Non te timeo; non enim potes evertere tribunal Christi, et constituere tribunal Donati. Revocabo errantem, requiram perditam: velis nolis, id agam. Et si me inquirentem lanient vepres silvarum, per omnia angusta me coarctabo; omnes sepes excutiam; quantum mihi virium terrens Dominus donat, omnia peragrabo: revocabo errantem, requiram pereuntem. Si me pati non vis, noli errare, noli perire.
CHAPTER VII. — 14. Shepherds are bound to call back straying sheep. The foolish objection of the Donatists. — And what was straying, you have not called back. See whence we are in peril among the heretics. And what was straying, you have not called back; and what was lost, you have not sought out. Hence we move, as best we may, between the hands of robbers and the teeth of raging wolves: and we pray that you pray for us in these perils of ours. And the sheep are stubborn: because they are sought when straying, they say that they are strangers to us, by their own error and their own perdition. What do you want with us? why do you seek us? As if this were not the very reason why we want them and why we seek them, because they stray and perish. If I am in error, he says, if I am in ruin, what do you want with me? why do you seek me? Because you are in error, I wish to call you back; because you have perished, I wish to find you. So I wish to stray, so I wish to perish. So you wish to stray, so you wish to perish! How much better that I do not wish it? I dare say outright, I am importunate. For I hear the Apostle saying: Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season (2 Tim. 4:2). To whom in season? to whom out of season? In season, surely, to the willing, out of season to the unwilling. I am outright importunate, I dare say. You wish to stray, you wish to perish: I do not wish it. In the end He Who terrifies me does not wish it. If I should wish it, see what He says, see what He rebukes: What was straying, you have not called back; and what was lost, you have not sought out. Shall I fear you more than Him? We must all be presented before the tribunal of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10). I do not fear you; for you cannot overturn the tribunal of Christ and set up the tribunal of Donatus. I will call back the straying, I will seek out the lost: whether you will or not, I will do it. And if, as I seek, the brambles of the woods tear me, I will squeeze myself through every narrow place; I will shake every hedge; as much strength as the Lord Who terrifies me grants me, I will go through everything: I will call back the straying, I will seek out the perishing. If you do not wish to suffer me, do not stray, do not perish.
15. Errantes oves non sine sanarum periculo negliguntur. Parum est quod doleo te errantem atque pereuntem; timeo ne negligens te, etiam quod forte est occidam. Vide enim quid sequitur: Et quod forte fuit, confecistis. Si neglexero errantem atque pereuntem, et eum qui fortis est delectabit errare atque perire. Cupio lucra exteriora, sed timeo plus damna interiora. Si indifferentem habuero errorem tuum, attendit qui fortis est, putat nihil esse ire in haeresim. Quando aliquod commodum de saeculo reluxerit unde mutetur, statim mihi dicit fortis ille periturus, cum te perditum non requiro: Et hac et hac Deus est; quid interest? Homines inter se litigantes hoc fecerunt, ubicumque colendus est Deus. Si forte illi dixerit
15. Straying sheep are not neglected without danger to the healthy. It is a small thing that I grieve for you straying and perishing; I fear lest, neglecting you, I kill even what is strong. For see what follows: And what was strong, you have worn out. If I neglect the straying and perishing [one], even he who is strong will take delight in straying and perishing. I desire outward gains, but I fear more the inward losses. If I hold your error [a thing] indifferent, he who is strong takes note, [and] thinks it nothing to go into heresy. When some advantage from the world has shone out whereby he may be changed, at once that strong man, [now] about to perish, says to me, since I do not seek you who are lost: God is both here and here; what difference does it make? Men quarrelling among themselves have done this; wherever it be, God is to be worshipped. If perhaps there should say to him
Editors' notes and page, col. 278
Footnotes
(1) ‹anchor: accidit› · call in col 278
Tres Mss., accedit. Pauloque post Am. Er. et Corbeiensis Ms. habent, colligetur consolatione illa.
Three manuscripts, "approaches" (accedit). And a little further on Amerbach, Erasmus and the Corbie manuscript have, "will be bound up by that consolation."
(printed under page 145)
(2) ‹anchor: Hinc› · call in col 278
Sic Am. et Mss. At Er. Ulim. et Lov., hic.
So Amerbach and the manuscripts. But Erasmus, Ulimmerius and the Louvain edition, "here" (hic).
(printed under page 145)
(3) ‹anchor: Quid nos vultis› · call in col 278
Editi, dicunt, Quid nos vultis? Abest, dicunt, a Mss.
The printed editions, "they say, What do you want with us?" The word "they say" (dicunt) is absent from the manuscripts.
(printed under page 145)
aliquis Donatista, Non tibi dabo filiam meam, nisi fueris de parte mea: illi opus est ut attendat, et dicat, Si nihil mali esset esse de parte eorum, non contra illos tanta dicerent pastores nostri, non pro illorum errore satagerent. Si ergo cessemus et taceamus, contraria locuturus est: Utique si malum esset esse in parte Donati, loquerentur contra, redarguerent eos, satagerent lucrari illos: si errant, revocarent illos; si pereunt, quaererent illos. Non frustra ergo, cum jam dixisset superius, Quod crassum est, interfecistis; hic iterum in novissimo posuit, Et quod forte fuit, confecistis. Ipsa est enim repetita sententia, nisi ex his quae supra dixit nata est, Quod errabat, non revocastis; et quod periit, non requisistis: et hoc faciendo, quod forte est, interfecistis.
some Donatist: I will not give you my daughter unless you are of my party; he needs to take note, and to say: If there were nothing evil in being of their party, our shepherds would not say so much against them, would not busy themselves about their error. If then we should cease and be silent, he will say the contrary: Surely, if it were evil to be in the party of Donatus, they would speak against it, they would refute them, they would busy themselves to gain them: if they stray, they would call them back; if they perish, they would seek them. Not in vain, therefore, when He had already said above, What is fat, you have killed, has He set down here again at the last: And what was strong, you have worn out. For it is the same sentence repeated, save that it is born of those things which He said above: What was straying, you have not called back; and what was lost, you have not sought: and by doing this, what is strong you have killed.
CAPUT VIII. — 16. Ovium errantium infelicitas. Proinde audi quid sequatur de ista negligentia malorum, imo falsorum pastorum: Et dispersae sunt oves meae, eo quod non sit pastor; et factae sunt in comesturam omnibus bestiis agri. Furantur lupi insidiantes, rapiunt leones frementes, cum oves non haerent pastori. Nam praesens est pastor, sed male agentibus non est pastor. Et inhaerent pastoribus non pastoribus; se ipsos, non oves pascentibus: et lethalis error consequitur. Eunt in bestias depraedantes se, et de illarum morte se satiari cupientes. Tales enim sunt omnes qui gaudent de erroribus alienis; bestiae sunt pastae mortibus dispersarum.
CHAPTER VIII. — 16. The unhappiness of the straying sheep. Accordingly hear what follows concerning this negligence of the bad, or rather false, shepherds: And my sheep were scattered, because there was no shepherd; and they became food for all the beasts of the field. Lurking wolves steal them, roaring lions seize them, when the sheep do not cling to the shepherd. For the shepherd is present, but to those who act badly He is not a shepherd. And they cling to shepherds who are not shepherds — to men feeding themselves, not the sheep — and a deadly error follows. They go to the beasts that prey upon them and desire to be sated with their death. For such are all who rejoice in the errors of others; they are beasts fed on the deaths of the scattered.
17. Mali montes et colles, in quibus oves errant. Boni montes. — Et dispersae sunt, et erraverunt oves meae in omnem montem, et in omnem collem altum. Bestiae a montibus et collibus, tumor terrenus et superbia saeculi. Extulit se superbia Donati, fecit sibi partem: subsequens eum Parmenianus, illius confirmavit errorem. Ille mons est, ille collis est. Sic omnis cujuslibet auctor erroris terrena elatione intumescens, promittit ovibus requiem, pascua bona: et aliquando inveniunt ibi oves pascua de pluvia Dei, non de duritia montis: habent enim et ipsi Scripturas, habent Sacramenta. Non sunt ista montium: sed cum inveniuntur in montibus; male remanetur in montibus. Errando enim in montibus et in collibus, deserunt gregem; deserunt unitatem, deserunt munitas cohortes adversus leones et lupos. Inde ergo revocet Deus, ipse revocet. Modo audietis ipsum revocantem: Erraverunt, inquit, oves meae in omnem montem, et in omnem collem altum; hoc est, in omnem tumorem terrenae superbiae. Sunt enim et montes boni: Levavi oculos meos in montes, unde veniet auxilium mihi. Et vide quia non tibi in montibus spes est: Auxilium, inquit, meum a Domino, qui fecit coelum et terram (Psal. CXX, 1, 2). Noli
17. The bad mountains and hills, on which the sheep stray. The good mountains. — And they were scattered, and my sheep strayed on every mountain, and on every high hill. The beasts are from the mountains and the hills, the earthly swelling and the pride of the age. The pride of Donatus lifted itself up, made for itself a party: Parmenian, following him, confirmed his error. That is the mountain, that is the hill. So every author of any error whatever, swollen with earthly exaltation, promises the sheep rest, good pastures: and sometimes the sheep find pasture there from God's rain, not from the hardness of the mountain: for they too have the Scriptures, they have the Sacraments. These things do not belong to the mountains: but when they are found on the mountains, it is bad for them to remain on the mountains. For by straying on the mountains and the hills, they abandon the flock; they abandon unity, they abandon the fortified ranks against lions and wolves. Let God, then, call them back; let Him Himself call them back. Now you shall hear Him Himself calling them back: My sheep, He says, strayed on every mountain, and on every high hill; that is, on every swelling of earthly pride. For there are also good mountains: I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from whence help shall come to me. And see that your hope is not in the mountains: My help, he says, [is] from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth (Ps. 120:1–2). Do not
Editors' notes and page, col. 279
Footnotes
(1) ‹anchor: quaererent illos› · call in col 279
Corbeiensis Ms., sed errant, revocarent illos; sed pereunt, quaererent illos.
The Corbie manuscript, "but they stray, they should call them back; but they perish, they should seek them."
(printed under page 146)
(2) ‹anchor: sententia, nisi› · call in col 279
In editione Ulim. et Lov. omissum est, nisi; reluctantibus editis aliis et Mss.
In the edition of Ulimmerius and of Louvain "unless" (nisi) is omitted; against the other printed editions and the manuscripts.
(printed under page 146)
(3) ‹anchor: haerent pastori› · call in col 279
Aliquot Mss. necnon Concordia Regularum, cap. 35, cum oves adhaerent pastori; sublata negante particula, quae plane hic, cum de vero pastore Christo agatur, necessaria est. Paulo post auctoritate Am. et Mss. addidimus, non pastoribus; quod apud Er. et Lov. desideratur.
Some manuscripts, and also the Concordia Regularum, ch. 35, "when the sheep cling to the shepherd"; the negative particle being removed, which is plainly necessary here, since the true shepherd, Christ, is being spoken of. A little further on, on the authority of Amerbach and the manuscripts, we have added "not shepherds" (non pastoribus), which is wanting in Erasmus and the Louvain edition.
(printed under page 146)
(4) ‹anchor: mortibus dispersarum› · call in col 279
Sic aliquot Mss. Alii cum editis, morsibus dispersarum.
So some manuscripts. Others, with the printed editions, "on the bites of the scattered" (morsibus dispersarum).
(printed under page 146)
putare injuriam te facere montibus sanctis, quando dixeris, Auxilium meum non a montibus, sed a Domino, qui fecit coelum et terram. Ipsi montes hoc tibi clamant. Mons erat qui clamabat: Audio in vobis schismata fieri, et unusquisque vestrum dicit, Ego sum Pauli, ego Apollo, ego Cephae, ego autem Christi. Leva oculos in istum montem, audi quid dicat; et nec in ipso monte remaneas. Audi enim quid sequatur: Numquid Paulus crucifixus est pro vobis (I Cor. I, 11-13)? Ergo posteaquam levaveris oculos in montes, unde veniet auxilium tibi, id est, in auctores Scripturarum divinarum, attende omnibus medullis suis, omnibus ossibus clamantem, Domine, quis similis tibi (Psal. XXXIV, 10)? ut securus sine ulla injuria montium dicas, Auxilium meum a Domino, qui fecit coelum et terram. Non solum tunc tibi non succensebunt montes; sed tunc amabunt, tunc magis favebunt: si in ipsis spem tuam posueris, contristabuntur. Angelus multa divina et mira ostendens homini, ab homine adorabatur, tanquam levante oculos in montem. At ille a se revocans ad Dominum: Noli, inquit, facere; illum adora: nam ego conservus tuus sum, et fratrum tuorum (Apoc. XXII, 9).
think that you do injury to the holy mountains, when you say, My help is not from the mountains, but from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth. The mountains themselves cry this out to you. There was a mountain that cried out: I hear that there are schisms among you, and each of you says, I am of Paul, I of Apollos, I of Cephas, but I of Christ. Lift your eyes to that mountain, hear what it says; and do not remain on the mountain itself. For hear what follows: Was Paul crucified for you (1 Cor. 1:11–13)? So then, after you have lifted your eyes to the mountains, from whence help will come to you — that is, to the authors of the divine Scriptures — attend to him who cries out with all his marrow, with all his bones, Lord, who is like Thee (Ps. 34:10)? so that, secure without any injury to the mountains, you may say, My help is from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth. Not only will the mountains then not be angry with you; but they will love you then, they will favour you the more: if you set your hope in them, they will be grieved. An angel, showing a man many divine and wondrous things, was worshipped by the man, as though he were lifting his eyes to a mountain. But he, calling the man back from himself to the Lord: Do not, he says, do that; worship Him: for I am your fellow-servant, and of your brothers (Rev. 22:9).
18. Errantes per totam faciem terrae. — In omnem montem, et in omnem collem, et in omnem faciem terrae dispersae sunt? Quid est, In omnem faciem terrae dispersae sunt? Omnia terrena sectantes, ea quae in facie terrae lucent, ipsa amant, ipsa diligunt. Nolunt mori, ut abscondatur vita ipsorum in Christo. Super omnem faciem terrae: dilectione terrenorum; et quia errantes oves sunt per totam faciem terrae. Non omnes haeretici per totam faciem terrae: sed tamen haeretici per totam faciem terrae. Alii hic, alii ibi, nusquam tamen desunt: ipsi se non norunt. Alia secta in Africa, alia haeresis in Oriente, alia in Aegypto, alia in Mesopotamia, verbi gratia. Diversis locis sunt diversae: sed una mater superbia omnes genuit; sicut una mater nostra Catholica omnes Christianos fideles toto orbe diffusos. Non ergo mirum, si superbia parit discissionem, charitas unitatem. Tamen ipsa Catholica mater, ipse pastor in ea ubique quaerit errantes, confortat infirmos, curat languidos, alligat confractos, alios ab istis, alios ab illis non se invicem scientibus. Sed tamen illa omnes novit, quia cum omnibus fusa est. Verbi gratia, est in Africa pars Donati, Eunomiani non sunt in Africa; sed cum parte Donati est hic Catholica. Sunt in Oriente Eunomiani, ibi autem non est pars Donati; sed cum Eunomianis ibi est Catholica. Illa sic est, tanquam vitis, crescendo ubique diffusa: illi sic sunt, tanquam sarmenta inutilia, agricolae falce praecisa merito sterilitatis suae; ut vitis putaretur, non ut amputaretur. Sarmenta ergo illa ubi praecisa sunt, ibi remanserunt. Vitis autem crescens
18. Straying over the whole face of the earth. — Over every mountain, and over every hill, and over all the face of the earth they were scattered? What is [meant by]: Over all the face of the earth they were scattered? Pursuing all earthly things, they love those very things that shine on the face of the earth, those they cherish. They will not die, that their life may be hidden in Christ. Over all the face of the earth: by love of earthly things; and because straying sheep are over the whole face of the earth. Not all heretics are over the whole face of the earth; but yet heretics are over the whole face of the earth. Some here, some there, yet nowhere are they lacking: they do not know one another. One sect in Africa, another heresy in the East, another in Egypt, another in Mesopotamia, for example. In different places they are different: but one mother, pride, has begotten them all; as our one mother, the Catholic [Church], [has begotten] all the faithful Christians spread through the whole world. It is no wonder, then, if pride brings forth division, charity unity. Yet the Catholic mother herself, the shepherd Himself in her, everywhere seeks the straying, strengthens the weak, cares for the languid, binds up the broken, some from these, some from those, who do not know one another. But she nonetheless knows them all, because she is spread abroad with them all. For example, there is in Africa the party of Donatus; the Eunomians are not in Africa; but with the party of Donatus the Catholic [Church] is here. In the East there are Eunomians, but there the party of Donatus is not; but with the Eunomians the Catholic [Church] is there. She is thus like a vine, spread everywhere by growing: they are thus like useless branches, cut off by the husbandman's pruning-hook for the desert of their barrenness, so that the vine might be pruned, not so that it might be cut away. Those branches, then, where they were cut off, there they have remained. But the vine, growing
Editors' notes and page, col. 280
Footnotes
(1) ‹anchor: ad Dominum› · call in col 280
Liber rm., a se removens, revocansque ad Dominum.
The book rm., "removing from himself, and calling back to the Lord."
(printed under page 146)
(2) ‹anchor: ipsa amant› · call in col 280
Plures Mss., ipsa emunt.
Several manuscripts, "these they buy" (ipsa emunt).
(printed under page 146)
(3) ‹anchor: dilectione terrenorum› · call in col 280
Editi, et dilectionem terrenorum. Castigantur Mss. subsidio.
The printed editions, "and the love of earthly things." They are corrected with the aid of the manuscripts.
(printed under page 146)
(4) ‹anchor: charitas unitatem› · call in col 280
Sic aliquot Mss. Editi vero, si superbia parit dissensionem, charitas unionem.
So some manuscripts. The printed editions, however, "if pride brings forth dissension, charity union."
(printed under page 146)
per omnia, et sarmenta sua novit quae in illa manserunt, et juxta se quae de illa praecisa sunt. Inde tamen revocat errantes: quia et de ramis fractis dicit Apostolus, Potens est enim Deus iterum inserere illos (Rom. XI, 23). Sive dicas oves errantes a grege, sive dicas ligna praecisa de vite; nec ad revocandas oves, nec rursus ad inserenda ligna minus idoneus est Deus; quia ille summus pastor, ille verus agricola. Et in omnem faciem terrae dispersae sunt; et non fuit qui requireret, non fuit qui revocaret. Non fuit, sed in illis pastoribus malis: non fuit, sed homo, qui requireret.
through all things, knows both its own branches which have remained in it, and, beside itself, those which have been cut off from it. Yet from there it calls back the straying: because the Apostle says even of the broken branches: For God is able to graft them in again (Rom. 11:23). Whether you speak of sheep straying from the flock, or of wood cut off from the vine, God is no less able either to call back the sheep or to graft in the wood again; because He is the chief shepherd, He the true husbandman. And over all the face of the earth they were scattered; and there was none who would seek, there was none who would call back. There was none, but [only] among those bad shepherds: there was none, but [only among] men, who would seek.
CAPUT IX. — 19. Malis pastoribus oves unde securae. — Propterea, pastores, audite verbum Domini: Vivo ego, dicit Dominus Deus. Videte unde coepit. Tanquam juratio est Dei, testificatio vitae suae. Vivo ego, dicit Dominus. Mortui sunt pastores: sed securae sunt oves, vivit Dominus. Vivo ego, dicit Dominus Deus. Qui autem pastores mortui sunt? Sua quaerentes, non quae Jesu Christi (Philipp. II; 21). Erunt ergo, et invenientur pastores non quae sua sunt quaerentes, sed quae Jesu Christi? Erunt plane, et invenientur; plane nec desunt, nec deerunt. Videamus ergo quid dicat Dominus, qui se dicit vivere: utrum dicat ablaturum se oves a pastoribus malis, pascentibus seipsos, non oves; et daturum se eas pastoribus bonis, pascentibus oves, non se. Vivo ego, dicit Dominus Deus, nisi pro eo quod factae sunt oves meae in comesturam omnibus bestiis campi, eo quod non esset pastor. Rursus pastorem dicit, et paulo ante, et nunc. Non ait, Ex eo quod non sint pastores. Ovibus enim talibus male errantibus, male pereuntibus non est pastor, et si praesens est pastor: quia et cum praesens est lux, non est caecis lux. Et non quaesierunt pastores oves meas, et paverunt pastores se ipsos, oves autem meas non paverunt.
CHAPTER IX. — 19. Whence the sheep are safe from bad shepherds. — Therefore, shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: As I live, says the Lord God. See where He began. It is as it were an oath of God, an attestation of His own life. As I live, says the Lord. The shepherds are dead: but the sheep are safe, the Lord lives. As I live, says the Lord God. But which shepherds are dead? Those seeking their own things, not those of Jesus Christ (Phil. 2:21). Will there be, then, and will there be found shepherds seeking not their own things but those of Jesus Christ? There plainly will be, and they will be found; plainly they are neither lacking, nor will they be lacking. Let us see, then, what the Lord says, Who says that He lives: whether He says that He will take away the sheep from the bad shepherds, who feed themselves, not the sheep; and that He will give them to good shepherds, who feed the sheep, not themselves. As I live, says the Lord God, surely, because my sheep have been made food for all the beasts of the field, because there was no shepherd. Again He says shepherd, both a little before and now. He does not say: Because there are no shepherds. For to such sheep, straying badly, perishing badly, there is no shepherd, even if the shepherd is present: because even when the light is present, there is no light for the blind. And the shepherds did not seek my sheep, and the shepherds fed themselves, but my sheep they did not feed.
20. Ovium interitus quomodo pastori imputatur. — Propter istud, pastores, audite verbum Domini. Sed qui pastores audite? Haec dicit Dominus Deus: Ecce ego super pastores, et inquiram oves meas de manibus eorum. Audite et discite, oves Dei: a malis pastoribus inquirit Deus oves suas, et de manibus eorum inquiret mortem earum. Dicit enim alio in loco per eumdem prophetam: Fili hominis, speculatorem dedi te domui Israel: audies ex ore meo sermonem, et praemonstrabis eis ex me. In eo cum dixero peccatori, Morte morieris, et non fueris locutus, ut caveat impius a via sua; ille facinorosus in suo facinore morietur, sanguinem autem ejus de manu tua exquiram. Tu autem si praenuntiaveris facinoroso viam ejus, ut avertatur ab ea, et non fuerit aversus a via sua; iste in facinore suo morietur, et tu animam tuam liberabis. Quid est, fratres? Videtis quam sit tacere periculosum? Moritur ille, et recte moritur: in impietate sua et peccato suo moritur; negligentia enim ejus occidit eum. Nam pastorem inveniret viventem, qui ait, Vivo ego, dicit Dominus: sed cum fuerit negligens, non admonente illo qui ad hoc est praepositus et speculator, ut
20. How the death of the sheep is imputed to the shepherd. — For this cause, shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. But which shepherds [are to] hear? Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hands. Hear and learn, sheep of God: God requires His sheep of the bad shepherds, and at their hands He will require their death. For He says in another place through the same prophet: Son of man, I have given you as a watchman to the house of Israel: you shall hear the word from my mouth, and you shall forewarn them from me. Therein, when I say to the sinner, You shall die the death, and you have not spoken, that the wicked may beware of his way; that criminal shall die in his crime, but his blood I will require at your hand. But you, if you have forewarned the criminal of his way, that he may turn from it, and he has not turned from his way; he shall die in his crime, and you shall deliver your soul. What is this, brethren? Do you see how dangerous it is to be silent? He dies, and rightly dies: in his impiety and his sin he dies; for his negligence has killed him. For he would have found the living shepherd Who says, As I live, says the Lord: but since he has been negligent, and he who for this purpose has been set over him and [made] watchman has not warned him, so as to
Editors' notes and page, col. 281
Footnotes
(1) ‹anchor: securae sunt oves› · call in col 281
Plures Mss., sed securae sint oves.
Several manuscripts, "but let the sheep be safe."
(printed under page 147)
(2) ‹anchor: pastorem inveniret› · call in col 281
Editi, inveniet. Verius Mss., inveniret.
The printed editions, "will find" (inveniet). More truly the manuscripts, "he would find" (inveniret).
(printed under page 147)
admoneat, et ille juste moritur, et iste juste damnatur. Si autem dixeris, inquit, impio, Morte morieris, cui ego gladium fuero comminatus, et ille neglexerit vitare imminentem gladium, et venerit gladius, et interfecerit eum; ille in peccato suo morietur, tu autem animam tuam liberasti (Ezech. XXXIII, 2-9). Propter hoc, ad nos quidem pertinet non tacere; ad vos autem, etiamsi taceamus, de Scripturis sanctis verba pastoris audire.
warn him, both that one justly dies, and this one is justly condemned. But if you have said, He says, to the wicked, You shall die the death, him whom I have threatened with the sword, and he has neglected to avoid the impending sword, and the sword has come and killed him; he shall die in his sin, but you have delivered your soul (Ezek. 33:2–9). For this reason it belongs to us indeed not to be silent; but to you, even if we are silent, to hear the words of the shepherd from the holy Scriptures.
CAPUT X. — 21. Oves a malis pastoribus quomodo reducit Deus. Ovis errantem pastorem sequendo non secura. Videamus ergo, quia sic proposueram, utrum auferat oves a pastoribus malis, et det eas pastoribus bonis. Video eum auferentem oves a pastoribus malis. Hoc enim dicit: Ecce ego ipse super pastores, et inquiram oves meas de manibus eorum, et avertam ab eis, ut non pascant oves meas; et non pascent adhuc pastores semetipsos. Cum enim dico, Pascant oves meas; illi se pascunt, non oves meas. Avertam, ut non pascant oves meas. Quomodo avertit, ut non pascant oves ipsius? Quae dicunt, facite; quae autem faciunt, facere nolite (Matth. XXIII, 3). Tanquam diceret, Mea dicunt, sua faciunt. Si diceret, Facite securi quod faciunt, ipsos damnabo male viventes; vobis autem parcam, quia secuti estis praepositos vestros: si hoc diceret, deterreret malos pastores, pascentes non oves, sed se. Sed quoniam terret non solum caecum ducentem, sed et caecum sequentem (neque enim ait, Cadit in foveam ducens, et non cadit sequens: sed, Caecus caecum ducens, ambo in foveam cadunt (Id. XV, 14); admonuit oves, et ait, Quae dicunt, facite; quae faciunt, facere nolite. Cum enim non facitis quae faciunt mali pastores, non vos ipsi pascunt: cum autem facitis quae dicunt, ego vos pasco: mea enim dicunt, et non faciunt. Securi, inquiunt, sequimur episcopos nostros. Dicunt hoc saepe haeretici, quando veritate manifestissima convincuntur: Nos oves sumus, illi de nobis reddent rationem. Reddent plane malam de morte vestra. De morte ovis malignae reddet malus pastor malam rationem. Numquid ideo vivit ovis, quia assignatur pellis ipsius? Increpatur pastor, quia neglexit ovem errantem, et propterea in fauces lupi irruit, ut devoraretur. Quid illi prodest, quia affert pellem signatam? Paterfamilias vitam ovis inquirit. Sed ecce malus pastor attulit pellem: reddat de pelle rationem. Forte mentiturus est? Videbat desuper, qui postea judicat. Cui verba ille ficta numerat, cogitationes inspicit. Reddat pastor malus rationem de pelle ovis mortuae. Clamavi ei verba tua, et sequi noluit: dedi operam ut a grege non aberraret, et non obtemperavit. Plane si hoc dicat, et verum dicat (novit autem ille utrum verum dicat), reddit bonam rationem de ove mala. Si autem inspicit Deus quia neglexit errantem, quia non quaesivit pereuntem; quid
CHAPTER X. — 21. How God leads back the sheep from bad shepherds. The sheep is not safe in following a straying shepherd. Let us see, then, since I had so proposed, whether He takes away the sheep from the bad shepherds and gives them to good shepherds. I see Him taking away the sheep from the bad shepherds. For He says this: Behold, I myself am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hands, and I will turn them away from them, that they may not feed my sheep; and the shepherds shall no longer feed themselves. For when I say, Let them feed my sheep, they feed themselves, not my sheep. I will turn them away, that they may not feed my sheep. How does He turn them away, that they may not feed His sheep? What they say, do; but what they do, do not do (Matt. 23:3). As if He were saying: They say my things, they do their own. If He said, Do without care what they do; I will condemn them for living badly, but you I will spare, because you have followed those set over you: if He said this, He would frighten off the bad shepherds, who feed not the sheep but themselves. But since He frightens not only the blind man leading but also the blind man following (for He does not say, The one leading falls into the pit, and the one following does not fall; but: The blind leading the blind, both fall into the pit (ibid. 15:14); He has admonished the sheep, and says: What they say, do; what they do, do not do. For when you do not do what the bad shepherds do, they themselves do not feed you: but when you do what they say, I feed you: for they say my things, and do not do them. Without care, they say, we follow our bishops. Heretics often say this when they are convicted by the most manifest truth: We are sheep; they will render account for us. They will render plainly a bad [account] of your death. For the death of a wicked sheep the bad shepherd will render a bad account. Does the sheep therefore live, because its skin is assigned [to the account]? The shepherd is rebuked because he neglected the straying sheep, and therefore it rushed into the jaws of the wolf, to be devoured. What does it profit him that he brings the marked skin? The father of the household requires the life of the sheep. But behold, the bad shepherd has brought the skin: let him render account of the skin. Is he perhaps going to lie? He Who afterwards judges was watching from above. He to Whom that man recounts feigned words looks upon the thoughts. Let the bad shepherd render account of the skin of the dead sheep. I cried out Thy words to him, and he would not follow: I took pains that he should not stray from the flock, and he did not comply. Plainly, if he says this, and says it truly (and He knows whether he speaks truly), he renders a good account of a bad sheep. But if God sees that he neglected the straying, that he did not seek the perishing; what
Editors' notes and page, col. 282
Footnotes
(1) ‹anchor: pastores semetipsos› · call in col 282
Plerique Mss. carent voce, semetipsos, quae forte addita est ex versione Vulgata. Apud LXX est, auta, quod ipsas oves respicit.
Most manuscripts lack the word "themselves" (semetipsos), which was perhaps added from the Vulgate version. In the Septuagint it is auta, which refers to the sheep themselves.
(printed under page 147)
(2) ‹anchor: non oves, sed se› · call in col 282
Mss. prope omnes cum Am. et Er., dederat malis pastoribus pascendas oves, pascentibus non oves, sed se.
Nearly all the manuscripts, with Amerbach and Erasmus, "He had given the sheep to bad shepherds to be fed, to those who feed not the sheep but themselves."
(printed under page 147)
(3) ‹anchor: quia assignatur› · call in col 282
Am. et Er., designatur. Forte legendum, signatur.
Amerbach and Erasmus, "is marked out" (designatur). Perhaps it should be read "is marked" (signatur).
(printed under page 147)
(4) ‹anchor: ficta numerat› · call in col 282
Am. et aliquot Mss.: Cui verba, ille facta numerat.
Amerbach and some manuscripts: "To Whom [he counts out] words, He counts the deeds."
(printed under page 147)
prodest quod invenit pellem quam referret? Ipsam revocaret, ne pellem mortuae demonstraret. Si ergo non bonam rationem reddit, quia non quaesivit errantem; qualem reddet, qui fecit errantem? Hoc est quod dico: Si in Catholica episcopus constitutus non bonam rationem reddit de ove, si non quaesierit errantem a grege Dei; qualem rationem redditurus est haereticus, qui non solum non revocavit ab errore, sed etiam impulit in errorem?
does it profit that he found the skin to bring back? He should have called back [the sheep] itself, so as not to display the skin of a dead one. If then he does not render a good account because he did not seek the straying, what [account] will he render who made it stray? This is what I say: If a bishop established in the Catholic [Church] does not render a good account of a sheep, if he has not sought it straying from the flock of God, what account is the heretic going to render, who not only did not call it back from error, but even drove it into error?
22. Pastor malus non in eo quod de suo, sed in eo quod de Dei profert, audiendus. Sed videamus, ut dixi, quomodo revocet Deus oves a pastoribus malis. Jam commemoravi: Quae dicunt, facite; quae autem faciunt, facere nolite. Et non vos ipsi pascunt, sed Deus: quia velint nolint pastores, ut perveniant ad lac et lanam, verba Dei dicturi sunt. Qui praedicas non furandum, furaris (Rom. II, 21), dicit Apostolus ad eos qui bona dicunt et mala faciunt. Tu audi praedicantem, ne fureris: noli imitari furantem. Si furantem imitari volueris, ipse te pascit facto suo: tibi venenum subministrat, non cibum. Si vero hoc ab illo audis, quod non dicit de suo, sed de Dei; non potest quidem uva de spinis legi (nam et ipsa Domini sententia est, Nemo colligit de spinis uvam, et de tribulis ficus [Matth. VII, 16]): nec ideo tamen quasi calumnieris Domino tuo, et dicas, Domine, noluisti me, quia fieri non potest, de spinis legere uvam: et rursus dixisti mihi de quibusdam: Quae dicunt, facite; quae autem faciunt, facere nolite. Nempe mala facientes utique spinae sunt. Quomodo vis de spinis me colligere uvam verbi tui? Respondebitur: Non est illa uva spinarum; sed aliquando increscens sarmentum implicat se in sepem, et pendet uva inter densa spinarum, sed non surgit de radice spinarum. Tu si esurieris, et aliud non habes unde sumas, caute manum mitte, ne lacereris ab spinis, id est, ne facta imiteris malorum; et lege uvam inter spinas pendentem, sed de vite nascentem. Ad te perveniat botri alimentum: spinis servatur ignis tormentum.
22. A bad shepherd is to be heeded not for what he brings forth of his own, but for what he brings forth of God's. But let us see, as I said, how God calls the sheep back from bad shepherds. I have already recalled it: What they say, do; but what they do, do not do. And it is not they who feed you, but God: because whether shepherds will it or not, in order that they may attain to milk and wool, they are bound to speak the words of God. You who preach that one must not steal — do you steal (Rom. 2:21)? says the Apostle to those who say good things and do evil ones. Hear him preaching, and do not steal yourself; do not imitate the thief. If you choose to imitate the thief, he feeds you by his own deed: he supplies you poison, not food. But if what you hear from him is not his own but God's, grapes indeed cannot be gathered from thorns (for this too is the Lord's own saying, No one gathers grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles [Matt. 7:16]): yet you should not for that reason as it were slander your Lord, and say, Lord, Thou didst not will me, since it cannot be done, to gather grapes from thorns; and again Thou didst say to me of certain men: What they say, do; but what they do, do not do. Surely men doing evil are indeed thorns. How canst Thou want me to gather from thorns the grape of Thy word? The answer will be: That is not the grape of the thorns; but sometimes a growing shoot entangles itself in a hedge, and a grape hangs among the thick thorns, yet does not spring from the root of the thorns. If you are hungry, and have nothing else to take, put out your hand carefully, so that you are not torn by the thorns — that is, so that you do not imitate the deeds of evil men — and pick the grape hanging among the thorns, yet growing from the vine. Let the nourishment of the cluster come to you: for the thorns, the torment of fire is kept.
CAPUT XI. — 23. Ovium curam Deus ipse suscipit. — Et extraham oves meas, inquit, de ore eorum, et de manibus eorum: et non erunt eis adhuc in cibum. Hoc et in Psalmo dicitur: Nonne cognoscent omnes qui operantur iniquitatem, qui devorant populum meum in cibum panis? Et non erunt eis adhuc in cibum: quoniam haec dicit Dominus Deus, Ecce ego ipse. Abstuli a malis pastoribus oves meas, monendo, ut dixi, ne quod faciunt, faciant; id est, ne quod faciunt mali pastores, faciant incautae et negligentes oves. Et quid ait? Cui dat quod illis abstulit? Forte bonis pastoribus? Non hoc sequitur. Et quid dicemus, fratres? Nonne sunt pastores boni? Nonne alio loco Scripturarum dicitur: Et constituam eis pastores secundum cor meum, et pascent eas cum disciplina (Jerem. III, 15), Quomodo ergo oves, quas malis pastoribus tollit, non dat bonis; sed tanquam omnino nusquam remanserint boni, dicit, Ego pascam? Petro dixerat, Pasce oves meas. Quid ergo facimus? Cum Petro
CHAPTER XI. — 23. God Himself takes up the care of the sheep. — And I will snatch my sheep, He says, out of their mouth, and out of their hands: and they shall no longer be food for them. This too is said in the Psalm: Shall not all who work iniquity know it, who devour my people as they eat bread? And they shall no longer be food for them: for thus says the Lord God, Behold, I myself. I have taken my sheep away from the bad shepherds, admonishing, as I have said, that they not do what they do; that is, that the careless and negligent sheep not do what bad shepherds do. And what does He say? To whom does He give what He took from them? Perhaps to good shepherds? That is not what follows. And what shall we say, brothers? Are there not good shepherds? Is it not said elsewhere in the Scriptures: And I will set over them shepherds after my own heart, and they shall feed them with discipline (Jer. 3:15)? How then, when He takes the sheep away from bad shepherds, does He not give them to good ones; but as though none at all remained good anywhere, does He say, I will feed them? He had said to Peter, Feed my sheep. What then are we to make of it? When to Peter
Editors' notes and page, col. 283
Footnotes
(1) ‹anchor: noluisti me› · call in col 283
Aliquot Mss., monuisti me. Et quidam, docuisti me.
Some manuscripts, "Thou didst warn me" (monuisti me). And certain ones, "Thou didst teach me" (docuisti me).
(printed under page 148)
(2) ‹anchor: adhuc in cibum› · call in col 283
Hic addunt aliquot Mss., amplius in devorationem.
Here some manuscripts add, "any more for devouring."
(printed under page 148)
commendantur oves, non ibi dixit Dominus, Ego pascam oves meas, non tu: sed, Petre, amas me? Pasce oves meas (Joan. XXI, 17), An forte quia modo non invenitur Petrus (jam enim assumptus est in requiem Apostolorum et martyrum), non est cui dicat securus Dominus ovium, Pasce oves meas; et quodam modo quasi necessitate descendit ad officium pascendi oves suas, non habens quibus commendet, nec tamen deserens? Hoc enim videtur sequi, Haec dicit Dominus Deus, Ecce ego ipse. Cui dicebamus, qui pascis Israel, intende; qui deducis tanquam oves Joseph, populum in Aegypto constitutum. Jam diffusus in Gentibus Israel, ipse est Joseph. Nostis enim quia migravit Joseph in Aegyptum: vendentibus fratribus factum est (Gen. XXXVII, 28). Vendiderunt Christum Judaei: non sine causa et inter Apostolos ipse Judas venditor fuit. Coepit esse Christus in Gentibus, ibi honoratus est, ibi crevit populus ejus, non eum deserit pastor ejus. Excita, inquit, potentiam tuam, et veni, ut salvos facias nos (Psal. LXXIX, 2, 3). Plane facit, et faciet. Ait enim: Ecce ego ipse, et inquiram oves meas; et visitabo eas, sicut visitat pastor gregem suum. Non curaverunt mali pastores: non enim suo sanguine redemerunt. Sicut visitat, inquit, pastor gregem suum in die. In quali die? Cum fuerit nimbus, et nubes: id est, et in pluvia, et in nebula. Pluvia et nebula, error saeculi hujus: caligo magna surgens de cupiditatibus hominum, et nebula valida contegens terram. Et difficile est ut non errent oves in ista nebula: sed pastor non deserit eas. Inquirit eas, penetrat nebulam oculis acutissimis, non impeditur caligine nubium: videt, undique errantem revocat: in tantum ut fiat quod dicit in Evangelio, Quae sunt oves meae, audiunt vocem meam, et sequuntur me (Joan. X, 27). In medio ovium dispersarum, sic inquiram oves meas, et educam eas ab omni loco quo dispersae sunt illic, in die nubis et nimbi. Quando difficile est eas inveniri, tunc ego inveniam. Crassa nebula est, pinguis nimbus est: oculos ejus nihil latet.
the sheep are entrusted, the Lord did not say there, I will feed my sheep, not you: but, Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep (John 21:17). Is it perhaps because Peter is no longer to be found now (for he has already been taken up into the rest of the Apostles and martyrs) that there is no one to whom the Lord of the sheep can safely say, Feed my sheep; and in a certain way, as though by necessity, He Himself comes down to the office of feeding His own sheep, having no one to entrust them to, yet not on that account abandoning them? For this seems to follow: Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I myself. To Whom we were saying, Thou Who feedest Israel, attend; Thou Who leadest Joseph like sheep, the people established in Egypt. Now Israel is spread abroad among the Gentiles; he himself is Joseph. For you know that Joseph migrated into Egypt: it came about through his brothers selling him (Gen. 37:28). The Jews sold Christ: and not without cause was Judas himself, from among the Apostles, His seller. Christ began to be among the Gentiles; there He was honoured, there His people grew, and its shepherd does not abandon it. Rouse up, he says, Thy might, and come, that Thou mayest save us (Ps. 79:2–3). Plainly He does it, and will do it. For He says: Behold, I myself, and I will seek out my sheep; and I will visit them, as a shepherd visits his flock. The bad shepherds took no care: for they did not redeem them with their own blood. As a shepherd visits, He says, his flock in the day. In what day? When there has come storm and cloud: that is, both in rain and in mist. Rain and mist are the error of this world: a great fog rising from the desires of men, and a heavy mist covering the earth. And it is hard for the sheep not to go astray in this mist: but the shepherd does not abandon them. He seeks them out, He pierces the mist with the keenest eyes, He is not hindered by the darkness of the clouds: He sees, He calls back the one straying on every side; to the point that what He says in the Gospel comes to pass, My sheep hear my voice, and follow me (John 10:27). In the midst of the scattered sheep, thus will I seek out my sheep, and I will lead them out from every place where they have been scattered, in the day of cloud and storm. When it is hard for them to be found, then I will find them. Thick is the mist, heavy is the storm: nothing escapes His eyes.
24. Montes Israel, ubi pascua bona. — Et educam eas de gentibus, et colligam eas de regionibus; et inducam eas in terram earum, et pascam eas super montes Israel. Constituit montes Israel, auctores Scripturarum divinarum. Ibi pascite, ut securae pascatis. Quidquid inde audieritis, hoc vobis bene sapiat: quidquid extra est, respuite. Ne erretis in nebula, audite vocem pastoris: colligite vos ad montes Scripturae sanctae; ibi sunt deliciae cordis vestri, ibi nihil venenosum, nihil alienum; uberrima pascua est: vos tantum sanae venite, sanae pascimini in montibus Israel. Et in rivis, et in omni habitatione terrae. A montibus enim, quos ostendimus, manaverunt rivi praedicationis evangelicae, cum in omnem terram exiit sonus eorum (Psal. XVIII, 5): et facta est omnis habitatio terrae ad pascendas
24. The mountains of Israel, where the pastures are good. — And I will bring them out from the nations, and I will gather them from the regions; and I will lead them into their own land, and I will feed them upon the mountains of Israel. He has set up [as] the mountains of Israel the authors of the divine Scriptures. Feed there, that you may feed in safety. Whatever you hear from there, let that taste good to you: whatever is outside, spit out. Lest you stray in the mist, hear the voice of the shepherd: gather yourselves to the mountains of holy Scripture; there are the delights of your heart, there is nothing poisonous, nothing alien; it is the richest pasture: only come healthy, feed healthy on the mountains of Israel. And in the streams, and in every habitation of the earth. For from the mountains which we have pointed out flowed the streams of the gospel preaching, when their sound went out into all the earth (Ps. 18:5): and every habitation of the earth has become, for the feeding
Editors' notes and page, col. 284
Footnotes
(1) ‹anchor: Jam diffusus› · call in col 284
Mss. plures, Populus in Aegypto constitutus, jam diffusus.
A good many manuscripts, "The people settled in Egypt, now spread abroad."
(printed under page 148)
(2) ‹anchor: non eum deserit› · call in col 284
Sic Am. et Mss. At Er. Ulim. et Lov., non eum deseruit.
So Amerbach and the manuscripts. But Erasmus, Ulimmerius and the Louvain edition, "did not forsake it."
(printed under page 148)
(3) ‹anchor: revocat: in› · call in col 284
Am. Er. et Mss. carent particula, in.
Amerbach, Erasmus and the manuscripts lack the particle "in."
(printed under page 148)
(4) ‹anchor: securae pascatis› · call in col 284
Sic Mss. At Lov., ut secure pascatis.
So the manuscripts. But the Louvain edition, "that you may feed securely" (secure).
(printed under page 148)
oves laeta atque fecunda. In pascua bona pascam eas, et in montibus altis Israel. Erunt stabula earum illic: hoc est, ubi requiescant, ubi dicant, Bene est; ubi dicant, Verum est, manifestum est, non fallimur. In gloria Dei requiescent, tanquam in stabulis illis. Et dormient, hoc est, requiescent; et requiescent in deliciis bonis.
of the sheep, glad and fruitful. In good pastures I will feed them, and on the high mountains of Israel. Their folds shall be there: that is, where they may rest, where they may say, It is well; where they may say, It is true, it is manifest, we are not deceived. In the glory of God they shall rest, as in those folds. And they shall sleep, that is, they shall rest; and they shall rest in good delights.
25. Spes ovium in solo Deo. — Et in pascua pingui pascentur super montes Israel. Jam dixi montes Israel, montes bonos, quo levamus oculos, ut nobis inde auxilium veniat. Sed auxilium nostrum a Domino, qui fecit coelum et terram (Psal. CXX, 1, 2). Ideo ne vel in montibus bonis esset spes nostra, cum dixisset, Pascam oves meas super montes Israel; rursus ne tu spem poneres in montibus, subjecit statim, Ego pascam oves meas. Leva tu oculos tuos in montes, unde veniat auxilium tibi: sed attende dicentem, Ego pascam. Auxilium enim tuum a Domino, qui fecit coelum et terram.
25. The hope of the sheep in God alone. — And in fat pasture they shall feed upon the mountains of Israel. I have already spoken of the mountains of Israel, the good mountains, to which we lift our eyes, that help may come to us from there. But our help is from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth (Ps. 120:1–2). Therefore, lest our hope should be even in the good mountains, when He had said, I will feed my sheep upon the mountains of Israel, again, lest you should place your hope in the mountains, He added at once: I myself will feed my sheep. Lift up your eyes to the mountains, whence help may come to you: but attend to Him Who says, I myself will feed. For your help is from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.
26. Ovium sanitas et requies ex Deo. — Et Ego requiescere faciam eas, dicit Dominus Deus. Sed ut requiescere faciat, primo curavit. Quod enim primo curavit, posterius dicit: Haec dicit Dominus Deus, Quod periit, requiram; et quod erravit, revocabo; et quod comminutum est, colligabo; et quod exanime est, confortabo; et quod pingue est et quod forte est, custodiam. Quod non faciebant mali pastores, se ipsos pascentes, non oves. Non ait Dominus, Constituam alios bonos pastores, qui faciant haec: sed, Ego, inquit, faciam; oves meas nulli committam. Securi vos, fratres; securae vos, oves: nobis videtur timendum; quasi desit pastor bonus?
26. The health and rest of the sheep from God. — And I myself will make them rest, says the Lord God. But in order to make them rest, He first tended to them. For what He first tended to, He states afterwards: Thus says the Lord God, What has perished I will seek out; and what has strayed I will call back; and what is broken I will bind up; and what is faint I will strengthen; and what is fat and what is strong I will watch over. This the bad shepherds were not doing, feeding themselves, not the sheep. The Lord does not say, I will appoint other good shepherds, who will do these things: but, I myself, He says, will do it; I will entrust my sheep to no one. Be at ease, brothers; be at ease, sheep: does it seem to us that we must fear, as though a good shepherd were lacking?
CAPUT XII. — 27. Pascere cum judicio. Claudit sic: Et pascam eas cum judicio. Vide quia sic solus pascit cum judicio. Quis enim homo judicat de homine? Temerariis judiciis plena sunt omnia. De quo desperaverimus, subito convertitur, et fit optimus: de quo multum praesumpserimus, subito deficit, et fit pessimus. Nec timor noster certus est, nec amor noster certus est. Quid sit hodie quisque homo, vix novit ipse homo: tamen utcumque ipse quid hodie; quid autem cras, nec ipse. Pascit ergo ille cum judicio, dispertiens propria propriis; haec istis, illa illis, debita eis quibus debetur hoc aut illud. Novit enim quid agat: cum judicio pascit, quos judicatus redemit. Pascit ergo ipse cum judicio.
CHAPTER XII. — 27. To feed with judgement. He closes thus: And I will feed them with judgement. See that He alone feeds thus, with judgement. For what man judges of a man? All things are full of rash judgements. He of whom we have despaired is suddenly converted and becomes the best: he of whom we have presumed much suddenly fails and becomes the worst. Neither is our fear certain, nor is our love certain. What each man is today, the man himself scarcely knows: yet in some fashion he himself [knows] what he is today; but what [he will be] tomorrow, not even he himself. He, then, feeds with judgement, dealing out to each his own; these things to these, those to those, what is owed to those to whom this or that is owed. For He knows what He is doing: He feeds with judgement those whom, having been judged, He redeemed. He Himself, then, feeds with judgement.
28. Perdix sine judicio congregans, diabolus. In propheta enim Jeremia ait: Clamavit perdix, congregavit quae non peperit, faciens divitias suas non cum judicio. Contra istum perdicem facientem divitias suas non cum judicio, pascit iste pastor cum judicio. Quare ille sine judicio? Quia congregavit quae non peperit. Quare iste cum judicio? Quia fovet quod peperit. De pastore tamen bono loquimur. Pastores boni aut non sunt, aut latent. Si non sunt, quid agimus? Si latent,
28. The partridge that gathers without judgement, the devil. For the prophet Jeremiah says: The partridge cried out, it gathered what it did not bring forth, making its riches without judgement. Against this partridge, which makes its riches not with judgement, this shepherd feeds with judgement. Why is the one without judgement? Because it gathered what it did not bring forth. Why is the other with judgement? Because He cherishes what He brought forth. Yet we are speaking of the good shepherd. Good shepherds either do not exist, or they lie hidden. If they do not exist, what are we to do? If they lie hidden,
Editors' notes and page, col. 285
Footnotes
(1) ‹anchor: spem poneres in montibus› · call in col 285
Plures Mss. habent, ne tu remaneres in montibus.
Several manuscripts have, "lest you should remain on the mountains."
(printed under page 149)
(2) ‹anchor: faciat, primo curavit› · call in col 285
Er. Ulim. et Lov., quid primo curavit. Redundat, quid, abestque ab Am. et a Mss.
Erasmus, Ulimmerius and the Louvain edition, "what He first cared for." The word "what" (quid) is superfluous, and is absent from Amerbach and from the manuscripts.
(printed under page 149)
(3) ‹anchor: Claudit sic› · call in col 285
Sic Am. et aliquot Mss. Alii cum Er. et Lov.: Et addit sic.
So Amerbach and some manuscripts. Others, with Erasmus and the Louvain edition: "And He adds thus."
(printed under page 149)
quare de illis tacetur? Perdix quidem ille a quibusdam majoribus et ante nos Scripturarum tractatoribus diabolus intellectus est, congregans quae non peperit. Non enim ille creator, sed deceptor est, faciens divitias suas non cum judicio. Non enim ad eum pertinet, quis isto, quis illo modo erret: omnes errantes vult, quibuslibet erroribus. Quam diversae sunt haereses, quam diversi errores, ille in omnibus vult errare homines. Non dicit diabolus, Donatistae sint, non sint Ariani: sive hic sint, sive illic, ad eum pertinent congregantem sine judicio. Idola, inquit, adoret, meus est: in Judaeorum superstitione remaneat, meus est: deserta unitate in illam vel in illam haeresim pergat, meus est. Congregat ergo sine judicio faciens divitias suas. Sed quid sequitur? In dimidio dierum ejus derelinquent eum, et in novissimis suis erit insipiens (Jerem. XVII, 11). Venit ille congregans undique oves suas. In dimidio dierum ejus, priusquam sperabat, antequam putabat, derelinquent eum, et erit insipiens in novissimis suis. Quare in primis suis sapiens erat, et in novissimis suis fit insipiens? Audite, fratres. Dicitur aliquando in Scripturis sapientia pro astutia, abusione verbi, non proprietate. Inde enim dicitur: Ubi sapiens? ubi scriba? ubi conquisitor hujus saeculi? Nonne stultam fecit Deus sapientiam hujus mundi (I Cor. I, 20)? Et iste perdix, idem draco, idem serpens, tanquam sapiens erat, quando Adam per Evam decepit: verum dicere putatus est, bonum consilium dare existimatus est, contra Deum creditus est. Quod vero dicitur sapientia abusione verbi et in malo, consuetudine quidem Scripturarum nostrarum, (nam quemadmodum loquantur auctores mundi, quid ad nos?) habes in eodem libro, Erat ibi serpens sapientior omnibus bestiis (Gen. III, 1-6). Iste sapientior omnibus bestiis, astutus et acutus ad decipiendum agnoscitur. Postea non ei creditur; et dicitur ei, Renuntiamus tibi, sufficit quod incautos primo decepisti. Ergo ita in novissimis suis erit insipiens; apertae erunt fraudes ejus; et ideo jam fraudes non erunt. In novissimis suis erit insipiens, qui congregavit quae non peperit, et fecit divitias suas non cum judicio. Pascit contra illum Redemptor noster cum judicio.
why is nothing said of them? That partridge was understood by certain of our elders, and by those who treated the Scriptures before us, as the devil, gathering what he did not bring forth. For he is not a creator, but a deceiver, making his riches not with judgement. For it makes no difference to him who strays in this way or in that: he wants all to stray, by whatever errors. However many and varied the heresies, however many and varied the errors, he wants men to stray in all of them. The devil does not say, Let there be Donatists, let there be no Arians: whether they are here or there, they belong to him who gathers without judgement. Let him worship idols, he says, he is mine: let him remain in the superstition of the Jews, he is mine: having abandoned unity, let him go off into this heresy or that, he is mine. He gathers, then, without judgement, making his riches. But what follows? In the midst of his days they shall abandon him, and in his last days he shall be a fool (Jer. 17:11). He comes gathering his sheep from every side. In the midst of his days, before he hoped it, before he thought it, they will abandon him, and he will be a fool in his last days. Why was he wise in his first days, and becomes a fool in his last? Listen, brothers. Sometimes in the Scriptures wisdom is used for cunning, by a misuse of the word, not by its proper sense. Hence it is said: Where is the wise man? where is the scribe? where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world (1 Cor. 1:20)? And that partridge — the same dragon, the same serpent — was as it were wise when he deceived Adam through Eve: he was thought to speak the truth, he was reckoned to give good counsel, he was believed against God. But as for its being called wisdom by a misuse of the word, and in a bad sense — indeed by the custom of our own Scriptures (for however the authors of the world may speak, what is that to us?) — you have, in the same book, There was a serpent there wiser than all the beasts (Gen. 3:1–6). This one, wiser than all the beasts, is recognized as cunning and sharp for deceiving. Afterwards he is no longer believed; and it is said to him, We renounce you, it is enough that you deceived the unwary at first. So then, in his last days he will be a fool; his frauds will be laid open; and therefore they will no longer be frauds. In his last days he will be a fool, he who gathered what he did not bring forth, and made his riches not with judgement. Against him our Redeemer feeds with judgement.
29. Perdix contentiosa avis. In Donatistas. Existat et aliquis haereticus, etsi non frater diaboli, certe adjutor et filius: et ipsum dixerim perdicem contentiosum animal. Hoc enim animal, ut aucupes norunt, etiam contendendi studio capitur. Contendunt isti contra veritatem, et contenderunt ex quo se diviserunt. Modo dicunt, Contendere nolumus: quia jam capti sunt. Non habet quod dicat: Nolo contendere. O capte, aliquando certe tu eras qui primis temporibus seditionis tuae traditores arguebas, innocentes damnabas, judicium Imperatoris quaerebas, judicio episcoporum non consentiebas, victus toties appellabas, apud ipsum Imperatorem studiosissime litigabas, congregabas quae non peperisti. Ubi est nunc cervix tua? ubi est lingua tua? ubi sibilus tuus? Certe in novissimis tuis factus es insipiens, pavisti sine judicio. Non enim verum vis, vel de errore tuo, vel de veritate judicare. Pascit
29. The partridge, a contentious bird. Against the Donatists. Let there arise also some heretic, if not a brother of the devil, surely his helper and son: and him I would call a partridge, a contentious animal. For this animal, as fowlers know, is caught even through its eagerness to contend. These men contend against the truth, and have contended ever since they divided themselves [off]. Now they say: We do not wish to contend; because they are already caught. He has no [ground] to say: I do not wish to contend. O captive, surely at one time it was you who in the first times of your sedition accused [men as] traditors, condemned the innocent, sought the judgment of the Emperor, would not consent to the judgment of the bishops, being defeated appealed so many times, before the Emperor himself went to law most zealously, gathered what you did not bring forth. Where now is your neck? where is your tongue? where your hissing? Surely in your last days you have become a fool, you have fed without judgement. For you do not wish to judge truly, either of your error or of the truth. [Yet] there feeds
contra te Christus cum judicio, discernit oves suas ab ovibus non suis. Quae sunt oves meae, inquit, audiunt vocem meam, et sequuntur me (Joan. X, 27).
against you Christ with judgement; He distinguishes His sheep from sheep not His. They which are my sheep, He says, hear my voice, and follow me (John 10:27).
CAPUT XIII. — 30. Unus pastor bonus, quia boni omnes in uno. Hic invenio omnes pastores bonos in uno pastore. Non enim vere pastores boni desunt, sed in uno sunt. Multi sunt, qui divisi sunt: hic unus praedicatur, quia unitas commendatur. Neque enim vere modo ideo tacentur pastores, et dicitur pastor, quia non invenit Dominus cui commendet oves suas; tunc autem ideo commendavit, quia Petrum invenit: imo vero et in ipso Petro unitatem commendavit. Multi erant Apostoli, et uni dicitur, Pasce oves meas. Absit ut desint modo boni pastores: absit a nobis ut desint, absit a misericordia ipsius, ut non eos gignat atque constituat. Utique si sunt bonae oves, sunt et boni pastores: nam de bonis ovibus fiunt boni pastores. Sed omnes boni pastores in uno sunt, unum sunt. Illi pascunt, Christus pascit. Non enim vocem suam dicunt amici sponsi, sed gaudio gaudent propter vocem sponsi. Idem ergo ipse pascit, cum ipsi pascunt: et dicit, Ego pasco; quia in illis vox ipsius, in illis charitas ipsius. Nam et ipsum Petrum, cui commendabat oves suas quasi alter alteri, unum secum facere volebat, ut sic ei oves commendaret; ut esset ille caput, ille figuram corporis portaret, id est, Ecclesiae, et tanquam sponsus et sponsa essent duo in carne una. Proinde ut oves commendaret, quid ei prius dicit, ne illi tanquam alteri commendaret? Petre, amas me? Et respondit: Amo. Et iterum: Amas me? Et respondit: Amo. Et tertio: Amas me? Et respondit: Amo. Confirmat charitatem, ut consolidet unitatem. Ipse ergo pascit unus in his, et hi in uno; et tacetur de pastoribus: sed non tacetur. Gloriantur pastores: sed qui gloriatur, in Domino glorietur. Hoc est Christo pascere, hoc est in Christo pascere, et cum Christo pascere, praeter Christum sibi non pascere. Neque vero inopia pastorum, tanquam ista futura mala tempora Propheta praedicaret, dixit, Ego pascam oves meas, non habeo cui commendem. Etiam cum ipse Petrus erat, et cum adhuc ipsi Apostoli erant in hac carne, et in hac vita, tunc ait ille unus, in quo uno omnes unum: Habeo alias oves, quae non sunt de hoc ovili; oportet me et eas adducere, ut sit unus grex et unus pastor (Ibid. 16). Sint ergo omnes in pastore uno, et dicant vocem pastoris unam, quam audiant oves, et sequantur pastorem suum, et non illum, aut illum, sed unum: et omnes in illo unam vocem dicant, diversas voces non habeant. Obsecro vos, fratres, ut idipsum dicatis omnes, et non sint in vobis schismata (I Cor. X, 10). Hanc vocem eliquatam ab omni schismate, purgatam ab omni haeresi, audiant oves, et
CHAPTER XIII. — 30. One good shepherd, because all the good are in one. Here I find all good shepherds in one shepherd. For truly good shepherds are not lacking, but they are in one. Those who are divided are many: here one is preached, because unity is commended. For it is not truly for this reason that shepherds are now passed over in silence, and shepherd [in the singular] is spoken of, that the Lord does not find one to whom to entrust His sheep, whereas then He entrusted them for this reason, that He found Peter: nay rather, even in Peter himself He commended unity. The Apostles were many, and to one it is said: Feed my sheep. Far be it that good shepherds should now be lacking: far be it from us that they should be lacking, far be it from His mercy that He should not beget and establish them. Surely if there are good sheep, there are also good shepherds: for from good sheep good shepherds are made. But all good shepherds are in one, they are one. They feed, Christ feeds. For the friends of the bridegroom do not speak their own voice, but rejoice with joy because of the voice of the bridegroom. The same one, then, Himself feeds when they feed: and He says, I feed; because in them is His voice, in them His charity. For even Peter himself, to whom He was entrusting His sheep as one to another, He wished to make one with Himself, that thus He might entrust the sheep to him; that He might be the head, [and] Peter bear the figure of the body, that is, of the Church, and that as bridegroom and bride they might be two in one flesh. Accordingly, in order to entrust the sheep, what does He first say to him, lest He should entrust them to him as to another? Peter, do you love me? And he answered: I love [Thee]. And again: Do you love me? And he answered: I love [Thee]. And a third time: Do you love me? And he answered: I love [Thee]. He confirms charity, that He may consolidate unity. He Himself, then, the one, feeds in these, and these in the one; and of shepherds there is silence: yet there is not silence. Shepherds glory: but he who glories, let him glory in the Lord. This is to feed for Christ, this is to feed in Christ, and to feed with Christ, not to feed for oneself apart from Christ. Nor was it from a dearth of shepherds, as if the Prophet were foretelling these evil times to come, that He said: I will feed my sheep, [as though] I have no one to whom I may entrust them. Even when Peter himself was [here], and when the Apostles themselves were still in this flesh and in this life, then that one said, in Whom, the one, all are one: I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, that there may be one flock and one shepherd (ibid. 16). Let all, then, be in the one shepherd, and let them speak the one voice of the shepherd, which the sheep may hear, and let them follow their shepherd, and not this one or that one, but the one: and let all in Him speak one voice, let them not have diverse voices. I beseech you, brethren, that you all say the same thing, and that there be no schisms among you (1 Cor. 1:10). This voice, strained clear of every schism, purged of every heresy, let the sheep hear, and
Editors' notes and page, col. 287
Footnotes
(1) ‹anchor: Idem ergo› · call in col 287
Am. et plures Mss., ideo ergo.
Amerbach and several manuscripts, "for that reason, therefore" (ideo ergo).
(printed under page 150)
(2) ‹anchor: cui commendabat› · call in col 287
Sic. Mss. Editi vero, commendavit. Paulo post Corbeiensis Ms., et sic ei oves commendare.
So the manuscripts. The printed editions, however, "He entrusted" (commendavit). A little further on the Corbie manuscript, "and so to entrust the sheep to him."
(printed under page 150)
(3) ‹anchor: Confirmat charitatem› · call in col 287
Er. Ulim. et Lov. : Confirmat trinitatem. Sic etiam Mss. excepto Corbeiensi, qui cum Am. habet, charitatem.
Erasmus, Ulimmerius and the Louvain edition: "He confirms the trinity." So also the manuscripts, except the Corbie one, which with Amerbach has "charity" (charitatem).
(printed under page 150)
(4) ‹anchor: cum Christo pascere› · call in col 287
Er. cum aliquot Mss. et cum Floro ad I Cor. I : Hoc est Christum pascere, hoc est Christo pascere. Sed in istis libris omittitur, et cum Christo pascere ; praeterquam quod apud Er. deest etiam, hoc est in Christo pascere. Hic in Corbeiensi Ms. non repetitur, hoc est.
Erasmus, with some manuscripts and with Florus on 1 Cor. 1: "This is to feed Christ, this is to feed for Christ." But in those books "and to feed with Christ" is omitted; besides which, in Erasmus "this is to feed in Christ" is also lacking. Here in the Corbie manuscript "this is" (hoc est) is not repeated.
(printed under page 150)
Page
- Scripture reference in col 287 - the page prints I Cor. X, 10 where the tenth verse of the first chapter of 1 Corinthians is quoted. The source keeps the reference as printed and the English gives the right one.
sequantur pastorem suum dicentem, Quae sunt oves meae, vocem meam audiunt, et sequuntur me.
let them follow their shepherd, Who says: They which are my sheep hear my voice, and follow me.
31. Donatistae Catholicos a sua communione repellunt. Nam vis nosse, haeretice, quam non habeas vocem pastoris, et periculose te sequantur oves tectum indumento ovium, et intus lupum rapacem (Matth. VII, 15)? Audiant vocem tuam, videamus an Christi sit. Ecclesiam quaerit infirma ovis a grege aberrans, nesciens ubi sit grex; quaerit quo se aggreget, quo intret. Ede vocem: audiamus, an Christi sit; audiamus, utrum agni sit, an perdicis. Ovis Dei gregem suum quaerit: puta ovem de Oriente venisse in Africam, quaerit gregem suum, incurrit in te, in basilicam tuam intrare vult; commoveris ignota facie, vel tu, vel minister tuus, stans vel sedens ad ostium, interrogat ovem quaerentem gregem suum, imo gregem Dei: cum grege suo intrare vult, ubi eum esse putat: quaeris, Paganus es, an Christianus? Respondet, Christianus: ovis est enim Dei. Quaeris ne forte catechumenus sit, et irruat Sacramentis: respondet, Fidelis. Quaeris cujus communionis sit: respondet, Catholicus. Christianum, fidelem, catholicum reprobas: qui sunt quos intus tenes? Ita vero projice, reproba. A te reprobatus, a Christo probatur. Utinam et illi qui sunt apud te, agnoscant te, et in dimidio dierum tuorum derelinquant te. Quidam fratres nostri hesterno die ierunt ad basilicam eorum: etsi ad malos fratres, tamen ad fratres. Attendite, fratres mei, quid intersit inter fiduciam veritatis, et timorem falsitatis. Quando aliquos eorum in hoc populo agnoscitis, quomodo gaudetis? Quia in vobis ille est qui quaerit quod perierat. Suggeritur aliquando vobis, Audiet et discedet. Et vos, Audiat et discedat. Audiet et irridebit. Audiat et irrideat. Aliquando sapiet, aliquando cognoscet: aliquando relinquitur a populo suo; remanet cum corde suo, renuntiat errori suo, gratias agit Deo suo. Illi autem quid? Qui estis? Christiani sumus. Non, sed exploratores. Et illi, Catholici sumus. Conati sunt injuriare: meliore consilio poenituit eos. Atque utinam sic poeniteat et ibi remanere, quomodo poenituit eos qui ingressi sunt injuriare. Tamen quos projecerunt? Christianos, fideles, catholicos. Quos tenuerint, nolo dicere. Quos projecerint, video: quos tenuerint, ipsi dicant.
31. The Donatists drive Catholics away from their communion. For do you wish to know, heretic, how you do not have the shepherd's voice, and [how] perilously the sheep follow you, [who are] covered with the clothing of sheep, and within a ravening wolf (Matt. 7:15)? Let them hear your voice; let us see whether it is Christ's. A weak sheep, straying from the flock, seeks the Church, not knowing where the flock is; it seeks where it may join itself, where it may enter. Utter your voice: let us hear whether it is Christ's; let us hear whether it is the lamb's or the partridge's. A sheep of God seeks its flock: suppose that a sheep has come from the East into Africa; it seeks its flock, it runs upon you, it wishes to enter your basilica; you are stirred by the unknown face; either you, or your minister, standing or sitting at the door, questions the sheep that is seeking its flock, nay rather the flock of God: it wishes to go in with its own flock, where it supposes it to be: you ask, Are you a pagan, or a Christian? He answers, A Christian: for he is a sheep of God. You ask whether he may perhaps be a catechumen, and be rushing in upon the Sacraments: he answers, One of the faithful. You ask of what communion he is: he answers, A Catholic. A Christian, one of the faithful, a Catholic, you reject: who are they whom you keep within? Yes, truly, cast him out, reject him. Rejected by you, he is approved by Christ. Would that those also who are with you might come to know you, and in the midst of your days abandon you. Some of our brothers went yesterday to their basilica: though to bad brothers, yet to brothers. Mark, my brothers, what a difference there is between the confidence of truth and the fear of falsehood. When you recognize some of them among this people, how do you rejoice? Because He is in you Who seeks what had perished. Sometimes it is suggested to you, He will hear and go away. And you [say], Let him hear and go away. He will hear and mock. Let him hear and mock. Some day he will be wise, some day he will come to know: some day he is left behind by his own people; he remains with his own heart, he renounces his error, he gives thanks to his God. But what of them? Who are you? We are Christians. No, but spies. And they [said], We are Catholics. They attempted to do [them] injury: on better counsel they repented [of it]. And would that they might so repent of remaining there also, as they repented of injuring those who had entered. Yet whom did they cast out? Christians, faithful, Catholics. Whom they have kept, I do not wish to say. Whom they have cast out, I see: whom they have kept, let them say themselves.
32. Donatistarum vox non vox pastoris. Dicant ergo vocem suam: videamus an Christi sit vox, an pastoris sit vox, quam sequantur oves. Sive per bonum sit vox ista, sive per malum hominem, utrum pastoris sit vox, attendamus.
32. The voice of the Donatists is not the shepherd's voice. Let them, then, speak their voice: let us see whether it is the voice of Christ, whether it is the shepherd's voice, for the sheep to follow. Whether that voice comes through a good man or through a bad one, let us attend to whether it is the shepherd's voice.
CAPUT XIV. — Quaerit infirmus Ecclesiam, quaerit errans Ecclesiam. Tu quid dicis? Partis Donati est Ecclesia. Ego vocem pastoris inquiro. Lege hoc mihi de Propheta, lege mihi de Psalmo, recita mihi de Lege, recita de Evangelio, recita de Apostolo. Inde ego recito Ecclesiam toto orbe diffusam, et Dominum dicentem, Quae sunt oves meae, vocem meam audiunt, et sequuntur me. Quae est vox pastoris? Et praedicari in
CHAPTER XIV. — The weak man seeks the Church, the straying man seeks the Church. What do you say? The Church belongs to the party of Donatus. I am inquiring for the shepherd's voice. Read this to me from a Prophet, read it to me from a Psalm, recite it to me from the Law, recite it from the Gospel, recite it from the Apostle. From these I recite the Church spread through the whole world, and the Lord saying: They which are my sheep hear my voice, and follow me. What is the shepherd's voice? And that it be preached in
Editors' notes and page, col. 288
Footnotes
(1) ‹anchor: quod perierat› · call in col 288
Ulim. et Lov. : Quomodo gaudetis, quia in vobis ille est qui perierat ? Dissentiunt caeteri libri editi et Mss.
Ulimmerius and the Louvain edition: "How do you rejoice, because he who had perished is among you?" The other books, printed and manuscript, disagree.
(printed under page 150)
(2) ‹anchor: cum corde suo› · call in col 288
Am. et Aliquot Mss., in corde suo.
Amerbach and some manuscripts, "in his heart" (in corde suo).
(printed under page 150)
nomine ejus poenitentiam et remissionem peccatorum per omnes gentes, incipientibus ab Jerusalem (Luc. XXIV, 47). Ecce vox pastoris; agnosce et sequere, si ovis es.
in His name repentance and remission of sins among all nations, beginning from Jerusalem (Luke 24:47). Behold the shepherd's voice; acknowledge it and follow, if you are a sheep.
33. Nec vox pastoris est quod illi de traditoribus dicunt; neque quod Ecclesiam dicunt perituram. Sed illi codices tradiderunt, et illi thus idolis posuerunt, ille et ille. Quid ad me de illo et illo? Si fecerunt, non sunt pastores: tu vocem pastoris edicito; quia nec de illis vocem pastoris annuntias. Tu accusas, non Evangelium; tu accusas, non Propheta, non Apostolus: de quo mihi vox ista loquitur, de illo credo; aliis non credo. Sed Acta profers: Acta profero. Credam tuis: crede et tu meis. Non credo tuis: noli credere meis. Auferantur chartae humanae, sonent voces divinae. Ede mihi unam Scripturae vocem pro parte Donati: audi innumerabiles, pro orbe terrarum. Quis eas enumerat? Quis eas terminat? Tamen ut pauca commemoremus, Legem attende, primum Dei Testamentum: In semine tuo benedicentur omnes gentes (Gen. XXII, 18). Et in Psalmo, Postula a me, et dabo tibi gentes haereditatem tuam et possessionem tuam terminos terrae (Psal. II, 8). Commemorabuntur et convertentur ad Dominum universi fines terrae; et adorabunt in conspectu ejus universae patriae gentium: quoniam ipsius est regnum, et ipse dominabitur gentium (Psal. XXI, 28, 29). Cantate Domino canticum novum; cantate Domino, omnis terra (Psal. XCV, 1). Et adorabunt eum omnes reges terrae, omnes gentes servient illi (Psal. LXXI, 11). Quis enumerare sufficiat? Prope omnis pagina nihil aliud sonat quam Christum, et Ecclesiam toto orbe diffusam. Exeat mihi una vox pro parte Donati. Quid magnum est quod quaero? Ecclesiam toto orbe diffusam, perituram fuisse dicunt. Peritura praedicta est tot testimoniis mansura? Nec una vox ista per Legem, per Prophetas, per Cantica pastoris est. Neque enim illi verum dicere sine Verbo Dei potuerunt, quod est Christus.
33. Nor is it the shepherd's voice, what they say about the traditores; nor [is it His voice] that they call the Church [a thing] doomed to perish. But it was they who handed over the [sacred] books, and they who placed incense before idols, this one and that one. What is it to me, about this one and that one? If they did [these things], they are not shepherds: [but] you must declare the shepherd's voice; for not even concerning them do you announce the shepherd's voice. You accuse — not the Gospel; you accuse — not the Prophet, not the Apostle: of whomever that voice speaks to me, concerning him I believe; others I do not believe. But you produce the Acts [of the trial]: I too produce Acts. I will believe your [Acts]: believe mine too. I do not believe yours: do not you believe mine. Let the human documents be set aside; let the divine voices sound. Give me one voice of Scripture for the Donatist party: [and] hear countless [voices] for the [whole] world. Who can number them? Who can bound them? Yet that we may recall a few, attend to the Law, the first Testament of God: In your seed shall all nations be blessed (Gen. 22:18). And in the Psalm, Ask of me, and I will give Thee the nations for Thine inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Thy possession (Ps. 2:8). All the ends of the earth shall remember and be turned to the Lord; and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship in His sight: for the kingdom is His, and He shall have dominion over the nations (Ps. 21:28, 29). Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth (Ps. 95:1). And all the kings of the earth shall worship Him, all nations shall serve Him (Ps. 71:11). Who could suffice to number them? There is scarcely a page that sounds anything other than Christ, and the Church spread through the whole world. Let one voice for the Donatist party come forth to me. What great thing do I ask? They say that the Church spread through the whole world was [destined] to perish. Was she foretold as going to perish, who by so many testimonies [was foretold] as going to remain? Nor is there a single voice to that effect, through the Law, through the Prophets, through the Songs, that is the shepherd's. For they could not speak the truth without the Word of God, Who is Christ.
34. Vox pastoris et ejus grex non latet. Audi vocem Verbi, et ex ore Verbi. Miratus fidem Centurionis: Amen, inquit, dico vobis, non inveni tantam fidem in Israel. Propterea dico vobis, quia multi ab Oriente et Occidente venient, et recumbent cum Abraham et Isaac et Jacob in regno coelorum (Matth. VIII, 10, 11). Ab Oriente et Occidente multi venient: ecce Ecclesia Christi, ecce grex Christi; tu vide, si ovis es. Non enim te latet grex qui ubique est. Non habebis quid respondeas judici tuo, quem non vis esse pastorem tuum: non habebis, inquam, quod respondeas judici tuo, Nescivi, non vidi, non audivi. Quid est quod nescisti? Nec est qui se abscondat a calore ejus (Psal. XVIII, 7). Quid est quod non vidisti? Viderunt omnes fines terrae salutare Dei nostri (Psal. XCVII, 3). Quid est quod non audisti? In omnem terram exivit sonus eorum, et in fines orbis terrae verba eorum (Psal. XVIII, 5).
34. The shepherd's voice, and His flock, do not lie hidden. Hear the voice of the Word, and from the mouth of the Word. Marvelling at the Centurion's faith: Amen, He says, I say to you, I have not found so great faith in Israel. Therefore I say to you, that many shall come from the East and the West, and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 8:10, 11). From the East and the West many shall come: behold the Church of Christ, behold the flock of Christ; see for yourself, whether you are a sheep. For the flock that is everywhere does not lie hidden from you. You will have nothing to answer to your judge, whom you do not wish to be your shepherd: you will not have, I say, [anything] to answer to your judge — I did not know, I did not see, I did not hear. What is it that you did not know? There is none that can hide himself from his heat (Ps. 18:7). What is it that you did not see? All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God (Ps. 97:3). What is it that you did not hear? Their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their words into the ends of the world (Ps. 18:5).
35. Locus ex Canticis canticorum a Donatistis frustra prolatus. Cantica canticorum aenigmata. Sed recte a vobis quaeritur vox Christi, vox pastoris, quam oves audiant et sequantur. Non invenitis quid dicatis, vocem
35. A passage from the Song of Songs adduced in vain by the Donatists. The Song of Songs [is made up] of enigmas. But rightly is there sought from you the voice of Christ, the shepherd's voice, which the sheep may hear and follow. You do not find what to say — you
Editors' notes and page, col. 289
Footnotes
(1) ‹anchor: perituram fuisse› · call in col 289
Sic Am. et Mss. At Er. Ulim. et Lov., perituram esse.
So Amerbach and the manuscripts. But Erasmus, Ulimmerius and the Louvain edition, "is going to perish" (perituram esse).
(printed under page 151)
pastoris non habetis. Audite, et sequimini: dimittite vocem lupi, sequimini vocem pastoris; aut date vocem pastoris.
have no shepherd's voice. Hear, and follow: give up the voice of the wolf, follow the shepherd's voice; or [else] produce the shepherd's voice.
CAPUT XV. — Damus, inquiunt. Audiamus. Damus et nos vocem pastoris. Audiamus. In Canticis, inquiunt, canticorum loquitur sponsa ad sponsum, Ecclesia ad Christum. Novimus Cantica canticorum, sancta cantica, amatoria cantica, sancti amoris, sanctae charitatis, sanctae dulcedinis. Plane volo inde audire vocem pastoris, vocem dulcissimi sponsi. Ede, si quid habes: audiamus. Sponsa, inquiunt, dicit ad sponsum: Annuntia mihi, quem dilexit anima mea, ubi pascis, ubi cubas? Et ille, inquiunt, respondet: In meridie. Manifesta tibi testimonia proferebam, non erat quemadmodum aliter interpretareris: Postula a me, et dabo tibi gentes haereditatem tuam, et possessionem tuam terminos terrae. Commemorabuntur et convertentur ad Dominum universi fines terrae. Quid est quod mihi de Canticis canticorum profers? Quod forte non intelligis. Etenim illa Cantica aenigmata sunt, paucis intelligentibus nota sunt, paucis pulsantibus aperiuntur. Tene et devote accipe aperta, ut merito tibi pandantur obscura. Quomodo eris penetrator obscurorum, contemptor manifestorum?
CHAPTER XV. — We give it, they say. Let us hear it. We too give the shepherd's voice. Let us hear it. In the Songs, they say, of Songs the bride speaks to the bridegroom, the Church to Christ. We know the Song of Songs, the holy songs, the songs of love, of holy love, of holy charity, of holy sweetness. I plainly wish to hear from it the shepherd's voice, the voice of the most sweet bridegroom. Produce it, if you have anything: let us hear it. The bride, they say, says to the bridegroom: Tell me, [O Thou] Whom my soul has loved, where Thou feedest [Thy flock], where Thou liest down [at rest]? And He, they say, answers: At midday. I was setting before you plain testimonies; there was no way you could interpret them otherwise: Ask of me, and I will give Thee the nations for Thine inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Thy possession. All the ends of the earth shall remember and be turned to the Lord. What is it that you bring me from the Song of Songs? Something, perhaps, you do not understand. For those Songs are enigmas; they are known to few who understand, they are opened to few who knock. Hold fast and devoutly receive what is open, that what is obscure may deservedly be unveiled to you. How will you be a penetrator of obscure things, [while you are] a despiser of manifest things?
36. Locus ex Canticis contrarius est Donatistis. Ecce tamen ut possumus, fratres, haec verba discutiamus: aderit Dominus, ut videatis ibi sanum intellectum. Primo, quod ab omnibus et imperitis facillime judicatur, verba ipsa male distinguunt: nunc audietis, nunc probabitis. Etenim sic se habet textus ipse lectionis. Sponsa loquitur ad sponsum: Annuntia mihi, quem dilexit anima mea, ubi pascis, ubi cubas. Quod sponsa sponso dicat, quod Ecclesia Christo dicat, nec nos dubitamus, nec illi. Sed omnia verba sponsae audi. Quare verbum quod adhuc sponsae est, vis tribuere jam sponso? Omnia quae dicit sponsa, dic: tunc respondebit sponsus. Audi evidentius hanc distinctionem quam dicturus sum, non invenies aliquid plus. Annuntia mihi, quem dilexit anima mea, ubi pascis, ubi cubas in meridie. Ipsa adhuc dicit, ubi pascis, ubi cubas in meridie. Et vide quia adhuc ipsa dicit. Sequitur enim: Ne forte fiam sicut operta super greges sodalium tuorum. Puto omnes peritos imperitosque discernere genus masculinum et femininum. Operta, quaero cujus generis sit: ab omni homine quaero, Masculini est, an feminini? Annuntia, inquit, mihi, quem dilexit anima mea. Quem, cum dicit, masculum alloquitur, sponsum alloquitur. Quia vero femina virum alloquitur, consequentia verba indicant, Annuntia mihi, ubi pascis, ubi cubas in meridie; ne forte fiam sicut operta. Audi tu operta, ut fiant tibi haec aperta. Annuntia mihi, quem dilexit anima mea, ubi pascis, ubi cubas in meridie; ne forte fiam sicut operta super greges sodalium tuorum. Hucusque verba sponsae: jam incipiunt verba sponsi de manifesto, Nisi cognoveris temetipsam. Agnosce evidenter feminam. Temetipsam, o pulchra inter mulieres: nisi cognoveris temetipsam, o pulchra inter mulieres; exi tu in vestigiis gregum, et
36. A passage from the Songs contrary to the Donatists. Behold, nevertheless, brothers, let us discuss these words as we are able: the Lord will be present, that you may see there a sound understanding. First — a thing most easily judged by all, even the unskilled — they wrongly divide the words themselves: now you shall hear, now you shall test it. For thus the text itself of the reading stands. The bride speaks to the bridegroom: Tell me, [O Thou] Whom my soul has loved, where Thou feedest [Thy flock], where Thou liest down [at rest]. That the bride says this to the bridegroom, that the Church says this to Christ, neither we nor they doubt. But hear all the words of the bride. Why do you wish to assign to the bridegroom already a word that still belongs to the bride? Say all the things the bride says: then the bridegroom will answer. Hear more plainly this distinction which I am about to state; you will find nothing further [needed]. Tell me, [O Thou] Whom my soul has loved, where Thou feedest [Thy flock], where Thou liest down at midday. She herself is still speaking, where Thou feedest [Thy flock], where Thou liest down at midday. And see that she herself is still speaking. For there follows: Lest perhaps I become as one veiled over the flocks of Thy companions. I think all, skilled and unskilled alike, can distinguish masculine and feminine gender. Veiled — I ask of what gender it is: I ask of every man, Is it masculine, or feminine? Tell me, she says, [O Thou] Whom my soul has loved. When she says whom, she addresses a male, she addresses the bridegroom. But because a woman is addressing a man, the words that follow show it: Tell me, where Thou feedest [Thy flock], where Thou liest down at midday; lest perhaps I become as one veiled. Hear, you, [the word] veiled, that these things may be made plain to you. Tell me, [O Thou] Whom my soul has loved, where Thou feedest [Thy flock], where Thou liest down at midday; lest perhaps I become as one veiled over the flocks of Thy companions. Thus far the words of the bride: now the words of the bridegroom begin openly, Unless you have known yourself. Recognize plainly the woman. Yourself, O beautiful among women: unless you have known yourself, O beautiful among women; go forth in the footsteps of the flocks, and
Editors' notes and page, col. 290
Footnotes
(1) ‹anchor: accipe aperta› · call in col 290
Am. Er. et Corbeiensis Mss. : Tenebo te, accipe aperta.
Amerbach, Erasmus and the Corbie manuscript: "I shall hold you; receive what is plain."
(printed under page 151)
(2) ‹anchor: in vestigiis gregum› · call in col 290
Plures Mss. : Agnosce viriliter feminam. Corbeiensis, Agnosce viriliter, femina, temetipsam. Temetipsam, inquit, nisi cognoveris, (audite reliqua) o pulchra inter mulieres : nisi cognoveris temetipsam, o pulchra inter mulieres ; exi tu in vestigiis gregum. Et sic fere Am.
Several manuscripts: "Recognize manfully the woman." The Corbie manuscript, "Recognize manfully, O woman, yourself. Yourself, He says, unless you have known — (hear the rest) — O beautiful among women: unless you have known yourself, O beautiful among women; go forth in the footsteps of the flocks." And Amerbach reads nearly so.
(printed under pages 151 and 152)
pasce haedos tuos in tabernaculis pastorum (Cant. I, 6, 7): non in tabernaculo pastoris. Vide quomodo comminetur sponsus: vide quemadmodum in periculo, quamvis ille dulcis, abstulit de medio blandimenta. Quam blande illa? Annuntia mihi, quem dilexit anima mea, ubi pascis, ubi cubas in meridie. Veniet enim medius dies, quando ad umbraculum concurrant pastores; et forte latebit me ubi tu pascis et ubi cubas: et volo mihi annunties, ne forte fiam sicut operta, id est, sicut occulta, et non cognita. Ego enim manifesta sum: sed ne sicut operta, sicut celata incidam super greges sodalium tuorum. Omnes enim haeretici a Christo exierunt; omnes qui facti sunt pastores mali, habentes greges suos sub nomine Christi, illius sodales fuerunt, illius convivium acceperunt. Sodales enim dicuntur, tanquam unius convivii. Latina lingua sic dicti sunt sodales, quasi simul edales, eo quod simul edant. Audi illum in Psalmo arguentem sodales malos, id est, unius convivii: Si inimicus, inquit, meus exprobrasset mihi, sustinuissem utique; et si super me magna locutus fuisset, abscondissem me utique ab eo: tu vero unanimis et notus meus, dux meus, qui simul mecum dulces capiebas cibos (Psal. LIV, 13-15). Ergo multi sodales ingrati mensae dominicae exierunt foras: mali sodales fecerunt sibi suas mensas, erexerunt altaria contra altare. In eis ista timet errare.
feed your kids in the tents of the shepherds (Song 1:6, 7): not in the shepherd's own tent. See how the bridegroom threatens: see how, in a moment of danger, although He is gentle, He took His endearments out of the midst [of His words]. How gently did she speak? Tell me, [O Thou] Whom my soul has loved, where Thou feedest [Thy flock], where Thou liest down at midday. For midday will come, when the shepherds gather together at the shade; and perhaps it will be hidden from me where Thou feedest [Thy flock] and where Thou liest down: and I want Thee to tell me, lest perhaps I become as one veiled, that is, as one hidden and unknown. For I am manifest: but [I fear] lest, as one veiled, as one concealed, I fall in among the flocks of Thy companions. For all heretics have gone out from Christ; all who became evil shepherds, having their own flocks under the name of Christ, were His table-companions, [and] received His banquet. For they are called sodales [companions], as of one banquet. In the Latin tongue they are so called sodales, as it were simul-edales [together-eaters], because they eat together. Hear Him in the Psalm accusing evil companions, that is, of one banquet: If my enemy, He says, had reproached me, I would surely have borne it; and if he had spoken great things against me, I would surely have hidden myself from him: but you, my like-minded one and my acquaintance, my guide, who together with me took sweet food (Ps. 54:13–15). Therefore many companions, ungrateful for the Lord's table, went outside: evil companions made for themselves their own tables, [and] raised up altars against the altar. Amid these [companions] she [the Church] fears to go astray.
37. Meridies si Africa intelligatur loco citato, facit contra Donatistas. Exire haereticorum est. Et si putas quia meridies Africa est; quanquam possem obtinere magis esse mundi meridiem partes Aegypti, et illas exustas sole regiones, ubi pluvia non apparet: quia ipse est meridies, ubi fervet medius dies. Ibi autem eremus plena millibus servorum Dei. Unde si ad meridiem locorum velimus advertere, quare non ibi pascat ille magis, et ibi requiescat, quando ante praedictum est, Ubera erunt deserta eremi (Joel. II, 22)? Sed ecce consentio, meridies Africa sit. Africa sit meridies: hi sunt sodales mali. Ecclesia transmarina in aliquo suorum navigante in Africam, sollicita ne erret, invocat sponsum suum, et dicit ei: Abundare audio haereticos in Africa, abundare audio rebaptizatores in Africa; esse autem ibi tuos non minus audio: et illud audio, et hoc audio; sed qui sint tui, a te volo audire. Annuntia mihi, quem dilexit anima mea, ubi pascis, ubi cubas in meridie. In illo meridie, ubi audio duas partes esse, unam Donati, alteram universo tuo cohaerentem; tu mihi dic quo eam, ne forte velut operta, id est, ignota fiam super greges sodalium tuorum, incurram in greges haereticorum, conantes ponere lapidem super lapidem qui destruatur, ne irruam in rebaptizatores, annuntia mihi. Et ille qui commendat unitatem pastoris, qui in hac lectione dixit, Ego pascam;
37. If "midday" in the passage cited is understood as Africa, it tells against the Donatists. To go out is the mark of heretics. And if you think that midday is Africa; although I could maintain rather that the world's midday is the regions of Egypt, and those regions scorched by the sun, where rain does not appear: for that indeed is midday, where the midst of the day burns hot. But there the desert is full of thousands of the servants of God. Hence if we wish to attend to the midday of these places, why should He not rather feed [His flock] there and rest there, since it was foretold beforehand, The deserts of the wilderness shall be fruitful (Joel 2:22)? But behold, I grant it: let midday be Africa. Let Africa be midday: these are the evil companions. The Church across the sea, in one of her own sailing to Africa, anxious lest he go astray, calls upon her bridegroom, and says to Him: I hear that heretics abound in Africa, I hear that rebaptizers abound in Africa; but that Thine own are there too, I hear no less: I hear that, and I hear this; but who are Thine, I wish to hear from Thee Thyself. Tell me, [O Thou] Whom my soul has loved, where Thou feedest [Thy flock], where Thou liest down at midday. In that midday, where I hear there are two parts, one of Donatus, the other cleaving to Thy universal [Church]; tell me where I should go, lest perhaps, as one veiled, that is, unknown, I fall in among the flocks of Thy companions, [and] run into the flocks of heretics, who attempt to lay stone upon stone only to have it thrown down — lest I rush headlong into the rebaptizers, tell me. And He Who commends the unity of the shepherd, Who in this reading said, I will feed them,
Editors' notes and page, col. 291
Footnotes
(1) ‹anchor: Ubera erunt› · call in col 291
Sic Lov. et plerique Mss. At Am., aberraverunt. Optimae notae Corbeiensis Ms., uberaverunt. Forte melius, pro pullulaverunt, seu germinaverunt. Non enim alium locum citare videtur nisi Joel cap. 2, ℣. 22.
So the Louvain edition and most manuscripts. But Amerbach, "they have strayed" (aberraverunt). The Corbie manuscript, one of the best quality, "they have grown fruitful" (uberaverunt). Perhaps better, in the sense of "they have sprouted" or "they have budded." For he seems to be citing no other passage than Joel ch. 2, v. 22.
(printed under page 152)
pastores autem reprobat, qui multi esse voluerunt, unitatem amiserunt: severissime non blande respondens, sed pro magnitudine periculi, Nisi cognoveris, inquit, temetipsam, o pulchra inter mulieres. Pulchra es inter mulieres: sed agnosce te. Ubi te agnosces? In toto orbe terrarum. Si enim pulchra, unitas est in te: ubi divisio, foeditas est, non pulchritudo. Nisi cognoveris temetipsam. In me credidisti, agnosce te. In me quomodo credidisti? Quomodo et illi mali sodales, consentiunt Verbum carnem factum, natum ex virgine, crucifixum, resurrexisse, ascendisse in coelos: in talem me credidisti, talem et illi sonant. Cognosce te et me; me in coelo, te in toto orbe terrarum. Unum quemlibet ex Ecclesia tanquam Ecclesiam Christus alloquitur. Nam quomodo Ecclesia quaerit Ecclesiam? Secundum ipsos loquor. Annuntia mihi, quem dilexit anima mea, ubi pascis, ubi cubas. Quid quaerit? Ecclesiam. Et ille tanquam ostendens Ecclesiam dicit, In meridie: sicut illi volunt. Respondeant mihi, quomodo Ecclesia quaerat Ecclesiam. Annuntia mihi, quem dilexit anima mea. Quae loquitur? Ecclesia. Quid sibi vult annuntiari? Ubi pascis, ubi cubas, id est, ubi sit Ecclesia. Ecclesia loquitur, et interrogat ubi sit Ecclesia: et respondet ille, ut putant, In meridie. Si in solo meridie est, ut dicunt, in Africa; quomodo ipsa interrogat ubi ipsa sit? An vero portio Ecclesiae transmarinae bene interrogat de meridie, ne hic erret? Alloquitur unumquodque membrorum Ecclesiae suae Christus, tanquam suam Ecclesiam, et dicit, Nisi cognoveris temetipsam, o pulchra inter mulieres, exi. Exire, haereticorum est. Aut cognosce te, aut exi: quia si te non cognoveris, exitura es. Exitura quo? In vestigiis gregum: sequendo malos greges. Ne forte putes quia oves sequeris, si exis: audi quid sequitur, Exi tu in vestigiis gregum, et pasce haedos tuos; jam non oves. Nostis, fratres, ubi erunt haedi. Ad sinistram erunt omnes qui exierunt ab Ecclesia. Manenti Petro dicitur, Pasce oves meas (Joan. XXI, 17): exeunti haeretico, Pasce haedos tuos.
but rejects those shepherds who wished to be many, [and] lost unity: answering most severely, not gently, but in proportion to the greatness of the danger, Unless you have known, He says, yourself, O beautiful among women. You are beautiful among women: but know yourself. Where will you know yourself? In the whole world. For if you are beautiful, unity is in you: where there is division, there is ugliness, not beauty. Unless you have known yourself. You have believed in me; know yourself. How have you believed in me? As those evil companions too agree — the Word made flesh, born of a virgin, crucified, risen, ascended into heaven: you have believed in me as such, and they too proclaim me as such. Know yourself and me; me in heaven, you in the whole world. Christ addresses each individual of the Church as though [addressing] the Church. For how does the Church seek the Church? I speak according to their own [view]. Tell me, [O Thou] Whom my soul has loved, where Thou feedest [Thy flock], where Thou liest down. What does she seek? The Church. And He, as though pointing out the Church, says, At midday: as they would have it. Let them answer me, how the Church seeks the Church. Tell me, [O Thou] Whom my soul has loved. Who is speaking? The Church. What does she want told to her? Where Thou feedest [Thy flock], where Thou liest down — that is, where the Church is. The Church speaks, and asks where the Church is: and He answers, as they think, At midday. If she is only at midday, as they say, in Africa; how does she herself ask where she herself is? Or rather does a portion of the Church across the sea rightly ask about midday, lest she go astray here? Christ addresses each one of the members of His own Church, as [if addressing] His own Church, and says, Unless you have known yourself, O beautiful among women, go forth. To go forth is the mark of heretics. Either know yourself, or go forth: for if you do not know yourself, you are going to go forth. Going forth where? In the footsteps of the flocks: by following evil flocks. Lest perhaps you think that you follow sheep, if you go forth: hear what follows, Go forth in the footsteps of the flocks, and feed your kids — no longer sheep. You know, brothers, where the kids will be. On the left will be all who have gone out from the Church. To Peter remaining [in the Church] it is said, Feed my sheep (John 21:17): to the heretic going out, Feed your kids.
38. Locus ex Habacuc male usurpatus a Donatistis. Est, inquiunt, et aliud testimonium. Nihilominus contra te: dic, audiamus. Erit sic contra te, quomodo hoc quod putabas pro te. Si meridiem, inquiunt, interpretaris Aegyptum. Multis quidem modis interpretamur meridiem, et Aegyptum possumus ad locum mundi, et ipsam Africam sic intelligere. Audi quid intelligam per meridiem: intelligo fervorem spiritualium, flagrantem igne charitatis, splendentem lumine veritatis. Nam dicitur in quodam psalmo: Dexteram tuam notam fac mihi, et eruditos corde in sapientia. Dexteram, non haedos: et eruditos corde in sapientia, ipsi sunt meridies. Unde dicitur a propheta: Et tenebrae tuae sicut meridies erunt (Psal. LXXXIX, 10). Multis ergo modis possumus intelligere meridiem: sed prorsus Africam intelligo, omnino Africam intelligo. Accipio a te aliquid forte melius quam saperem, nisi a te
38. A passage from Habakkuk wrongly appropriated by the Donatists. There is, they say, another testimony too. It is no less against you: speak, let us hear it. It will tell against you just as this [passage] does, which you thought was for you. If, they say, you interpret midday [as] Egypt — In many ways indeed we interpret midday, and we can understand Egypt, with reference to a place in the world, and Africa itself, likewise. Hear what I understand by midday: I understand the fervour of the spiritual, blazing with the fire of charity, shining with the light of truth. For it is said in a certain psalm: Make Thy right hand known to me, and those instructed in heart in wisdom. The right hand, not the kids: and those instructed in heart in wisdom — these are midday. Hence it is said by the prophet: And your darkness shall be as midday (Ps. 89:10 [so Migne cites it; the wording is Isaiah's]). In many ways, therefore, we can understand midday: but I understand Africa outright, I understand Africa entirely. I accept from you something, perhaps better than I would understand on my own, unless by you
Editors' notes and page, col. 292
Footnotes
(1) ‹anchor: in talem me credidisti› · call in col 292
Sic apud Er. Lugd. Ven. : Si talem me credidisti. M.
So in Erasmus and the Lyons and Venice editions: "If you have believed me to be such." M.
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(2) ‹anchor: sic intelligere› · call in col 292
Cisterciensis Ms., da locum mundi, ut ipsam Africam intelligam. Forte, quod ad locum mundi : supple, attinet
The Cistercian manuscript, "grant the region of the world, so that I may understand Africa itself." Perhaps, "as to the region of the world": supply "pertains" (attinet).
(printed under page 152)
commemorarer: Africa sit meridies. Timet Ecclesia transmarina incidere in rebaptizatores, timet incidere tanquam ignota in greges sodalium, quaerit ab sponso suo ut annuntiet illi ubi pascat, ubi cubet in meridie. Quia in ipso meridie in aliis pascit, in aliis non pascit: in aliis cubat, in aliis non cubat. Audiat consilium, veniat ad catholicam Ecclesiam; non incurrat in greges sodalium, non pascat haedos suos. Sed dic aliud quod te dicebas esse dicturum. Propheta, inquit, ait: Deus ab Africo veniet. Et jam ubi Africus, utique Africa. O testimonium! Deus ab Africo veniet. Ab Africa veniet Deus? Alterum Christum in Africa nasci, et ire per mundum haeretici annuntiant. Rogo quid est, Deus ab Africo veniet? Si diceretis, Deus in Africa remansit, utique turpiter diceretis: nunc autem etiam, Ab Africa veniet, dicitis. Novimus ubi sit natus Christus, ubi sit passus, ubi in coelum ascenderit, unde discipulos miserit, ubi eos Spiritu sancto repleverit, ubi per totum mundum evangelizare jusserit: et obtemperarunt ei, et impletus orbis terrarum Evangelio; et tu dicis, Deus ab Africa veniet?
I were reminded: let Africa be midday. The Church across the sea fears to fall in with the rebaptizers, fears to fall, as one unknown, among the flocks of His companions; she asks of her bridegroom that He tell her where He feeds [His flock], where He lies down at midday. Because in that very midday, in some [places] He feeds [His flock], in others He does not feed it: in some He lies down, in others He does not lie down. Let her hear counsel, let her come to the Catholic Church; let her not run into the flocks of His companions, let her not feed her kids. But say the other thing which you said you were going to say. The prophet, he says, says: God shall come from the south [Africus]. And now, where there is the south wind, there is surely Africa. O what a testimony! God shall come from the south. Shall God come from Africa? The heretics proclaim that another Christ is born in Africa, and goes forth through the world. I ask, what is [the meaning of], God shall come from the south? If you were to say, God has remained in Africa, you would certainly speak shamefully: but now you even say, He shall come from Africa. We know where Christ was born, where He suffered, where He ascended into heaven, whence He sent His disciples, where He filled them with the Holy Spirit, where He bade them preach the gospel through the whole world: and they obeyed Him, and the whole world has been filled with the Gospel; and [yet] do you say, God shall come from Africa?
39. In Donatistas non quadrat testimonium Habacuc. — Ergo tu mihi, inquit, expone quid est, Deus ab Africo veniet. Dic totum, et fortassis intelliges. Deus ab Africo veniet, et sanctus de monte umbroso. Tu mihi expone, si jam ab Africa, quomodo de monte umbroso? De Numidia nata est pars Donati: ipsi missi sunt primo in dissensionem, et tumultum, et scandalum, quaerentes ingens vulnus, Numidae miserunt: Secundus Tigisitanus misit; ubi sit Tigisi, notum est. Qui missi sunt clerici, extra congregaverunt ab Ecclesia, ad clericos Carthaginis accedere noluerunt, visitatorem posuerunt, a Lucilla suscepti sunt. Auctor totius hujus mali Numida haereticus fuit. In Numidia, unde ventum est huc cum tanto malo, muscarium vix invenitur, in cupsonibus habitant. Quomodo mons umbrosus Numidia? Dic mihi ergo: noli huc usque recitare, Deus ab Africo; exigo et sequentia, Et sanctus de monte umbroso. Sed ostende mihi partem Donati a Numidia, de monte umbroso venire. Invenis nuda omnia, pingues quidem campos, sed frumentarios: non olivetis fertiles, non caeteris nemoribus amoenos. Unde ergo mons umbrosus in Numidiae partibus, unde hoc scandalum venit?
39. The testimony of Habakkuk does not fit the Donatists. Therefore explain to me, he says, what it means, God shall come from the south. Say the whole [verse], and perhaps you will understand. God shall come from the south, and the Holy One from the shady mountain. Explain to me: if [He comes] already from Africa, how [does He come] from a shady mountain? From Numidia the party of Donatus was born: it was they who were first sent into dissension, and tumult, and scandal, seeking a huge wound; the Numidians sent them: Secundus of Tigisi sent them; where Tigisi is, is known. The clerics who were sent gathered [a congregation] outside the Church, refused to go to the clergy of Carthage, appointed a visitor [of their own], [and] were received by Lucilla. The author of this whole evil was a Numidian heretic. In Numidia, whence this came here with so great an evil, a fly-whisk is scarcely to be found; they dwell [UNSURE: Migne's apparatus disputes this word among several variants] in rock-shelters. How is Numidia a shady mountain? Tell me, then: do not recite [the verse] only up to this point, God [shall come] from the south; I demand also what follows, And the Holy One from the shady mountain. But show me that the party of Donatus comes from Numidia, from a shady mountain. You find everything bare — fields indeed rich, but for grain: not fertile with olive-groves, not pleasant with other woodlands. Whence then is there a shady mountain in the regions of Numidia, whence has this scandal come?
CAPUT XVI. — 40. Interpretatio verior prophetae Habacuc. Tu mihi, inquit, ergo expone quid est, Deus ab Africo veniet, et sanctus de monte umbroso. Vide quam facile exponam. Primo illud audi quod ait Dominus: Oportebat Christum pati, et resurgere
CHAPTER XVI. — 40. A truer interpretation of the prophet Habakkuk. Explain to me, then, he says, what it means, God shall come from the south, and the Holy One from the shady mountain. See how easily I will explain it. First hear this, which the Lord says: It was necessary for Christ to suffer, and to rise
Editors' notes and page, col. 293
Footnotes
(1) ‹anchor: evangelizare jusserit› · call in col 293
Ulim. et Lov., miserit ; dissentientibus caeteris libris.
Ulimmerius and the Louvain edition, "has sent" (miserit); the other books disagreeing.
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(2) ‹anchor: ingens vulnus› · call in col 293
Plerique, Mss., quaerentes ingenium vulneri.
Most manuscripts, "seeking a device for the wound" (ingenium vulneri).
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(3) ‹anchor: accedere noluerunt› · call in col 293
Codex cl., et clericos Carthaginis accire noluerunt.
The codex cl., "and they refused to summon the clergy of Carthage."
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(4) ‹anchor: muscarium› · call in col 293
Am. Er., viscarium. Melius alii codices, muscarium. Non ignota vox flabellum proprie ad abigendas muscas significans, necnon herbarum grandiorem comam ad id quasi natura comparatam. Plin. lib. 12, cap. 26.
Amerbach and Erasmus, viscarium. Better the other codices, muscarium. It is a word not unknown, meaning properly a fan for driving off flies, and also the larger tuft of plants, fitted as it were by nature for that purpose. Pliny, book 12, ch. 26.
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(5) ‹anchor: in cupsonibus› · call in col 293
Er., cum incursionibus. Ulim., cum in cupsonibus. Am., cum cupsonibus. Aliquot Mss., in cursionibus. Plerique et meliores cum Lov., in cupsonibus : idemne ac in rupibus et speluncis? unde dicti illi Rupitani in libro de Unitate Ecclesiae, cap. 3, et Cutzupitae in epistola 53, n. 2.
Erasmus, cum incursionibus. Ulimmerius, cum in cupsonibus. Amerbach, cum cupsonibus. Some manuscripts, in cursionibus. Most, and the better ones, with the Louvain edition, in cupsonibus: is it the same as "in rocks and caves"? whence those men are called Rupitani in the book On the Unity of the Church, ch. 3, and Cutzupitae in letter 53, n. 2.
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(a) ‹anchor: suscepti sunt› · call in col 293
Vid Epist. 43, et lib. de Haeresibus.
See Letter 43, and the book On Heresies.
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tertio die, et praedicari in nomine ejus poenitentiam et remissionem peccatorum per omnes gentes, incipientibus ab Jerusalem (Luc. XXIV, 46, 47). Ecce unde veniet. Incipientibus cum dixit, inde utique se in sanctis suis ad alias gentes venturum esse praedixit. Lege divisionem terrae filiorum Israel in omnibus tribubus in libro Jesu Nave: aperte ibi dictum est, Jebus ab Africo, quae est Jerusalem (Josue XV, 8). Lege, quaere, et invenies. Utinam cum inveneris, credas; utinam animositatem deponas. Jebus ab Africo, quae est Jerusalem. Et Dominus, Incipientibus ab Jerusalem: hoc est, Deus ab Africo veniet. Quomodo ergo a monte umbroso? Evangelium jam lege. De monte Oliveti Christus ascendit in coelum. Sequere. Et quid dilucidius? Audis, ab Africo: audisti, de monte umbroso. Legem recitamus, Evangelium recitamus. Audisti, Incipientibus ab Jerusalem: audi, Per omnes gentes, in eodem propheta. Sequere verba illa quae contempsisti, verba illa quae praetermisisti: Deus ab Africo veniet, et sanctus de monte umbroso: cooperiet montes umbra ejus, et gloria ejus plena est terra (Habac. III, 3). Per omnes ergo gentes, incipientibus ab Jerusalem: Deus ab Africo veniet, et sanctus de monte umbroso et condenso; id est, a monte Oliveti, unde ascendit in coelum, unde misit discipulos suos, ubi etiam ascensurus ait: Non enim vestrum est scire tempora, quae Pater posuit in sua potestate; sed accipietis virtutem ex alto, et eritis mihi testes. Videte quomodo incipit Evangelium: Et eritis mihi testes in Jerusalem, et in Judaea et Samaria, et usque in totam terram (Act. I, 7, 8). Ergo Deo veniente Christo, et nomen ejus, et praedicatio Evangelii ejus ab Jerusalem, id est, ab Africo; et a monte umbroso, id est, a monte Oliveti: quia per omnes gentes diffamatum est Evangelium. Operiet montes umbra ejus, id est refrigerium ejus, protectio ejus; et laudis ejus plena est terra. Cantate ergo cum tota terra canticum novum; non canticum vetus cum angulo terrae.
again on the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem (Luke 24:46, 47). Behold, whence He shall come. When He said "beginning," He thereby surely foretold that from there, in His saints, He would come to the other nations. Read the division of the land of the sons of Israel among all the tribes in the book of Joshua the son of Nun: there it is plainly said, Jebus is from the south, which is Jerusalem (Josh. 15:8). Read, seek, and you will find it. Would that, when you have found it, you believe; would that you lay aside your stubbornness. Jebus is from the south, which is Jerusalem. And the Lord [said], Beginning from Jerusalem: this is, God shall come from the south. How then from a shady mountain? Read the Gospel now. From the Mount of Olives Christ ascended into heaven. Follow [the sense]. And what is clearer? You hear, "from the south": you have heard, "from the shady mountain." We recite the Law, we recite the Gospel. You have heard, Beginning from Jerusalem: hear, Through all nations, in the same prophet. Follow those words which you scorned, those words which you passed over: God shall come from the south, and the Holy One from the shady mountain: His shadow shall cover the mountains, and the earth is full of His glory (Hab. 3:3). Through all nations, therefore, beginning from Jerusalem: God shall come from the south, and the Holy One from the mountain that is shady and thick[-wooded]; that is, from the Mount of Olives, whence He ascended into heaven, whence He sent His disciples, where also, about to ascend, He said: For it is not for you to know the times, which the Father has placed in His own power; but you shall receive power from on high, and you shall be my witnesses. See how the Gospel begins: And you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in Judea and Samaria, and even to the whole earth (Acts 1:7, 8). Therefore, God — Christ — coming, both His name and the preaching of His Gospel [went out] from Jerusalem, that is, from the south; and from the shady mountain, that is, from the Mount of Olives: because the Gospel has been spread abroad through all nations. His shadow shall cover the mountains — that is, His refreshment, His protection; and the earth is full of His praise. Sing, therefore, with the whole earth, a new song; not an old song with [only] a corner of the earth.
CAPUT XVII. — 41. Donatistae Simonis Cyrenaei factum pro se interpretantes. Dicunt et aliud: Cyrenaeus, inquiunt, quidam Simon angariatus est, ut tolleret crucem Domini (Matth. XXVII, 32). Legimus: sed quid te adjuvet, volo scire. Cyrenaeus, inquit, Afer est: quare ipse angariatus est qui crucem tolleret. Ubi sit Cyrene, forte nescis: Lybia est, Pentapolis est, contigua est Africae, ad Orientem magis pertinet. Vel in distributione provinciarum Imperatorum cognosce: Imperator orientalis mittit judicem ad Cyrenen. Breviter respondeo: Ubi est pars Donati, non invenitur Cyrene; ubi est Cyrene, non invenitur pars Donati. Manifesta veritas convincit errorem. Det mihi Cyrenen, ubi est pars Donati; det mihi partem Donati, ubi est Cyrene. Manifestum est enim, fratres, in Pentapoli Ecclesiam esse catholicam, partem Donati ibi non esse. Sed securi irrideamus flendos, et fleamus irridendos. Quid dicis? Meritum Cyrenensis hujus magnum commemoras, quia tulit crucem Domini,
CHAPTER XVII. — 41. The Donatists interpreting the deed of Simon of Cyrene in their own favour. They say also another thing: a certain Simon, they say, a Cyrenian, was compelled, that he might carry the cross of the Lord (Matt. 27:32). We have read this: but I want to know how it helps you. The Cyrenian, he says, is an African: that is why it was he who was compelled to carry the cross. Perhaps you do not know where Cyrene is: it is Libya, it is the Pentapolis, it is adjacent to Africa, [but] it belongs rather to the East. Or learn it from the distribution of provinces by the Emperors: the eastern Emperor sends a judge to Cyrene. I answer briefly: where the party of Donatus is, Cyrene is not found; where Cyrene is, the party of Donatus is not found. Manifest truth convicts error. Let him give me Cyrene, where the party of Donatus is; let him give me the party of Donatus, where Cyrene is. For it is manifest, brothers, that in the Pentapolis there is the Catholic Church, [and] that the party of Donatus is not there. But let us confidently laugh at those to be wept over, and weep for those to be laughed at. What do you say? You recall the great merit of this man of Cyrene, because he carried the cross of the Lord,
Editors' notes and page, col. 294
Footnotes
(1) ‹anchor: Per omnes ergo gentes, incipientibus ab Jerusalem› · call in col 294
Hoc loco Er. et plures manuscripti addunt : Quomodo incipientibus ab Jerusalem ?
At this place Erasmus and several manuscripts add: "How, 'beginning from Jerusalem'?"
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