Migne Reading Room
PL 4 · cols. 835–870
De singularitate clericorum (opusculum suppositum)
Editors' preface
DE SINGULARITATE CLERICORUM.
ON THE SINGLE LIFE OF CLERICS.
TRACTATUS CYPRIANO PERPERAM ADSCRIPTUS, NECNON AUGUSTINO ET ORIGENI JUXTA QUOSDAM.
A TREATISE WRONGLY ASCRIBED TO CYPRIAN, AND ALSO, ACCORDING TO SOME, TO AUGUSTINE AND ORIGEN.
Promiseram quidem vobis ante tempus epistolam, filii charissimi, quae omnium morum instituta de lege commendans, summatim omnia etiam contineret, quaecumque universis clericis generaliter ad dirigendam regulam competunt disciplinae. Sed quia nunc de feminarum commoratione vulgariter inter vos quidam ad ignominiam devoluti sunt, etiam de hac re specialiter vobis, Domini correptione scribere compulsus sum, qui miserum me pro vestra negligentia cum severitate corripiens, mandare praecepit, ne clerici cum feminis commorentur. Et licet haec admonitio sola litterarum mearum auctoritate sufficeret, tamen ne me somniatorem irrideat quisquam, sicut Joseph fratres irriserunt, Scripturarum addimus
I had indeed promised you some time ago, most dear sons, a letter which, commending from the law the precepts for all conduct, would also contain in summary everything that applies to all clerics in general for directing the rule of discipline. But because now certain among you have openly sunk into disgrace over living together with women, I have been compelled by the rebuke of the Lord to write to you specially on this matter too, He Who, rebuking wretched me with severity for your negligence, commanded me to enjoin that clerics should not live together with women. And although this admonition would suffice by the sole authority of my letter, yet lest anyone should mock me as a dreamer, as his brothers mocked Joseph, we add the Scriptures'
Editors' notes and page, col. 835
Footnotes
[Above the title rule: the closing notes of the preceding work (Lectiones variantes a–c and Variorum notae under cols 835–836), cut at the foot image's top edge but legible in the column images; all are set here (Q4 2026-10-22).] (prev-a) ‹anchor: sordidissimo aere› · variant reading (preceding work), col 835 a Sic Corb. Imp. Sordidissimus aeris.
a So the Corbie manuscript; the printed editions, "sordidissimus aeris".
(prev-b) ‹anchor: de saeculo› · variant reading (preceding work), col 835 b Cum saeculo Bod. 1. Corb.
b "Cum saeculo" (with the world): Bodleian 1, Corbie.
(prev-c) ‹anchor: crimen mortale› · variant reading (preceding work), col 836 c Crimen immortale Corb.
c "Crimen immortale" (an immortal crime): Corbie.
(prev-2) ‹anchor: Ad paradisum remove› · lemma note (preceding work), col 835 XI.—Ad paradisum remove. Forte, remitte. PAMEL.
XI. "Remove to paradise." Perhaps "remitte" (send). PAMELIUS.
(prev-1) ‹anchor: Et crimen mortale› · lemma note (preceding work), col 835 Et crimen mortale. Prorsus sic lego cum altero Morelii cod. pro. immortale. PAMEL.
"And a mortal crime." I read it exactly so, with Morel's other manuscript, instead of "immortal". PAMELIUS.
(prev-3) ‹anchor: Mendaciorum mandra› · lemma note (preceding work), col 836 Mendaciorum mandra. Alius, mendacii malitia. PAMEL.
"A fold of lies." Another manuscript: "mendacii malitia" (the malice of lying). PAMELIUS.
[EDIT. OXON. NOTAE — lemma notes without call marks; numbered here in print order.] (printed under page 409)
(1) ‹anchor: De Singularitate Clericorum› · lemma note (title), col 835
De Singularitate Clericorum. Videtur circa Bedae popularis nostri tempora, quando de coelibatu Clericorum maxime fervebat praesertim in Occidente controversia, conscriptus liber; qui saeculo respondet a revelatione desumptum argumentum. Ferebatur enim, Gabrielem Angelum duodecim articulos signatos detulisse, quod conjugium Sacerdotum non esset tolerandum. Post vulgatam versionem in usu receptam, scriptum fuisse constat: nec refert quod Origenis sententiam tueri videatur auctor; siquidem hoc ad hypothesin quam susceperat, pertinebat. Rigaltius ait, Codex Fossatensis Cypriano tribuit. In Corbeiensi inscribitur, Augustini de Singulariate Clericorum.
On the Singleness of Clerics. The book seems to have been written about the time of our countryman Bede, when the controversy over the celibacy of clerics was most heated, especially in the West; and its argument, taken from a revelation, fits that age. For it was reported that the angel Gabriel had brought twelve sealed articles to the effect that the marriage of priests was not to be tolerated. It was certainly written after the Vulgate version had come into use; nor does it matter that the author seems to defend an opinion of Origen's, since that belonged to the hypothesis he had taken up. Rigault says: the Fossés manuscript attributes it to Cyprian; in the Corbie manuscript it is titled "Augustine, On the Singleness [as printed: Singulariate] of Clerics".
(printed under page 409)
(2) ‹anchor: Sed quia nunc de feminarum commoratione› · lemma note, col 835 (runs into col 836)
Sed quia nunc de feminarum commoratione. Pamelius ait, Manutius et Morellius, cum Landulpho de Columna, commemoratione. Verum prius habet Antoninus cum vet. excus. et argumento libri magis convenit. Nisi vero etiam Landulphus legeret illud de, superfluum putarem, et omitterem cum Antonino. PAMEL.
"But since now, concerning the dwelling together with women." Pamelius says: Manutius and Morel, with Landulf of Colonna, read "commemoratione" (mention). But Antoninus, with the old printed edition, has the former, and it suits the book's argument better. Indeed, did not Landulf also read that "de", I would think it superfluous and omit it with Antoninus. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 409)
(3) ‹anchor: Ad ignominiam devoluti sunt› · lemma note, col 836
Ad ignominiam devoluti sunt. Pamelius ait, Ex vitio codicis Remboldi legebatur ignominiae, duntaxat quod non placeret, reposuit Erasmus ignominiose, et illud legunt Antoninus et vet. exc. PAMEL.
"Have sunk into disgrace." Pamelius says: through a fault of Rembold's manuscript "ignominiae" was read; simply because this did not please him, Erasmus put "ignominiose" (disgracefully), and that is what Antoninus and the old printed edition read. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 409)
(4) ‹anchor: Domini correptione› · lemma note, col 836
Domini correptione. Pamelius ait, Manutius et Morellius correptione, verum prius placet obsequentia, praesertim si legamus cum Antonino, corripiens pro conveniens. PAMEL.
"By the Lord's rebuke." Pamelius says: Manutius and Morel read "correptione"; but the former pleases for its consistency, especially if we read with Antoninus "corripiens" (rebuking) instead of "conveniens" (meeting). PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 409)
Page
- running head: 835 LIBER (rest cut off at the image edge)
- marginal letters: A ‹XI. Si quis aleator Christianus›; B ‹Desine ab illis tuis›; C ‹Promiseram quidem vobis ante›; D ‹De Singularitate Clericorum. Videtur› (in the editors' notes, not set)
- old-edition numerals: (none)
- other: a full-width band stands across cols 835/836 in mid-page: the text above it in both columns is the end of the preceding work (another unit) and is not set here; the band itself (the work's title, two lines: DE SINGULARITATE CLERICORUM. / TRACTATUS … JUXTA QUOSDAM.) is now set, full width, as printed and translated, at the head of col 835's part (reopen 2026-10-22; wording read against the page by Q4)
- other: the word addimus was split at the column break and stands whole here (joined on receipt); check that the English reads whole across the break into col 836
- other: the column opens with the end of the previous work (another unit); not set here: the unit begins at Promiseram quidem
- running head: 835 LIBER 836
- marginal letters: A XI. Si quis aleator (end of the preceding work, above the band); B Desine ab illis tuis (preceding work); C Promiseram quidem vobis; D De Singularitate Clericorum (Edit. Oxon. notes at the foot)
- old-edition numerals: (none)
firmitatem: ut omnes sciant hoc etiam modo per revelationem Dominum jubere, quod litteris cognoscitur ante jussisse; nec nos esse adulterantes verbum Domini, aut volentes jactanter de revelationibus gloriari, sed sic ante conspectum Domini referendo non mentiri quod loquimur; sicut a Domino confidimus nos non audisse mendacium, praesumentes vocem apostoli Pauli protestantis: Non enim sumus, inquit, sicut plurimi adulterantes verbum Dei, sed ex sinceritate, sicut ex Deo, coram ipso in Christo loquimur. In dolore itaque maximo constituti de quibusdam putrefactis membris corporis nostri, et in gemitu jacturam lamentantes Ecclesiae, quae per segnitiem nostram redigitur per dies singulos ad nimiam paucitatem
firmness: so that all may know that the Lord now too commands by revelation what He is known from the writings to have commanded before; and that we are not adulterating the word of the Lord, nor wishing boastfully to glory in revelations, but, reporting it thus before the sight of the Lord, that we do not lie in what we say; just as we trust that we have heard no lie from the Lord, taking up the voice of the apostle Paul, who protests: For we are not, he says, like very many, adulterating the word of God, but as from sincerity, as from God, before Him we speak in Christ. Being therefore in the greatest grief over certain putrefied members of our body, and lamenting with groaning the loss of the Church, which through our sloth is being reduced day by day to an excessive paucity
Editors' notes and page, col. 836
Page
- running head: LIBER 836 (left part of the running head cut off at the image edge)
- marginal letters: A ‹tio ; censum et apparatus›; B ‹monitis erudire , puras›; C ‹mus firmitatem : ut omnes›; D ‹melius ait, Manutius› (beside the Oxford notes at the page foot)
- old-edition numerals: (none)
- other: the text of this column above the full-width band is the end of the preceding work (another unit) and is not set here; this column's part holds only its text below the band (Q5 2026-10-22)
- other: the word paucitatem was split at the column break and stands whole here (joined on receipt); check that the English reads whole across the break into col 837
- running head: 835 LIBER 836
- marginal letters: A tio; censum et apparatus (preceding work); B monitis erudire (preceding work); C mus firmitatem; D melius ait (notes at the foot)
- old-edition numerals: (none)
; credimus nos ex parte aliqua sublevari, quod diligentiae nostrae negligentia quorumdam obesse non possit, quibus numquam nostrae litterae defuerunt, quae per absentiam nostram frequentiam omnibus pensaverunt dissimulationis suae : ut unusquisque contemptor reum semetipsum conscribat, nos autem libera fronte contemptoribus exclamemus, quod Salomon confidenter exprobrat : Quoniam quidem vocabam, inquit, et non obaudiebatis : et extendebam verba mea, et non intendebatis, sed irrita faciebatis mea consilia, meis autem increpationibus non intendebatis : itaque et ego vestrae perditioni superridebo Gratulabor ergo adversum vos, cum advenerit vobis interitus, et cum advenerit vobis subito tumultus : eversio autem simul et procellae, et cum advenerit vobis pressura et expugnatio. Erit enim cum me invocaveritis, ego autem non exaudiam vos. Quaerent me mali, et non invenient : oderunt enim sapientiam. Verbum autem Domini non assumpserunt, neque voluerunt meis consiliis intendere. Spreverunt enim meas correptiones : ideoque edent viae suae fructus, et sua impietate satiabuntur.
we believe that we are relieved in some measure, in that the negligence of certain people cannot harm our diligence, to whom our letters have never been lacking, which during our absence have made good to all the frequency of their dissimulation: so that every despiser writes himself down as guilty, while we with a free brow cry out to the despisers what Solomon confidently reproaches: Since indeed I called, he says, and you did not obey; and I stretched out my words, and you did not attend, but you made my counsels void, and to my rebukes you did not attend: therefore I too will laugh at your perdition I will rejoice, then, against you, when destruction comes upon you, and when sudden tumult comes upon you: overthrow, moreover, together with storms, and when distress and assault come upon you. For it will be that when you call upon me, I will not hear you. The wicked will seek me, and will not find me: for they hated wisdom. And they did not take up the word of the Lord, nor were they willing to attend to my counsels. For they spurned my reproofs: and therefore they will eat the fruits of their own way, and will be sated with their own impiety.
Ad vos nunc mea exhortatio convertitur, quos nolumus experiri talia praecipitia ruinarum. Metuite quantum potestis ejusmodi casus exitia : et in ista subversione, labentium vos experimenta perterreant. Nimium praeceps est qui transire contendit, ubi alium conspexerit cecidisse : et vehementer infraenis est, cui non incutitur timor alio pereunte. Amator vero est salutis suae, qui evitat alienae mortis incursum. Et ipse est providus, qui sollicitus fit cladibus caeterorum, sicut Salomon approbat, dicens : Astutus videns malum puniri, vehementer erudietur. Et iterum : Cadentibus impiis justi vehementer terrebuntur. Adversaria est confidentia, quae periculis vitam suam pro certo commendat. Et lubrica spes est, quae inter fomenta peccati salvari se sperat. Incerta victoria est, inter hostilia arma pugnare. Et impossibilis liberatio est, flammis circumdari, nec ardere. Quod Salomon non negat, dicens : Quis alligabit in sinu suo ignem, vestimenta autem sua non comburet ? Aut qui ambulabit super carbones ignis : pedes vero non comburet ? Sic qui introierit ad uxorem proximi sui, non erit immunis, neque omnis qui tangit eam. Credite, quaeso vos, credite divinae fidei, quinimo quam nostrae : quia omne quidquid pollicetur, non potest fallere, dicente Domino : Facilius est, inquit, coelum et terram praeterire, quam de lege unum apicem cadere. Et iterum : Coelum et terra transibunt, verba autem mea non praeteribunt. Ipsi ergo nos fallimus, quotiens inordinaliter credimus, aestimantes per fidem nostram
To you now my exhortation turns, whom we do not wish to experience such headlong falls into ruin. Fear as much as you can the destructions of such a fall: and in this overthrow let the examples of those who slip terrify you. Too headlong is he who strives to cross over where he has seen another fall: and exceedingly unbridled is he in whom no fear is struck when another perishes. But he is a lover of his own salvation who avoids the onset of another's death. And he is prudent who is made anxious by the disasters of others, as Solomon approves, saying: The shrewd man, seeing the wicked man punished, will be greatly instructed. And again: When the impious fall, the just will be greatly terrified. Hostile is the confidence which commits its life to dangers as though to a certainty. And slippery is the hope which hopes to be saved amid the kindlings of sin. Uncertain is the victory of fighting amid hostile arms. And impossible is the deliverance of being surrounded by flames and not burning. Which Solomon does not deny, saying: Who will bind fire in his bosom, and yet not burn his clothes? Or who will walk upon coals of fire, and yet not burn his feet? So he who goes in to his neighbour's wife will not be free of guilt, nor anyone who touches her. Believe, I beg you, believe the divine faithfulness rather than ours: for whatever it promises cannot deceive, as the Lord says: It is easier, He says, for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fall. And again: Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away. We therefore deceive ourselves whenever we believe in a disordered way, supposing through our own faith
Editors' notes and page, col. 837
Footnotes
[EDIT. OXON. NOTAE — lemma notes without call marks; numbered here in print order. Lemmata not visible in the page-foot image are placed by inference.] (printed under page 410)
(1) ‹anchor: Reum semetipsum conscribat› · lemma note, col 837 (lemma above the image)
Reum semetipsum conscribat. Pamelius ait, Etiam hic Remboldus reposuit, rerum corruptissime; nam illud habent vet. excus. Gravius et Morelius. PAMEL.
"Should enrol himself as guilty." Pamelius says: here too Rembold put "rerum", most corruptly; for the old printed edition, Gravius and Morel have the former. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 410)
(2) ‹anchor: Cum advenerit vobis interitus› · lemma note, col 837 (lemma above the image)
Cum advenerit vobis interitus. Pamelius ait, Nec vet. excus. Neque Remboldus hoc habent, sed est apud 70. Quare recte quoque ex conjectura Cauchii adjecimus, et illud quod sequitur. PAMEL.
"When destruction comes upon you." Pamelius says: neither the old printed edition nor Rembold has this, but it is in the Seventy. So we have rightly added it, on Cauchius's conjecture, along with what follows. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 410)
(3) ‹anchor: Adversaria est confidentia› · lemma note, col 837
Adversaria est confidentia. Pamelius ait, Ita etiam ille rectius, quam vulg. adversa. PAMEL.
"Confidence is an adversary." Pamelius says: so he too reads, more correctly than the common text's "adversa". PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 410)
(4) ‹anchor: quinimo quam nostrae› · lemma note, col 837
Quinimo quam nostrae. Pamelius ait, Accipit quinimo pro potius; nam illud plus: neque habent vet.exc. neque Remboldus, sed primus Erasmus addidit. PAMEL.
"Rather than our own." Pamelius says: he takes "quinimo" for "potius" (rather); for the word "plus" is in neither the old printed edition nor Rembold, but Erasmus first added it. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 410)
(5) ‹anchor: suam contulit gloriam› · lemma note, col 838
Quae unicuique homini suam contulit gloriam. Pamelius ait, Remboldus vitio operarum habebat suo, quod cum non quadraret, reposuit Erasmus, undique pro unicuique; at prius genuinum est. PAMEL.
"Which has conferred on each man his own glory." Pamelius says: through a printers' error Rembold had "suo"; as this did not fit, Erasmus put "undique" (on every side) instead of "unicuique"; but the former is genuine. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 410)
Page
- running head: 837 DE SINGULARITATE CLE (cut off at the image edge)
- marginal letters: A ‹citatem ; credimus nos ex parte aliqua sublevari,›; B ‹cum advenerit vobis pressura et expugnatio. Erit›; C ‹ipse est providus, qui sollicitus fit cladibus caetero-›; D ‹strae : quia omne quidquid pollicetur, non potest fal-›
- old-edition numerals: (none)
- other: column begins with the fragment "citatem", the rest of a word broken from the previous column; no full stop is printed between "superridebo" and "Gratulabor", set as printed; "oderunt" shows a mark over the o, taken as a speck; "malum;puniri" shows a speck between the words, set "malum puniri"; "fidei" rendered "faithfulness" (God's fidelity to His promises); the full-width line "EDIT. OXON. NOT[AE]" and the editors' notes below it (Commentarius) at the page foot are not set here
legis praecepta mutari: ut inter masculos et feminas speremus passim castitatem immobilem custodiri.
the precepts of the law to be changed: so that between men and women we may hope that immovable chastity is everywhere kept.
Difficile quis venenum bibet et vivet. Verendum est dormienti in ripa, ne cadat, cum dicat Apostolus: Qui se putat stare, videat ne cadat. In hac parte expedit plus bene timere, quam male fidere. Et utilius est infirmum se homo cognoscat, ut fortis existat; quam fortis videri velit, et infirmus emergat. De qua re praesumptores objurgat Apostolus, dicens: Si quis putat se aliquid esse, cum nihil sit, seipsum implanat. Pro certo imp⟨l⟩anator proprius suam animam decepit, qui non cavendo contraria, noxiis rebus semetipse commi⟨s⟩erit. Ille autem tutius sibi consulit, qui circa malos semper infidus species quascumque noxias extimescit. Quorum distantiam Salomon disseruit, dicens: Sapiens timendo declinabit ab omni malo: insipiens autem confidens sui miscetur iniquo. Magnum sapientiae divinae consilium inventum est, ubi timoris auxilio liberemur. Magna compendia providentiae, ut aliquando fiat virtus et victoria per timorem. Magna remedia Dominus contulit ad salutem, ut habeat et timidus laudem, sicut Salomon repetit, dicens: Beatus vir qui veretur omnia per metum. Inaestimabilis Domini misericordia, quae unicuique homini suam contulit gloriam: et incomprehensibilis pietas, quae secundum pugnas dedit et palmas: ut confitendo masculorum saevitiam superemus, et timendo feminarum blandimenta vincamus; dummodo et de virtute et de infirmitate super nos Dominus glorias operetur: ut in omnibus et per omnia omnipotentem semetipse testetur, dividens differentias triumphorum; ut tam consiliis quam viribus a nobis bella vincantur, ne si vicerimus solius fidei fortitudine, contra Salomonem vacua essent opera sapientiae. Nunc igitur sapientiae arma gestanda, ubi feminei et virilis sexus certamen indicitur. Unde Salomon sic instruit, dicens, Prudentiam, inquit, fac notam tibi, ut te servet a muliere aliena et pessima. Videte nunc prudentiam in isto bello, non fidem nobis datam esse victricem, quae nos timiditatis remedio liberasset: et contemplamini quae sunt modo arma sumenda, si vultis habere legis auxilia. Estote timidi, ut sitis intrepidi, et licet timor in certamine infirmitas esse videatur; tamen secundum verbum Apostoli, virtus in infirmitate perficitur. Separamini deprecor, sepamini contagione pestifera.
Hardly will anyone drink poison and live. One who sleeps on a riverbank must fear lest he fall, since the Apostle says: Let him who thinks he stands see that he does not fall. In this matter it is more expedient to fear well than to trust badly. And it is more useful that a man should recognize himself as weak, so that he may stand strong, than that he should wish to seem strong and turn out weak. On this account the Apostle rebukes the presumptuous, saying: If anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Certainly the deceiver of himself has deceived his own soul, who, by not guarding against what is adverse, has committed himself to harmful things. But he takes counsel more safely for himself who, ever distrustful towards the wicked, dreads every harmful appearance whatsoever. Solomon set forth the difference between these, saying: The wise man by fearing will turn aside from all evil; but the fool, confident in himself, mingles with the wicked. A great counsel of divine wisdom has been found, whereby we may be freed by the help of fear. Great are the short ways of providence, that sometimes virtue and victory come about through fear. Great remedies has the Lord bestowed for salvation, that even the fearful man may have praise, as Solomon repeats, saying: Blessed is the man who reveres all things through fear. Inestimable is the mercy of the Lord, which has bestowed on every man his own glory; and incomprehensible His goodness, which has given palms according to the battles: so that by confessing we may overcome the savagery of men, and by fearing we may conquer the blandishments of women; provided that the Lord works glories over us both from strength and from weakness: so that in all things and through all things He may attest Himself almighty, distinguishing the differences of triumphs; so that wars may be won by us as much by counsels as by strength, lest, if we conquered by the strength of faith alone, the works of wisdom should be empty, contrary to Solomon. Now therefore the arms of wisdom are to be borne, where a contest between the female and the male sex is proclaimed. Hence Solomon instructs thus, saying, Make prudence, he says, known to yourself, that it may keep you from the strange and most wicked woman. See now that in this war it is prudence, not faith, that has been given to us as conqueror, which would free us by the remedy of timidity: and consider what arms are now to be taken up, if you wish to have the aids of the law. Be timid, so that you may be intrepid; and although fear in a contest seems to be weakness, yet according to the word of the Apostle, strength is made perfect in weakness. Separate yourselves, I beg, separate yourselves from the pestilent contagion.
Quantumcumque fuerit unusquisque longius ab adversis tantum non sentit adversa. Minus voluptatibus stimulatur, qui non est ubi frequentia est voluptatum. Et minus avaritiae molestias patitur, qui divitias non videt, si admittimus Apostolum pollicentem
However much farther each one has been from adverse things, by so much he does not feel adversities. He is less goaded by pleasures who is not where there is a throng of pleasures. And he suffers less the vexations of avarice who does not see riches, if we accept the Apostle promising
Editors' notes and page, col. 838
Page
- running head: [DE SINGU]LARITATE CLERICORUM. 838 (cut at left edge)
- marginal letters: A ‹legis praecepta mutari›; B ‹cens: Sapiens timendo›; C ‹tentem semetipse testetur›; D ‹mini contagione pestifera›
- old-edition numerals: (none)
- other: column begins mid-sentence with "legis"; ends with "pollicen-" split at the column break; imp⟨l⟩anator and commi⟨s⟩erit have damaged type; contemplamini and masculorum read through blur (UNSURE); full-width notes heading "[...E]DIT. OXON. NOTAE." at the page foot not set; Pamelius notes at the foot left for the later pass; left column (837) not set
- other: the word pollicentem was split at the column break and stands whole here (joined on receipt); check that the English reads whole across the break into col 839
: Qui volunt, inquit, divites fieri, incidunt in tentationem et in muscipulas, et desideria multa et inutila et noxia, quae mergunt hominem in perditionem et in interitum. Non aliter tentationibus subjacet qui junctus est feminae ; in qua nihil est aliud nisi quod feriat proximantem. Aculeus peccati facta est forma feminea ; et mortis conditio non aliunde surrexit, nisi de muliebri substantia. Quod Salomon ad nostram sollicitudinem memorat, dicens : A muliere factum est initium peccati, propter hanc omnes morimur. Inde mortales tenemur, nec timemus. Quid si jam mortales essemus ? Per mulierem liberavit nos equidem Christus, sed unde adhuc morimur formidare debemus. Tunc liberatio ipsa constabit in femina, si a nobis mors revincatur, quae per feminam venerat. Caeterum si adhuc per mulierem circa nos scandala dominantur, liberationis Christi fecimus pro certo dispendium. Siquidem in futurum spes ista libertatis manet, quam fidei nostrae Christum credimus contulisse : ut tunc nobis omnino mulier non noceat, cum et ipsa mors fuerit evacuata. Nam si modo putamus nos intentabiles esse muliebribus jaculis ; quid ergo restat coelestibus regnis ? Non immerito tales sensus Apostolus increpat, dicens : Jam satiati estis, jam divites facti estis : sine nobis regnatis, et utinam regnetis. Tempus ergo luctaminis adhuc geritur, et mors per feminam adhuc usque grassatur. Mentior, si non videmus exinde interitus plurimorum. Quanti et quales Episcopi et clerici simul et laici, post confessionum victoriarumque calcata certamina, post magnalia et signa vel mirabilia usquequaque monstrata, noscuntur cum his omnibus naufragasse, cum volunt in navi fragili navigare ? Quantos leones domuit una muliebris infirmitas delicta, quae cum sit vilis et misera, de magnis efficit praedam ? Quod Salomon loquitur, dicens : Pretium meretricis tantum est unius panis, mulier autem pretiosas animas capit.
Those who wish, he says, to become rich fall into temptation and into snares, and into many desires, useless and harmful, which plunge a man into perdition and into destruction. In no other way is he subject to temptations who is joined to a woman; in whom there is nothing else but what strikes the one who draws near. The feminine form has become the sting of sin; and the condition of death arose from nowhere else than from the substance of woman. This Solomon records for our watchfulness, saying: From a woman was the beginning of sin made; because of her we all die. Thence we are held mortal, and we do not fear. What if we were already mortal? Through a woman Christ has indeed freed us, but we ought to dread that from which we still die. Then will the liberation itself be established in the woman, if death, which had come through a woman, is overcome by us in turn. But if scandals still hold sway around us through a woman, we have certainly brought loss upon Christ's liberation. For indeed that hope of liberty remains for the future, which we believe Christ has conferred on our faith: that then a woman may not harm us at all, when death itself also has been made void. For if we think now that we cannot be tempted by the darts of women, what then remains for the heavenly kingdoms? Not undeservedly does the Apostle rebuke such notions, saying: Already you are sated, already you have become rich; without us you reign, and would that you might reign. The time of struggle, therefore, is still being waged, and death through woman still rages even now. I lie, if we do not see from this the destruction of very many. How many and what manner of bishops and clerics, and laymen as well, after the contests of confessions and victories trodden through, after mighty works and signs or wonders shown everywhere, are known to have suffered shipwreck with all these things, when they wish to sail in a fragile ship? How many lions has a single womanly weakness, gone astray, tamed, which, though it is vile and wretched, makes a prey of great men? This Solomon speaks of, saying: The price of a harlot is only one loaf, but a woman captures precious souls.
Ante nos ista tractantur, et nullis terroribus coercemur, quid faceremus, si opinionibus tantummodo gestas historias audiremus ? Sed haec est semper incredulitas humanae duritiae, ut non solum, audiendo, sed etiam videndo non credat alteros interisse, nisi et se ipsam viderit interire ; nec sociorum mortibus quatitur, dum illos promeritos aut invalidos opinatur. Se autem multum mereri, aut multum valere fiducialiter putat, nesciens praeberi cunctis exempla, cum fuerint quibusdam irrogata supplicia, sicut Dominus in Evangelio proponit et dicit : Putatis quod
These things are dealt with before our eyes, and we are restrained by no terrors; what would we do if we heard of histories enacted only in report? But this is ever the incredulity of human hardness, that not only by hearing but even by seeing it does not believe that others have perished, unless it sees itself also perish; nor is it shaken by the deaths of companions, while it judges them deserving of it or weak. But it confidently thinks that it itself deserves much or is very strong, not knowing that examples are furnished to all when punishments have been inflicted on some, as the Lord sets forth in the Gospel and says: Do you think that
Editors' notes and page, col. 839
Footnotes
[EDIT. OXON. NOTAE — lemma notes without call marks; numbered here in print order. Lemmata not visible in the page-foot image are placed by inference.] (printed under page 411)
(1) ‹anchor: Et in muscipulas› · lemma note, col 839 (lemma above the image)
Et in muscipulas. Pamelius ait, Omisimus vocem diaboli, quod neque vet. excus. neque Remboldus habeant, neque alibi Cyprianus, tamen ubique muscipulam legit. PAMEL.
"And into the mousetraps." Pamelius says: we have left out the word "of the devil", because neither the old printed edition nor Rembold has it, nor does Cyprian elsewhere, though he reads "mousetrap" everywhere. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 411)
(2) ‹anchor: de magnis efficit praedam› · lemma note, col 839
De magnis efficit praedam. Pamelius ait, Antoninus addit ejus pro suam; antiquus vero alter codex Morellii longe aliter legit, de magnis tantum et fortibus suam mixtam efficit praedam. PAMEL.
"Makes a prey of great men." Pamelius says: Antoninus adds "ejus" in place of "suam"; but Morel's other, ancient manuscript reads very differently: "of great and strong men alone it makes its mixed prey". PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 411)
(3) ‹anchor: promeritos aut invalidos opinatur› · lemma note, col 839 (runs into col 840)
Dum illos promeritos aut invalidos opinatur. Pamelius ait, Non male etiam Erasmus, emeritos, nisi sequeretur, si autem multum mereri, quare illud ex vet. excus. et Remboldo reposuimus. PAMEL.
"While it supposes them to have deserved it, or to be weak." Pamelius says: Erasmus's "emeritos" (worn out) would also not be bad, were it not followed by "but if [it supposes itself] to deserve much"; so we have restored the former from the old printed edition and Rembold. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 411)
(4) ‹anchor: O quam inordinabilis› · lemma note, col 839 or 840 (lemma above the image)
O quam inordinabilis. Pamelius ait, Sic etiam Antoninus. Vet. excus. vero et Remboldus inordinalis, locus obscurus. Conjicit autem Gravius legendum lenocinium pro latrocinium, sed hoc non satisfacit. PAMEL.
"O how disorderly." Pamelius says: so also Antoninus; but the old printed edition and Rembold have "inordinalis"; an obscure passage. Gravius conjectures that "lenocinium" (enticement) should be read for "latrocinium" (robbery), but this does not satisfy. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 411)
(5) ‹anchor: Causale est omne› · lemma note, col 840
Causale est omne quod feminae est. Pamelius ait, Erasmus Casuale, at illud vet. exc. et Remboldus. Alludere videtur ad illud: Semper habet lites, alternaque jurgia lectus. PAMEL.
"All that belongs to a woman is a cause of strife." Pamelius says: Erasmus has "Casuale" (chancy), but the old printed edition and Rembold have the former. He seems to allude to the line: "The bed always holds quarrels and mutual wrangling." PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 411)
Page
- running head: 839 LIBER (rest of head cut off at image edge)
- marginal letters: A ‹tem : Qui volunt›; B ‹venerat. Caeterum si adhuc›; C ‹certamina, post magnalia›; D ‹natur. Se autem multum›
- old-edition numerals: (none)
- other: column begins with word fragment "tem" from previous column, set as printed; "coelestibus" read as œ ligature, UNSURE against æ; the gutter letters A–D are recorded for this column; the full-width heading "EDIT. OXON. NOT[AE]" stands above the page-foot notes, which are not set (later pass); right-hand column (840) is cut off and not set
hi Galilaei prae omnibus Galilaeis fuerint peccatores, qui talia passi sunt? Non. Dico vobis: Nisi poenitentiam habueritis, similiter perietis, sicut illi supra quos cecidit turris in Siloa, et occidit eos. Putatis quoniam et ipsi debitores fuerunt prae omnibus hominibus habitantibus in Hierusalem? Non. Dico vobis: Si non poenitueritis, similiter perietis.
these Galileans were sinners beyond all the Galileans, who suffered such things? No. I say to you: Unless you have repentance, you will likewise perish, as those upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and killed them. Do you think that they too were debtors beyond all the men dwelling in Jerusalem? No. I say to you: If you do not repent, you will likewise perish.
Miramur si Adam per Evam seductus est, quem nulla morientium exempla praecesserant, et nisi jussio una constrinxerat, cum modo nos nec innumerabiles mortes, nec infinita jussa compescant. Quibus convenienter dicitur secundum increpationem Domini: Si Adam vidisset mortes, quae factae in vobis, olim in cilicio et cinere poenitentiam egisset. Dico autem vobis, quoniam Adae tolerabilius erit in die judicii, quam vobis. Longe sit pestis illa, et lues, et clandestina pernicies. O quam inordinabilis feminae propinquitas jaculatur, cujus vicina est delictorum latrocinium Non est in hac societate sinceritas approbabilis, quae collisiones habet velut quibusdam fluctibus turbulentas. In hac familiaritate non habitat amica concordia, quoniam non nisi discordantes inimicitias creat. Fecit equidem viro Dominus mulierem adjutricem, sed serpentis invidia personam sumpsit hostilem. Quod si illa de viro suo nata, usque hodie ipsum cui jungitur, tentat: quanto magis illa quae copulatur, nulla lege conjuncta? Et si illi qui duo sunt in carne una concreti, tentationibus mutuis invicem pungunt, quid facient hi qui in una carne nec nati nec juncti sunt? Praesertim quia nec Deum jam invocare permittitur, qui charitate alterius avocatur, nec sinitur cogitare divina, qui sibi quaesivit cui exiberet domesticam curam. Propter quod sic Apostolus consulit, dicens: Volo vos sine sollicitudine esse. Qui sine uxore est, sollicitus est quomodo placeat Deo: qui autem habet uxorem, cogitat quae sunt hujus mundi, quomodo placeat uxori. Quid est nunc quod in hac conjunctione delectet, in qua sunt solae pugnae? aut quae utilitas favet, ubi non sunt officja conjugalia, quando nec ipsa possunt esse secura.
We marvel that Adam was seduced through Eve, whom no examples of the dying had gone before, and whom only a single command had bound, when now neither innumerable deaths nor countless commands restrain us. To whom it is fittingly said, according to the Lord's rebuke: If Adam had seen the deaths which have been done among you, he would long ago have done penance in sackcloth and ashes. But I say to you that it will be more tolerable for Adam on the day of judgement than for you. Far be that plague, and pestilence, and hidden ruin. O how unruly is the nearness of a woman as it hurls its darts, whose neighbour is the brigandage of sins. There is no commendable sincerity in this fellowship, which holds clashes made turbulent as if by certain waves. In this familiarity friendly concord does not dwell, since it creates nothing but discordant enmities. The Lord indeed made woman a helper for man, but through the envy of the serpent she took on a hostile character. But if she who was born of her own husband tempts to this day the very man to whom she is joined, how much more she who is coupled, joined by no law? And if those who are grown together as two in one flesh prick one another with mutual temptations, what will those do who were neither born nor joined in one flesh? Especially since he is no longer permitted to call upon God who is called away by love of another, nor is he allowed to think on divine things who has sought for himself one to whom he might show domestic care. For which reason the Apostle counsels thus, saying: I want you to be without anxiety. He who is without a wife is anxious how he may please God; but he who has a wife thinks of the things which are of this world, how he may please his wife. What is there now in this union that may give delight, in which there are only fights? Or what advantage favours it, where there are no conjugal duties, when not even these can be safe.
Causale est omne quod feminae est: et copulatio ejus semper infesta est. Foedere suo magnas molestias praestat; et cui adhaeserit contra fas, insanabilem ingerit plagam. De carbonibus scintillae dissiliunt, de ferro rubigo nutritur, morbos aspides sibilant, et mulier fundit concupiscentiae pestilentiam, quam Salomon sic comparat, dicens: De vestimentis procedit tinea, et a muliere iniquitas viri. Volo
Everything that belongs to a woman is a cause of dispute, and union with her is always hostile. By its compact it furnishes great troubles; and on whomever she has fastened against what is right, she inflicts an incurable wound. From coals sparks leap out, from iron rust is nourished, asps hiss out diseases, and a woman pours forth the pestilence of concupiscence, which Solomon compares thus, saying: From garments comes the moth, and from a woman the iniquity of a man. I want
Editors' notes and page, col. 840
Page
- running head: LIBER
- marginal letters: A hi Galilaei prae omnibus; B judicii, quam vobis; C Deum jam invocare; D liunt, de ferro rubigo
- old-edition numerals: (none)
- other: "latrocinium Non est" printed without stop, set as printed; second "Non." in paragraph 1 is faintly printed (looks like Nen.), set Non.; "morientium" has a blemish on the e, read as printed; the heading "...T. OXON. NOTAE." over the editors' notes at the page foot is part of the foot apparatus, not set; left-column fragments belong to column 839, not set
scire quae sit affectio ista communis, quae morbi dissensio semper ambigua, quae propositum suum nutantibus consiliis impugnando conturbat. Ut quid sibi adhibuit mulierem qui ducere contempsit uxorem? Omnis qui non manducaverit carnem, ut quid habitationem suam carnis apparatibus replet? Et qui non biberit vinum, quid videndi oblectatione perfruitur? Quasi non aliquoties videndo nec gustando copia esculentorum animus pascitur, et vini odoriferi sola fragrantia suscitatur saepius animus. Quid per hypocrisin vult ab hominibus abstinens dici, et in secreto carnibus et ebrietate distendi? Habent multi divitias quas suis usibus negant, sed pro cupiditate conservant; quibus si nulla cupiditas inhaesisset, nec cupiditatis insignia possiderent. At vero quia cupiditate possessi sunt perfruuntur animo quod usu non tangunt. Ita is qui despexit vinculum nuptiarum, et aliter vinculis femineis obligatur; quamvis nullo concubitu misceatur, desiderio tamen, visu, colloquio, conjunctione semper oblectatur. Nam si desiderium feminae non haberet, numquam feminam suis oblectamentis assumeret.
to know what this common affection is, what is this ever-doubtful dissension of a disease, which, by assailing its own purpose with wavering counsels, throws it into confusion. Why has he who scorned to marry a wife taken a woman to himself? Everyone who will not eat meat, why does he fill his dwelling with the trappings of meat? And he who will not drink wine, why does he enjoy the delight of looking at it? As though the mind were not sometimes fed by seeing, without tasting, an abundance of eatables, and the mind is quite often roused by the mere fragrance of sweet-smelling wine. Why does he wish through hypocrisy to be called abstinent by men, and in secret to be distended with meats and drunkenness? Many have riches which they deny to their own use but keep out of covetousness; if no covetousness had clung to them, they would not possess the tokens of covetousness either. But because they are possessed by covetousness, they enjoy in mind what they do not touch in use. So he who has despised the bond of marriage is bound in another way by the bonds of women; although he is joined in no intercourse, yet he is always delighted by desire, by sight, by conversation, by companionship. For if he had no desire for a woman, he would never take a woman to himself for his delights.
Immo vero insuper mihi suspectum placitum dedit: qui non legitimam duxit, et legitimam recusavit: nisi fallor, in publico argumentatus est hominibus promittere sanctitatem, et in occulto sine uxore non esse. Duo argumenta sanctitatis et libidinis hinc et inde miranda sunt, quae utraque invicem tegunt, et utraque invicem produnt. Ingeniosus eunuchus et moechus invidet sibi dum consulit, et dum quaerit utrumque, neutrum facit; ut sanctus minime deputetur, qui non vera conjunctione perfruatur, cum Paulus apostolus dicat: Alligatus es uxori? ne quaesieris solutionem. Solutus es ab uxore? ne quaesieris uxorem. Sed consentio non esse castitatis hujus pudicitiam violatam: suspiciosis tamen malam porrigit famam; et pudicitiae bonum frustra intrinsecus laborioso agone custodit; qui illud forinsecus efficit infamari, destruens magisterium Pauli providentis pariter et monentis: Ut quid, inquit, libertas mea judicatur ab infideli conscientia? Si ergo gratiae participo: ut quid blasphemor pro eo quod gratias ago? Pejus est quam moechia, continentiam ducere criminosam, et infamem facere sanctimoniam. Blasphemiam ingerit religioni quam colit, qui quod confitetur, non ante omnes impleverit; ne Christianitas credatur esse fallacia, et moechatio videatur esse sanctitatis velamento vestita. Propter quod Dominus in Evangelio sic praemonet, dicens: Sic luceat lumen vestrum coram hominibus, ut videntes
Nay rather, moreover, he has presented me with a decision open to suspicion: he who has not married a lawful wife, and has refused a lawful one, has, unless I am mistaken, contrived in public to promise holiness to men, and in secret not to be without a wife. Two proofs, of holiness and of lust, are to be wondered at on this side and on that, which both cover each other and both betray each other. The ingenious eunuch and adulterer begrudges himself while he consults his interest, and while he seeks both, achieves neither; so that he is by no means reckoned holy, who does not enjoy a true union, since the apostle Paul says: Are you bound to a wife? do not seek release. Are you released from a wife? do not seek a wife. But I grant that the modesty of this chastity has not been violated: yet he holds out an evil report to the suspicious; and in vain does he guard the good of modesty inwardly with toilsome struggle, who causes it to be defamed outwardly, destroying the teaching of Paul, who both foresees and warns: Why, he says, is my liberty judged by an unbelieving conscience? If then I partake of grace, why am I blasphemed for that for which I give thanks? It is worse than adultery to make continence a matter of accusation and to make sanctity infamous. He heaps blasphemy on the religion that he practises, who has not fulfilled before all what he professes; lest Christianity be believed to be a deceit, and adultery appear to be clothed with the veil of holiness. Wherefore the Lord in the Gospel forewarns thus, saying: So let your light shine before men, that, seeing
Editors' notes and page, col. 841
Footnotes
[EDIT. OXON. NOTAE — lemma notes without call marks; numbered here in print order. Lemmata not visible in the page-foot image are placed by inference. Signature line at foot of col 841: "PATROL. IV. S. CYPRIAN."; at foot of col 842: "27".] (printed under page 412)
(1) ‹anchor: Omnis qui non manducaverit carnem› · lemma note, col 841 (lemma above the image)
Omnis qui non manducaverit carnem. Videntur ea aetate clerici a carnibus et vino abstinuisse. PAMEL.
"Everyone who has not eaten meat." In that age clerics seem to have abstained from meat and wine. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 412)
(2) ‹anchor: Videndi oblectatione perfruitur› · lemma note, col 841 (lemma above the image)
Videndi oblectatione perfruitur. Sic lego cum vetere excus. pro vini, neutrum habet Remboldus. PAMEL.
"Enjoys the delight of seeing." So I read with the old printed edition, instead of "vini" (of wine); Rembold has neither. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 412)
(3) ‹anchor: suspectum placitum› · lemma note, col 841
Suspectum placitum. Placitum pro decretum. Solus enim Manut. placidum. PAMEL.
"A suspect resolution." "Placitum" stands for "decretum" (decree). Manutius alone has "placidum". PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 412)
(4) ‹anchor: qui illud forinsecus efficit infamari› · lemma note, col 841 (runs into col 842)
Qui illud forinsecus efficit infamari. Ita ex Antonino, et quodam Morellii cod. pro quod forinsecus; legit etiam ille codex permittit pro efficit. PAMEL.
"Who causes it to be defamed outwardly." So from Antoninus and one of Morel's manuscripts, instead of "quod forinsecus"; that manuscript also reads "permittit" (allows) for "efficit" (causes). PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 412)
(5) ‹anchor: Blasphemiam ingerit religioni› · lemma note, col 841
Blasphemiam ingerit religioni quam colit. Sic optime quidam Morellii codex, pro contulit. PAMEL.
"Brings blasphemy upon the religion he practises." So, excellently, one of Morel's manuscripts, instead of "contulit". PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 412)
(6) ‹anchor: senectute dignus› · lemma note, col 842
Senectute quidem dignus. Adjicimus quidem, ex vet. cod. Nam legitur in Machabaeis. PAMEL.
"Indeed worthy of old age." We add "quidem" from the old manuscript, for it is read in Maccabees. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 412)
Page
- running head: 841 DE SINGULARITATE CLE (cut off at the image edge)
- marginal letters: A scire quae sit affectio; B tate possessi sunt perfruuntur; C utrumque, neutrum facit; D qui quod confitetur, non ante
- old-edition numerals: (none)
- other: column ends mid-word "vi-" (videant) broken across the column break; full-width heading "EDIT. OXON. NOT[AE]" above the page-foot notes, cut off at the right edge, not set; editors' notes (Omnis qui non manducaverit carnem...) and signature "PATROL. IV. S. CYPRIAN." left for the later pass/omitted; stray mark after "Ut quid," in "Ut quid, inquit" ignored
opera vestra bona, magnificent Patrem vestrum qui in coelis est. Hoc sequitur et Paulus apostolus, dicens: Non ergo blasphemetur bonum vestrum. Et iterum: Providentes bona non tantum coram Deo, sed etiam coram hominibus. Et alio loco: Sive ergo manducatis, sive bibitis, sive aliud quid facitis, omnia in gloriam Dei facite. Et estote sine scandalo Judaeis, et Graecis, et Ecclesiae Dei, sicut et ego per omnia omnibus placeo.
your good works, they may magnify your Father Who is in heaven. The apostle Paul also follows this, saying: Therefore let not your good be blasphemed. And again: Providing good things not only before God, but also before men. And in another place: Whether therefore you eat, or drink, or do anything else, do all things to the glory of God. And be without offence to Jews, and to Greeks, and to the Church of God, as I also please all men in all things.
Sed opponitur forsan, quid est quod ipse iterum dixerit? Si hominibus placere vellem, Christi servus non essem. Numquam se quaecumque dicta legis excludunt, sed certis locis responsa universa defixa sunt. Illic placere hominibus non licet, ubi voluntas hominum non capit Domini voluntatem. Ubi vero acceptant homines quod ad gloriam proficit Dei; innotescere omnibus ipse Paulus apostolus praecepit. Unusquisque, inquit, nostrum, proximo suo placeat ad bonam aedificationem. Quale ergo praemium sanctitatis exspectat, qui non solum blasphemiam sanctitatis ab infidelibus provocat, sed etiam fidelibus perniciosum praebet exemplar; ut infirmi sub praetextu dilectionis subtiliter fornicentur, et pudicus impudicissimae castitatis praebeat magisterium, destruens quod Paulus apostolus comminatur: Periit, inquit, frater infirmus in tua conscientia, propter quem Christus passus est? Sic autem peccantes in fratres, et percutientes conscientiam eorum infirmam, in Christum peccatis. Et quidem non hoc juvenibus tantum, sed et senibus congruit, fratrum imbecillitati consulere; ne senectus perire provocet juventutem, ex qua debent omnia salutaria documenta procedere: sicut Eleazarus in libro Machabaeorum profitetur et dicit: Praemitti malo in infernum, quam patrias leges deserere. Non enim aetate nostra dignum est fingere; ut multi adolescentium arbitrati Eleazarum nonaginta annorum, transisse ad vitam alienigenarum, et ipsi propter meam simulationem, et propter modicum et corruptibile tempus vitae, per me seducantur, et odium ac maculam senectuti meae acquiram. Ille maluit vitam suam tormentis objicere, quam cuiquam magister perditionis existere: et nos ubi nulla tormenta sunt, fluxibus solis, nolumus salvandos fratres anteponere: nec contenti sumus sine ullis cruciatibus tam nobis prodesse quam caeteris, cum ille noluit vivere moriturus: sicut inferius prosecutus est; dicens: Quamobrem fortiter vita excedens, senectute dignus apparebo, adolescentibus quidem exemplum forte relinquam, ut prompto animo ac fortiter pro gravibus et sanctis legibus honestae morti succedant. Cum
But perhaps it is objected: what is it that he himself said in turn? If I wished to please men, I would not be the servant of Christ. The sayings of the law, whatever they are, never exclude one another, but all their answers are fixed to definite places. There it is not permitted to please men, where the will of men does not admit the will of the Lord. But where men accept what advances the glory of God, the apostle Paul himself commanded that one become known to all. Let each one of us, he says, please his neighbour for good edification. What reward of holiness, then, does he expect who not only provokes blasphemy against holiness from unbelievers, but also offers a pernicious example to the faithful, so that the weak commit fornication subtly under the pretext of love, and the chaste man gives instruction in a most unchaste chastity, destroying what the apostle Paul threatens: Has the weak brother perished, he says, through your conscience, for whom Christ suffered? But in thus sinning against the brethren and striking their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. And indeed it befits not the young only but also the old to take thought for the weakness of the brethren, lest old age provoke youth to perish, old age from which all wholesome teachings ought to proceed: as Eleazar in the book of the Maccabees professes and says: I prefer to be sent ahead into the underworld rather than to desert the ancestral laws. For it is not worthy of our age to feign, so that many of the young, thinking that Eleazar at ninety years of age had gone over to the life of foreigners, should themselves also, on account of my pretence and on account of a little and corruptible time of life, be led astray through me, and I should acquire hatred and a stain upon my old age. He preferred to expose his life to torments rather than to become a teacher of perdition to anyone; and we, where there are no torments, are unwilling to set the brethren who are to be saved before mere passing pleasures; nor are we content, without any tortures, to benefit ourselves as much as others, when he refused to live though he was about to die: as he went on to say further below, saying: Wherefore, departing this life bravely, I shall appear worthy of old age, and shall indeed leave to the young a strong example, so that with ready mind and bravely they may go to an honourable death for the weighty and holy laws. When
Editors' notes and page, col. 842
Page
- running head: [DE SINGU]LARITATE CLERICORUM. 842 (left edge cut off in the image)
- marginal letters: A ‹dentes opera vestra bona›; B ‹ptant homines quod ad gloriam›; C ‹perire provocet juventutem›; D ‹turus : sicut inferius›
- old-edition numerals: (none)
- other: column begins with the fragment "dentes", the end of a word (presumably videntes) broken from col. 841, rendered "seeing"; "ergo" in "Non ergo blasphemetur" printed with stray accent marks, set plain; stray mark after "praemium" ignored; "fluxibus solis" rendered "mere passing pleasures", UNSURE; full-width heading "[...E]DIT. OXON. NOTAE." above the foot notes not set (cut off at left edge); editors' notes at the page foot (Pamel.) and signature "27" not set
hoc etiam laicos deceat, ne aut extraneis occasionem blasphemandi, aut fraternitati opportunitatem fornicationis opponant; tum maxime clericos vehementer necessitas ista constringit; quibus aut religio blasphemata, aut fraternitas perdita poenas duplices irrogabit. Nec invenient in judicio Domini ullum omnino solatium, qui alienigenis et fratribus peccandi fomitem ministrarunt. Propter quod sic Paulus apostolus Titum instruit, dicens: Teipsum bonorum factorum praebens exemplum in doctrina, in integritate, in gravitate, in verbo sano atque irreprehensibili: ut adversarius revereatur, nihil habens de nobis dicere mali. Et iterum: Omnibus, inquit, fidem bonam ostende, ut bonam doctrinam Salvatoris Domini nostri praeferant in omnibus. Sic et ad Timotheum scribit, dicens: Forma esto fidelibus in sermone, in conversatione, in charitate, in fide, in castitate. Quod et Petrus apostolus hortatur, dicens: Conversatio, inquit, vestra in gentibus bona sit, ut in eo quod detrahunt de vobis tamquam de malefactoribus, de bonis operibus vestris glorificent Deum. Et iterum: Quoniam sic est, inquit, voluntas Dei, ut benefacientes obmutescere faciatis stultorum hominum ignorantiam.
this befits even laypeople, that they put before neither outsiders an occasion for blaspheming nor the brotherhood an opportunity for fornication; then most of all does this necessity bind clerics strongly, on whom either religion blasphemed or a brotherhood lost will inflict double penalties. Nor will those find any consolation at all in the judgement of the Lord who have supplied the tinder of sinning to foreigners and to brethren. On this account the apostle Paul instructs Titus thus, saying: Showing yourself an example of good deeds in teaching, in integrity, in gravity, in sound and irreproachable speech, so that the adversary may be put in awe, having nothing evil to say of us. And again: Show good faith to all, he says, so that they may set forth the good teaching of our Saviour and Lord in all things. So also he writes to Timothy, saying: Be a pattern to the faithful in speech, in conduct, in charity, in faith, in chastity. Which the apostle Peter also urges, saying: Let your conduct among the Gentiles, he says, be good, so that in the very thing in which they disparage you as evildoers, they may glorify God from your good works. And again: For so, he says, is the will of God, that by doing good you may bring the ignorance of foolish men to silence.
Nec quisquam sibi proponat et dicat: Habere volo quod vincam: hoc est enim dicere, vivere desidero sub ruina. Quis tam stultus qui arctari cupiat ad laborem, cui offertur delicatus triumphus? Neque enim duplex triumphus est sub feminae praesentia probari victorem, quam est in singularitate servare integram sponsionem sanctimoniae. Et cum sit unus titulus gloriarum, hoc loco unus fortis est, qui satis laborat; et cum illo qui parum laborando vicerit, pariter muneratur. Quid quod ille quinimmo consummatus adscribitur, qui se omni tempore femineis affectibus ostentat abscissum? quia eum Dominus in Evangelio perfectum vocat, qui totum suis usibus amputaverit patrimonium. Certe etiam soli cuicumque, quotidiani triumphi pro castitate non desunt; quia numquam desideriis carnalibus spiritum cessat infestare corpus humanum, quod Apostolus affirmat, dicens: Caro, inquit, concupiscit adversus spiritum, spiritus autem adversus carnem: haec enim invicem adversantur sibi, ut non quaecumque vultis illa faciatis. Habes nunc carnem tuam, quam superes semper: quid tibi vis alteram vel conducere? Nemo super unam febrem cupit adhibere pejorem; ne incipiat hemitritaeo insanabili laborare, cui nullus valeat medicus subvenire. Neque aliquis super onus proprium tollit insuper alienum; ne oneribus duobus oppressus, usque ad inferos demergatur. Unde sic Hieremias propheta docet sanctitatis pondus singulariter sustinendum. Bonum est, inquit, viro cum
Nor let anyone propose to himself and say: I wish to have something to conquer; for this is to say: I desire to live under ruin. Who is so foolish as to wish to be pressed into toil, when an easy triumph is offered him? For it is not a double triumph to be proved victor in the presence of a woman, as against keeping the pledge of holiness intact in singleness. And since there is one title of glories, in this place the one who labours much is the one strong man; and he is rewarded equally with him who has conquered by labouring little. What of the fact that he is rather reckoned perfected who shows himself at all times cut off from feminine affections? For the Lord in the Gospel calls him perfect who has cut off his whole patrimony from his own uses. Certainly for anyone at all who lives alone, daily triumphs for chastity are not lacking, since the human body never ceases to assail the spirit with carnal desires, as the Apostle affirms, saying: The flesh, he says, lusts against the spirit, but the spirit against the flesh; for these are opposed to one another, so that you do not do whatever things you wish. You now have your own flesh, which you must always overcome: why do you wish to hire another as well? No one wishes to add a worse fever on top of one fever, lest he begin to suffer from an incurable semitertian, which no physician can relieve. Nor does anyone take up another's burden on top of his own, lest, crushed by two burdens, he be sunk down to the underworld. Hence Jeremiah the prophet thus teaches that the weight of holiness is to be borne singly. It is good, he says, for a man when
Editors' notes and page, col. 843
Footnotes
[EDIT. OXON. NOTAE — lemma notes without call marks; numbered here in print order.] (printed under page 413)
(1) ‹anchor: quinimmo consummatus› · lemma note, col 843
Quinimo consummatus. Prorsus sic lego cum Morellio pro qui minimo. Quia supra hanc vocem habuimus eadem significatione, et consentiunt vet. exc. cod. et Remboldus. PAMEL.
"Rather, perfected." I read exactly so with Morel, instead of "qui minimo". For we had this word above in the same sense, and the old printed edition, the manuscript and Rembold agree. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 413)
(2) ‹anchor: Certe etiam soli cuicumque› · lemma note, col 843
Certe etiam soli cuicumque. Adjicio ex iisdem soli. PAMEL.
"Surely also to anyone single." I add "soli" from the same sources. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 413)
(3) ‹anchor: hemitritaeo insanabili laborare› · lemma note, col 843 (runs into col 844)
Hemetritaeo insanabili laborare. Hemetritaeus febris est, juxta Remboldum, tertiana una et dimidia. PAMEL.
"To suffer from an incurable semitertian." The semitertian [as printed: Hemetritaeus] is a fever, according to Rembold, of a tertian and a half. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 413)
(4) ‹anchor: Sed quisquam› · lemma note, col 843 (lemma as printed; the text there reads "Nec quisquam")
Sed quisquam. Omisimus voculam si interjectam juxta cod. vet. et Remboldum. PAMEL.
"But anyone." We have omitted the little word "si" that had been inserted, following the old manuscript and Rembold. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 413)
(5) ‹anchor: Ex improviso vel transeunter› · lemma note, col 844
Ex improviso vel transeunter, Antoninus in transitu, sed illud bis terve infra repetitur. PAMEL.
"Unexpectedly or in passing": Antoninus has "in transitu", but the former is repeated two or three times below. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 413)
(6) ‹anchor: aut in usu aliquando dissolvitur› · lemma note, col 844 (continues)
Aut in usu aliquando dissolvitur. Remboldus legebat
"Or at times is undone in use." Rembold read (continues)
(printed under page 413)
Page
- running head: 843 LIBER
- marginal letters: A ‹hoc etiam laicos deceat›; B ‹scribit, dicens : Forma esto›; C ‹titulus gloriarum, hoc loco›; D ‹Nemo super unam febrem›
- old-edition numerals: (none)
- other: column number in the head is blurred and could be read as 845; set as 843 per the task. Oxford editors' notes (EDIT. OXON. NOT., Pamelius on quinimmo, soli, hemitritaeo) at the page foot not set. The heading of those notes may run across the page and is cut off at the right edge. "quinimmo" is set as printed.
portaverit jugum grave in juventute sua; sedebit singulariter et silebit, quoniam tulit super se jugum grave.
he has borne a heavy yoke in his youth; he will sit alone and will keep silence, since he has taken a heavy yoke upon himself.
Sed quisquam malignus obsecutor ad dictum apostoli Pauli confugiet dicentis: Onera vestra sustinete invicem, et sic implebitis legem Christi: Non haec sunt onera, quae Paulus apostolus imperat subvehenda; sed ut tolerantes nosmetipsos discordia nulla discernat; et in tentationibus constitutis fratribus praebeamus auxilia: non ut ipsi nobis tentamenta per feminas procuremus, sed ut tentamentorum magis pondera sublevemus; cum sciat quale sit sanctitatis jugum, quod vix singulare portetur. De quo non solum ipse, sed et Dominus noluit certum definire praeceptum, dicens: Non omnes capiunt verbum istud, sed quibus datum est. Et iterum: Qui potest capere, capiat. Si ergo difficile singulariter magnitudo istius ponderis toleratur; quomodo tolerabitur, si geminatis ponderibus praegravetur? Et si singulares pene omnes vix durant carnales insidias sustinere; quid faciunt illi qui ex utroque latere gladiis impendentibus non cunctantur incumbere? Plus dico. Si mariti et uxores desideria conjugalia quotidie gerentes, sibi non sufficiunt; quid agunt illi qui ad augendas impugnationes feminis ⟨s⟩ociantur? Ex improviso vel transeunter ad horam femineus aspectus occurrens, velut sagittas alienis oculis jactat. Quando libera non est simplex reverentia; quid illic geritur, ubi libertatis sumit mu⟨l⟩ier in contubernalitate constantiam? quando in domesticis negotiis nunc lacertos ac femora lanificis operibus nudat, nunc aestuans detegit membra, nunc fatigata jactatur, aut in usu aliquando dissolvitur; nunc blanditias exhibet, et quod est venenosius super cuncta psallere delectatur, aut canere? Cujus cantu tolerabilius est audire basiliscum sibilantem. Contra quam Salomon sic nos cautos efficit, dicens: Cum cantatrice noli assiduus esse, nec audias illam, ne forte dispereas in efficacia ejus. Taceo reliqua, quae magis pudenda sunt quam dicenda: solum hoc dico, in dolore vel in ira mulierem frangi conspicere, jam non est sine mulcedine. Quid dicimus si videas jucundantem, aut quod est deterius blandientem? Semel dixerim, omnis inconveniens sodalitas mulierum, gluten est delictorum, et viscum toxicatum, quo diabolus aucupatur. Incongrua est sodalitas feminarum, quarum sodalitatem ita nos rursum Salomon docet in omnibus praecavere: Cum aliena, inquit, muliere ne sedeas omnino, et ne alterceris cum illa in vino, ne forte de⟨c⟩linet cor tuum in illam, et sanguine tuo labaris in perditionem.
But some malicious follower will take refuge in the saying of the apostle Paul, who says: Bear your burdens for one another, and so you will fulfil the law of Christ. These are not the burdens which the apostle Paul commands to be carried; but rather that, as we bear with one another, no discord may divide us; and that we may offer help to brethren set in temptations: not that we should procure temptations for ourselves through women, but rather that we should lighten the weights of temptations; since he knows what the yoke of holiness is, which can scarcely be carried singly. Concerning which not only he himself, but also the Lord was unwilling to lay down a fixed precept, saying: Not all receive this word, but those to whom it has been given. And again: Whoever can receive it, let him receive it. If therefore the magnitude of this weight is borne with difficulty singly, how will it be borne if it is weighed down with doubled weights? And if almost all who are single scarcely hold out in withstanding the snares of the flesh, what are those doing who do not hesitate to lie upon swords hanging over them from either side? I say more. If husbands and wives, daily carrying out conjugal desires, are not sufficient for each other, what are those doing who associate themselves with women so as to increase the assaults? A woman's appearance, meeting one unexpectedly or in passing for an hour, casts arrows, as it were, into another's eyes. When simple reverence is not free, what goes on there, where a woman takes up the assurance of freedom in sharing a dwelling? when in household tasks she now bares her arms and thighs in the work of wool-making, now, being hot, uncovers her limbs, now, wearied, tosses about, or sometimes is relaxed in use; now she displays blandishments, and, what is more poisonous than all, delights to sing psalms, or to sing? It is more tolerable to hear a hissing basilisk than her singing. Against her Solomon makes us cautious thus, saying: Do not be constantly with a woman singer, nor listen to her, lest perhaps you perish in her efficacy. I pass over the rest, which are more to be ashamed of than to be spoken of: this only I say, to see a woman broken in grief or in anger is already not without sweetness. What do we say if you see her merry, or, what is worse, coaxing? Let me say it once for all: every unbecoming companionship of women is the glue of offences, and poisoned birdlime, with which the devil goes fowling. Unfitting is the companionship of women, whose companionship Solomon again teaches us to guard against in all things: With another's wife, he says, do not sit at all, and do not quarrel with her over wine, lest perhaps your heart turn aside towards her, and by your blood you slip into perdition.
Postremo si animum nostrum confidimus in hac
Finally, if we are confident that our mind in this
Editors' notes and page, col. 844
Page
- running head: LIBER (preceding words of the running head lie outside the image) 844
- marginal letters: A portaverit jugum grave; B istud, sed quibus datum est; C ac femora lanificis; D congrua est sodalitas feminarum
- old-edition numerals: (none)
- other: running head only partly visible, its start cut off by the image edge; full-width heading of the editors' notes (…DIT. OXON. NOTAE) at the foot: the notes of page 413, including those printed under this column, are set in n843 (printed under page 413); ⟨s⟩ociantur, mu⟨l⟩ier, de⟨c⟩linet have letters lost to damaged/faint type; column ends mid-sentence at "hac"; editors' matter set: (none)
- other (Q1): n843's note (4), lemma "Sed quisquam", belongs to this column ("Sed quisquam malignus obsecutor", the opening of the second paragraph; Pamelius omits an inserted "si" here), not to col 843's "Nec quisquam"; its anchor in n843 should read col 844
communitate durare semper, vel illud apud nos debet esse suspectum; ne ipsae quae nobiscum conveniunt, in nos ipsos forsitan moveantur, aut in alteros amores prae rapida aetate incitamentis furialibus stimulentur, et erit nobis causa aut quod pejus est, sine causa ut fornicatio nos maculet aliena, apud quos suggeritur caeteris occasio lupanaris; et crimine alieni reatus absorbebimur, cui nos ipsi subornamus immunditiae lenocinium. Propter quod apostolus Paulus de similibus ita nos instruit, dicens: Si propter escam frater tuus scandalizatur; jam non in charitate ambulas. Noli esca tua illum perdere, propter quem Christus mortuus est. Et iterum: Bonum est non manducare carnem, neque bibere vinum, neque ostendere in quo frater tuus offenditur, aut scandalizatur, aut infirmatur. Et alio loco: Hoc, inquit, judicare magis, ne ponatis offendiculum aut scandalum fratri. Et de semetipso sic ait: Propter quod si cibus scandalizat fratrem meum, jam non manducabo carnem in aeternum, ne fratrem scandalizem. Cum ergo nos pulsat conjunctionis hujus molestia detestabilis; et si adulteros non potest facere, facit tamen pejores adulteris et incestis. Quis enim cordis alterius scrutator qualitatem uniuscujusque perpendat; et pro altera persona contra Satanam repugnator, circa Deum vero idoneus fidejussor esse praesumat? De semetipso demens est, qui aliquid pollicetur, ne dicam si etiam pro femina sponsionem ponere videatur; cum Paulus apostolus sic de se pronuntiet, dicens: Non quia jam accepi, aut jam justificatus sum, aut jam perfectus sum: sequor autem si quomodo comprehendam, in quo et comprehensus sum a Christo. Fratres ego me non arbitror comprehendisse: unum tamen, posteriora quidem obliviscens, ad ea quae sunt ante pedes, ad regulam sequor, ad palmam supernae vocationis Domini nostri Jesu Christi. Quicumque ergo perfecti sumus, hoc sentiamus. Mihi, inquit, pro minimo est, ut a vobis judicer, aut ab humano die: sed neque meipsum judico, qui autem judicat me, Dominus est. Et alio loco: Beatus, inquit, qui non judicat semetipsum, in quo probat alium. Quamvis ergo nos nec de nostra stabilitate certum aliquid habeamus, qui sine cessatione concutimur, inter fluctus saeculi sustinentes procellosos incursus; tamen si alicui tanta fiducia est de immobilitate propriae firmitatis; saltem sollicitus reformidet, ne ipse sit scandalum visibus alienis, sed terreatur voce Domini comminantis: Vae, inquit, huic mundo ab scandalis: verumtamen vae homini illi per quem scandalum venit. Si has Domini comminationes religioso corde metuimus et veremur, plus de aliis quam de nobis extimescamus periculum nostrum, qui mutuis (ab apostolo Paulo) utilitatibus obligamur: Non quae sua sunt, inquit,
fellowship will endure always, even so this ought to be held suspect among us; lest the very women who come together with us should perhaps be moved towards us ourselves, or, because of their hasty age, be spurred by frenzied incitements to other loves, and the cause will be ours, or, what is worse, without cause another's fornication may stain us, among whom an occasion of the brothel is suggested to the rest; and we shall be swallowed up in the crime of another's guilt, for which we ourselves furnish the procuring of uncleanness. Wherefore the apostle Paul instructs us thus about similar things, saying: If your brother is scandalized on account of food, you no longer walk in charity. Do not by your food destroy him for whom Christ died. And again: It is good not to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor to show anything at which your brother is offended, or scandalized, or made weak. And in another place: Judge this rather, he says, that you not put a stumbling-block or a scandal before a brother. And of himself he speaks thus: Wherefore if food scandalizes my brother, I will not eat flesh for ever, lest I scandalize my brother. Since therefore the detestable trouble of this association assails us; and if it cannot make adulterers, it nevertheless makes men worse than adulterers and the incestuous. For who, as searcher of another's heart, could weigh the character of each one; and, as fighter against Satan on behalf of another person, presume to be a fit surety before God? He is mad who promises anything about himself, not to say if he should appear even to stake a pledge on behalf of a woman; since the apostle Paul declares thus about himself, saying: Not that I have already received, or am already justified, or am already perfect: but I follow on, if in some way I may lay hold, in that for which I also was laid hold of by Christ. Brothers, I do not reckon that I have laid hold: but one thing, forgetting indeed the things behind, towards the things which are before my feet, I follow towards the rule, towards the prize of the heavenly calling of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let as many of us therefore as are perfect think this. To me, he says, it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you, or by human day: but neither do I judge myself, but He Who judges me is the Lord. And in another place: Blessed, he says, is he who does not judge himself in that in which he approves another. Although therefore we have nothing certain even about our own stability, we who are shaken without ceasing, enduring stormy onsets amid the waves of the world; yet if anyone has so great confidence in the immovability of his own firmness, let him at least anxiously dread lest he himself be a scandal to the eyes of others, but let him be terrified by the voice of the Lord threatening: Woe, He says, to this world because of scandals: nevertheless woe to that man through whom the scandal comes. If we fear and revere these threats of the Lord with a religious heart, let us dread our danger more from others than from ourselves, we who are bound (by the apostle Paul) to mutual benefits: Not the things which are his own, he says,
Editors' notes and page, col. 845
Footnotes
[EDIT. OXON. NOTAE — lemma notes without call marks; numbered here in print order. Lemmata not visible in the page-foot image are placed by inference.] (printed under page 414)
(1) ‹anchor: aut in usu aliquando dissolvitur› · lemma note (continued from p. 413), col 844
(continued) in risu; pro quo Erasmus rectius in risum: sed illud habet vet. exc. PAMEL.
(printed under page 414)
(2) ‹anchor: Neque ostendere› · lemma note, col 845 (lemma above the image)
Neque ostendere. Non est istud hodie apud Apostolum. PAMEL.
"Nor to show." This is not in the Apostle's text today. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 414)
(3) ‹anchor: ab apostolo Paulo› · lemma note, col 845
Ab apostolo Paulo. Erasmus testante Apostolo, at illud arridet, quia est in vet. cod. PAMEL.
"By the apostle Paul." Erasmus has "testante Apostolo" (as the Apostle testifies), but the former appeals to me, because it is in the old manuscript. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 414)
(4) ‹anchor: In conventu vero sacrorum› · lemma note, col 846 (continues)
In conventu vero Sacrorum, etc. Pulcher locus pro Sacris Ecclesiae; quippe ubi dicit tractari coelestia,
"But in the assembly of the sacred rites," etc. A fine passage in support of the Church's sacred rites; for where he says that heavenly things are handled, (continues)
(printed under page 414)
Page
- running head: 845 DE SINGULARITATE CLE[...] (cut off at the image edge)
- marginal letters: A communitate durare semper; B offenditur, aut scandalizatur; C jam justificatus sum; D fiducia est de immobilitate
- old-edition numerals: (none)
- other: column printed as one continuous paragraph; "immunditiae" blurred in print (immundi;i.e), read as immunditiae; "cum Paulus" blurred, possibly printed "cun"; "absorbebimur" blurred; stray marks after "Vae" and before "et veremur" ignored; the notes at the page foot headed EDIT. OXON. NOT[AE] (Pamelius notes on "in risu" and "Neque ostendere") are not set here
singuli cogitantes, sed quae aliorum. Et iterum: Nemo quod suum est quaerat, sed quod alterius.
each one considering, but the things that are others'. And again: Let no one seek what is his own, but what is another's.
Sed aliquis arripiens de ipso Paulo quod opponat: Unusquisque, inquit, vestrum pro se rationem reddet Deo: et unusquisque suam sarcinam portabit. Qui non vult ergo pro altero reddere rationem, nec causis ejus, nec negotiis debet particeps illicitus interesse: et qui liber vel immunis circa sarcinas alienas conatur existere, nihil alienum contraria conditione teneat infra se. Nam necesse est ut rationi alterius subjiciatur, qui negotium tractaverit alienum. Oportet eum damno perstringi vel dispendio sarcinarum, apud quem sub intuta custodia fratris sarcinae perierunt; quia quicquid in domo nostra sub minus idonea tutela perditum fuerit, aut latrones effregerint, nostrum est, et a nobis exigetur quicquid per inertiam nostram male commissum custoditur. Tunc vero ab invicem liberi sumus, si nihil apud nos de re alterius reservetur.
But someone seizes on something from Paul himself to set against this: Each one of you, he says, will render account for himself to God; and each one will carry his own burden. He, then, who does not wish to render account for another ought not, as an unlawful partaker, to be involved either in his cases or in his affairs; and he who tries to be free or exempt with regard to the burdens of others, let him, by the contrary condition, hold nothing belonging to another in his keeping. For it is necessary that he who has handled another's business be subject to the other's reckoning. He with whom a brother's burdens have perished under unsafe keeping must be bound by the loss or by the cost of those burdens; because whatever has been lost in our house under less than fit protection, or whatever thieves have broken into, is our concern, and whatever is kept, badly entrusted, through our idleness will be demanded of us. Only then are we free of one another, if nothing of another's property is kept in our charge.
Forsitan aliquis dicat: Ergo nec ad domum orationis debemus pariter convenire, ne aliquis aliquem scandalizet. Haereticae professionis est ista contradictio calumniosa, quae de bonis praescribit, ut asserat mala; et de sanctitate praejudicat, ut immunditiam subtiliter introducat; de licito calumnias facit, ut obtinere illicitum possit. Propter quod apostolus Paulus haeresi huic ante praescribit, dicens: Verumtamen neque mulier sine viro, neque vir sine muliere in Domino. Absit, absit, ut ubique feminae praescribantur, aut ubique permissio tribuatur. Habent loca sua circa maritum, circa filios, circa fratres, circa parentes, circa servos; et in domo orationis tantummodo juxta cunctos clericos. In mansione autem una, sine cognatione competenter non habent socios. Haec est libera quae stat. Stare vero non potest quicquid inclinaver⟨i⟩t libera, dicente Scriptura: Non declinabis in dextram, neque in sinistram. Et Dominus in Evangelio: Quod amplius est, a malo est. Disce nunc temperantiae modum, qui per licentiam quaeris excessum. Ama feminas inter sacra solemnia, et odio habe in communione privata; si vis Salomonis tenere doctrinam: Tempus, inquit, amandi, et tempus odiendi.
Perhaps someone may say: Then neither ought we to come together to the house of prayer, lest anyone cause anyone to stumble. This slanderous objection belongs to the heretical profession, which raises a prior objection against good things so as to declare them evil; and passes prejudgement on holiness so as subtly to bring in impurity; makes slanders out of what is lawful so as to be able to obtain what is unlawful. On which account the apostle Paul raises an objection in advance against this heresy, saying: Nevertheless neither is the woman without the man, nor the man without the woman, in the Lord. Far be it, far be it, that women should be ruled out everywhere, or that permission should be granted everywhere. They have their places beside a husband, beside sons, beside brothers, beside parents, beside servants; and in the house of prayer only beside all the clerics. But in one dwelling, without kinship, they do not fittingly have companions. She is a free woman who stands. But whatever the free woman has bent towards cannot stand, as Scripture says: You shall not turn aside to the right, nor to the left. And the Lord in the Gospel: Whatever is more than this is from evil. Learn now the measure of temperance, you who through licence seek excess. Love women amid the sacred solemnities, and hate them in private fellowship, if you wish to hold to the teaching of Solomon: There is a time, he says, for loving, and a time for hating.
Tunc ergo cavenda sunt feminae participia, quando geritur carnalium curarum co⟨n⟩tinua unanimiter frequentia: quoniam inter curas suas caro semper incitamenta cupidinis provocat; et illic parit fomenta peccandi, ubi pertractans commoda sua temporalis vitae cogitationibus senserit paululum relaxari; sicut Salomon asserit, dicens: Deprimit terrena cogitatio sensum multa cogitantem. In conventu vero sacrorum, ubi spiritus dominatur, ancilla semetipsam cognoscens perdit suae voluptatis usum; perdit et luxum dum tractantur coelestia, dum celebrantur sancta
Then, therefore, partnerships with a woman are to be shunned, when a continual frequenting of fleshly cares is carried on with one accord: since amid its cares the flesh always calls forth the incitements of desire; and it brings forth the kindlings of sin there where, handling its own advantages, it has felt itself relaxed a little by the thoughts of temporal life; as Solomon declares, saying: The earthly thought weighs down the mind that thinks many things. But in the assembly of sacred things, where the spirit rules, the handmaid, knowing herself, loses the use of her pleasure; she loses also her luxury while heavenly things are handled, while there are celebrated the holy
Editors' notes and page, col. 846
Page
- running head: [DE SINGU]LARITATE CLERICORUM. 846 (left part of the head cut off at the image edge)
- marginal letters: A singuli cogitantes; B effregerint, nostrum est; C loca sua circa maritum; D quentia : quoniam inter curas
- old-edition numerals: (none)
- other: co⟨n⟩tinua: the n is damaged in the type, reading continua is certain from context; inclinaver⟨i⟩t: the i is damaged in the type; the left-hand strip in the images belongs to column 845 and is not set; the EDIT. OXON. NOTAE at the page foot (Ab apostolo Paulo...; In conventu vero Sacrorum...) were left for the later apparatus pass; no full-width line and no editors' matter in the text block
mysteria; tota humanitas occupatur, ubi non humana, sed divina sunt omnia: ubi veneratio vel tremor et terror incutitur; animis universis sepulta est perfecta substantia carnalis. Inter ipsa fere carnis mercimonia multi voluptatem corporis negligunt, scilicet quando a legionibus exercitia meditantur armorum, aut crepat litibus forum, aut resonant litteris auditoria, aut negotiatores commerciis instanter incumbunt, aut artifices in artificia ipsa propensi sunt: quanto magis ubi non carnale opus hominum; sed spiritale geritur Angelorum? Nihil illic impugnationes possunt, ubi et ipsi daemones cedunt; et nulla sexus alicujus permittitur considerari distantia, ubi nec aetas, nec dignitas, sed sola aequalitas regnat: atque ut plenius dicam, omnes illic tales sensus accipiunt; ut et ipsa conjugalitas ignoretur, ubi Christus loquitur, auditur, attenditur, et per omnia et in omnibus solus est totum, testante Apostolo et dicente: Ubi non est, inquit, Judaeus et Graecus, circumcisio et praeputium, Barbarus et Scytha, masculus et femina, servus et liber, sed omnia et in omnibus Christus. Hunc plane conventum gloria est celebrare cum feminis, in quo nulla est discretio qualitatis, ubi tantum licet omnes aequare sine aliqua differentia: ut nec in ipso Baptismate cujusquam nuditas erubescat, ubi Adae et Evae renovatur infantia; nec exponit, sed potius accipit tunicam.
mysteries; the whole of humanity is occupied where all things are not human but divine: where veneration, or trembling and terror, is struck into them; in all minds the carnal substance is entirely buried. Generally, amid the very traffic of the flesh many neglect the pleasure of the body, namely when the legions practise the exercises of arms, or the forum rings with lawsuits, or the lecture halls resound with letters, or merchants apply themselves earnestly to their trade, or craftsmen are bent upon their very crafts: how much more where it is not the fleshly work of men but the spiritual work of Angels that is carried on? Assaults can do nothing there, where even the demons themselves give way; and no difference of either sex is permitted to be considered, where neither age nor rank but equality alone reigns: and, to speak more fully, all there receive such a disposition that even the married state itself is forgotten, where Christ speaks, is heard, is attended to, and through all things and in all things He alone is the whole, as the Apostle testifies and says: Where there is not, he says, Jew and Greek, circumcision and foreskin, barbarian and Scythian, male and female, slave and free, but Christ is all and in all. Truly it is a glory to celebrate this assembly with women, in which there is no distinction of condition, where it is permitted to make all equal without any difference at all: so that not even in Baptism itself does anyone's nakedness blush, where the infancy of Adam and Eve is renewed; nor does one lay aside, but rather receives, a tunic.
Quod si et illic sit aliquis diabolo pejor, qui feminarum aspectibus feriatur, de nullo tamen congregatio vestra culpatur, quae propter coelestia, non propter terrena colligitur. Verumtamen si quis illic luxuriosis obtutibus fuerit, nullo modo a⟨l⟩terum laedit, qui non ad hominem, sed ad Christum pro salute processit. Quinetiam de suis contradictionibus contradictores excludam, ut non meis, sed suis propositionibus cedant. Si inter festa sancta potest communis conventio scandalizari, ubi tentator ipse diabolus tremuit; quis illic stabilem se esse promittit, ubi tentator audenter occurrit? et si illic periclitamur, ubi Dei praecepta nos congregant, quid agimus ubi Dei jussa nos separant? et si turbamur illic, ubi Dei voluntate munimur; quanto magis ubi non solum diabolum, sed etiam Dominum habemus adversum? Cum sacrosanctis enim jussis nobis divina protectio ministratur, sicut Esaias ait: Legem, inquit, in adjutorium dedit; sine jussionibus vero divinis nullum potest esse praesidium.
But if even there there should be someone worse than the devil, who is struck by the sight of women, nevertheless your congregation is not blamed on anyone's account, since it is gathered for the sake of heavenly things, not for the sake of earthly things. Yet if anyone should be there with lustful gazes, he in no way harms another, who has come forward not to a man but to Christ for salvation. Moreover, I shall shut out the objectors by their own objections, so that they may yield not to my propositions but to their own. If amid the holy festivals the common assembly can be scandalized, where the tempter, the devil himself, has trembled, who promises that he is steadfast in that place where the tempter boldly comes to meet him? And if we are in danger there, where the precepts of God bring us together, what are we doing where the commands of God separate us? And if we are troubled there, where we are fortified by the will of God, how much more where we have not only the devil but also the Lord against us? For with sacred commands divine protection is supplied to us, as Isaiah says: He gave, he says, the law as a help; but without divine commands there can be no defence.
Aliud est quod Deus imperat facere, et aliud voluntati ejus obsistere: cujus ita sunt mandata servanda, ut si aliquid jusserit quod secundum homines injustum esse videatur, justum credatur et fiat; et si justum jusserit, justum reputetur et fiat: cum sine
It is one thing to do what God commands, and another to resist His will: Whose commands are to be kept in such a way that, if He has commanded something which according to men seems to be unjust, it is believed to be just and is done; and if He has commanded something just, it is reckoned just and is done: since without
Editors' notes and page, col. 847
Footnotes
[EDIT. OXON. NOTAE — lemma notes without call marks; numbered here in print order. Lemmata not visible in the page-foot image are placed by inference.] (printed under page 415)
(1) ‹anchor: In conventu vero sacrorum› · lemma note (continued from p. 414), col 846
(continued) celebrari sancta mysteria, opus spiritale Angelorum geri, ea Dei praecepta nos congregare et colligere. PAMEL.
(printed under page 415)
(2) ‹anchor: Cum sine justitia non potest esse› · lemma note, col 847 (lemma below the image's last line)
Cum sine justitia non potest esse. Phrasis est auctoris. Vetus exc. et Remboldus legunt sine victoria. Sed non placet. PAMEL.
"Since without justice it cannot be." The phrase is the author's. The old printed edition and Rembold read "sine victoria" (without victory). But it does not please. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 415)
(3) ‹anchor: Cogitationes enim mortalium› · lemma note, col 847 or 848 (lemma above the image)
Cogitationes enim mortalium. Recte sic Gravius et Morellius, pro eo quod alii cogitationes immortalium. Nam sic habet liber Sapientiae, quam Salomonis titulo citat, quomodo et paulo post librum Ecclesiastici. PAMEL.
"For the thoughts of mortals." So, rightly, Gravius and Morel, instead of the others' "thoughts of immortals". For so the book of Wisdom has it, which he cites under Solomon's name, as he does the book of Ecclesiasticus a little later. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 415)
Page
- running head: 847 LIBER (rest of running head cut off at image edge)
- marginal letters: A ‹mysteria ; tota humanitas›; B ‹retur , ubi Christus loquitur›; C ‹gregatio vestra culpatur›; D ‹divina protectio ministratur›
- old-edition numerals: (none)
- other: "a⟨l⟩terum": the l looks damaged and prints like i ("aiterum"); column ends mid-sentence at "cum sine", continued in col. 848 ("justitia"); page-foot commentary "EDIT. OXON. NOTAE" with Pamelius's notes (celebrari sancta mysteria...; Cum sine justitia non potest esse...) not set, left for later pass; Paul quoted is Col. 3:11 with Gal. 3:28, Isaiah quoted is Isa. 8:20 (LXX form), no references printed
justitia non potest esse quod mandat, qui potens est injustitiam justificando vocare justitiam, et justitiam reprobando injustitiam probare transversam, cujus voluntas est sola et vera justitia. Si enim totum quod gerimus, ad hoc tantummodo gerimus, ut Domino placeamus; profecto hoc solum erit justum quicquid voluerit, et jusserit, et probaverit Deus cui placere gestimus. Nam cum servi non possint a semetipsis scire quid suis dominis placeat, nisi dominorum sequantur imperia; et utique homines hominum similium sibi non valeant voluntates agnoscere, nisi acceperint quod observent: multo magis mortales nesciunt immortalis Dei justitiam comprehendere, nisi ipse justitiarum suarum dignetur indicia demonstrare, sicut Salomon approbat, dicens: Quis enim hominum poterit scire consilium Dei? aut quis poterit cogitare quid velit Deus? Cogitationes enim mortalium timidae, et incertae providentiae nostrae. Corpus enim quod corrumpitur, aggravat animam: et deprimit terrena inhabitatio sensum multa cogitantem. Difficile aestimamus quae in terra sunt, et quae in prospectu sunt invenimus cum labore: quae in coelis autem sunt, quis investigabit? Sensum autem tuum quis scit, nisi tu dederis ei sapientiam, et miseris Spiritum sanctum de altissimis? Et si correctae sunt semitae eorum qui in terra sunt, et quae tibi placent didicerint homines, et per sapientiam sanati sunt: ambulantes in tenebris sibimetipsis lumen non possunt ostendere, nisi ultroneum seipsum non videntibus offerat lumen. Ita humana caecitas ad Deum non dirigit viam, nisi ipse lucernam legis ostendat. Unde David sic loquitur, dicens: Lucerna est, inquit, pedibus meis verbum tuum, et lux semitis meis. Et iterum: Praeceptum Domini lucidum illuminans oculos. Hoc est ergo luciferum quodcumque fuerit a Deo intimatum: et hoc Deo dignum, quod ipse Deus voluntati suae fatetur acceptum, ut exerceat per omnia dominatum. Alioqui nec nos servi adscriberemur, nec ipse Dominus haberetur; si secundum voluntatem nostram permitteremur impendere servitutem, et arbitrio nostro non Dei eligeremus exercitamenta justitiae. Tales Paulus apostolus vanificat, dicens: Ignorantes, inquit, Dei justitiam, et suam volentes statuere, justitiae Dei non sunt subjecti. Tollantur nunc e medio ambages istae tam vanae, et querimoniae inaniter calumniosae. Ad spiritales actus cum feminis, Deo juvante, non metuimus adunari, qui per Dei jussionem justitiam nos credimus operari, ex qua nobis scimus munimenta supponi. Privatim vero, continentibus quamplurimum clericis et virginibus, hospitia separanda sunt, quia quod Deus iniquum judicat, justum esse non potest. Contubernium tamen etsi nulla in ipso contubernio
justice what He commands cannot be, Who is able by justifying injustice to call it justice, and by rejecting justice to prove it perverse injustice, Whose will is the sole and true justice. For if all that we do, we do for this alone, that we may please the Lord, then assuredly this alone will be just, whatever God, Whom we long to please, has willed and commanded and approved. For since servants cannot know of themselves what pleases their masters unless they follow their masters' commands, and since indeed men cannot recognize the wishes of men like themselves unless they have received what they are to observe, much more are mortals unable to comprehend the justice of the immortal God, unless He Himself deigns to show the tokens of His judgements, as Solomon confirms, saying: For who among men will be able to know the counsel of God? or who will be able to conceive what God wills? For the thoughts of mortals are fearful, and our foresights uncertain. For the body which is corrupted weighs down the soul, and the earthly dwelling presses down the mind that thinks many things. Hardly do we estimate the things that are on earth, and the things that are before our eyes we find with labour; but the things that are in the heavens, who will search out? And who knows Thy mind, unless Thou hast given him wisdom and sent the Holy Spirit from the highest? And if the paths of those who are on earth have been corrected, and men have learned the things that please Thee, and have been healed through wisdom, [still] those walking in darkness cannot show a light to themselves, unless the light of its own accord offers itself to those who do not see. So human blindness does not direct its way to God, unless He Himself shows the lamp of the law. Whence David speaks thus, saying: Thy word, he says, is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my paths. And again: The precept of the Lord is bright, enlightening the eyes. This therefore is light-bearing, whatever has been made known by God; and this is worthy of God, which God Himself declares to be acceptable to His will, so that He may exercise dominion through all things. Otherwise neither should we be enrolled as servants, nor would He Himself be held as Lord, if we were permitted to render service according to our own will, and were to choose the exercises of justice by our own judgement and not by God's. Such men the apostle Paul declares vain, saying: Not knowing, he says, the justice of God, and wishing to establish their own, they have not been subject to the justice of God. Let these so empty evasions now be removed from our midst, and these complaints idly slanderous. For spiritual acts we are not afraid, with God's help, to be joined together with women, we who believe that we are working justice by God's command, from which we know that defences are set beneath us. But in private, for clerics and virgins who are most highly continent, lodgings must be kept separate, because what God judges unjust cannot be just. Cohabitation, however, even if in that very cohabitation no
Editors' notes and page, col. 848
Page
- running head: LIBER 848 (only the end of the running head is visible)
- marginal letters: A ‹justitia non potest esse›; B ‹hominum poterit scire›; C ‹Deum non dirigit viam›; D ‹nae, et querimoniae›
- old-edition numerals: (none)
- other: column begins and ends mid-sentence; "sanctúm" shows an accent-like mark, set sanctum (unsure whether a printed accent or a blemish); "in cœ-lis" read as the œ ligature, set coelis; the T. OXON. NOTAE heading and its note (Cogitationes enim mortalium...) at the page foot are left for the later apparatus pass; the left column belongs to the preceding column 847 and is not set
turpis consuetudo noscatur, accendit; quia impossibile est integritatem ad victoriam pervenire, quae contendit contra Dei jussa pugnare. Quantum enim lex obedientibus suggerit adjutorium, tantum inobedientibus incitat peccatum, dicente Apostolo: Virtus, inquit, peccati, lex. Qui nos ergo jussit ut in sacris suis cum feminis triumphemus, ipse jubet ut privatim pugnas femineas caveamus.
shameful habit becomes known, still kindles; because it is impossible for an integrity to reach victory which strives to fight against the commands of God. For as much help as the law supplies to the obedient, so much sin does it stir up in the disobedient, as the Apostle says: The power, he says, of sin is the law. He therefore Who commanded us to triumph together with women in His sacred rites, Himself bids us beware of combats with women in private.
Sunt equidem necessitates aliae, quae nos quoque privatim feminas videre compellant, sed etiam ipsae divini operis vel praecepti imperant efficaciam, ut visitemus, ut solatia praebeamus, ut hortamenta vitalia salubriter intimemus: nec tamen et in his officiis minor cura agenda est pro moribus nostris, ut clarescant in nostra operatione indicia puritatis. Severitas non desit, quae sub clerico feminam possit astringere, ut ipsam consolationem nostram suscipiat cum tremore, et ita sentiat visitationis affectum, ut clericum veneretur. Ac ne tardius sit evagari per singula, t⟨ ⟩m quicquid agimus, honestum esse potest, si semper in nobis signa honestatis eluceant: sicut Paulus apostolus universa complexus est, dicens: Omnia vestra honeste fiant. Et iterum: Sicut praecepimus, inquit, vobis, ut honeste ambuletis. Non bene succedit quidquid agitur passim: et sanctum non est quod geritur sanctum, nisi sancte quod sanctum est peragatur, sicut Salomon asserit, dicens: Qui enim custodierint juste justa, justificabuntur. Sinceriter ergo sinceritas ipsa servanda est; et omne quod voti est, etiam in actu signandum, ne aliud vota commendent, et aliud actus insinuent. Undique probanda est institutio voluntatis, et undique consummandus est cursus uniuscujusque certaminis; ne minus sit aliquid ad triumphum, si non plenius dimicetur. Hinc Paulus apostolus introducit documenta certaminum: Sed et qui in agone, inquit, certat, non coronabitur, nisi qui legitime certaverit. Et iterum: Nescitis, inquit, quoniam qui in stadio currunt, omnes quidem currunt, sed unus accepit bravium. Sic currite, ut comprehendatis. Omnis enim qui in agone contendit, ab omnibus se abstinet: et illi quidem ut corruptibilem coronam accipiant, vos autem incorruptam. Plenitudo est ergo sanctitatis, et palma perfecta, ut ex omni parte secum non habeat quod recuset; ne quod profitetur odisse, tenendo videatur amare.
There are indeed other necessities which compel us too to see women in private, but these themselves also enjoin the carrying out of the divine work or precept: that we visit, that we offer consolations, that we wholesomely impart life-giving exhortations. Yet even in these duties no less care must be taken for our conduct, so that the signs of purity may shine out in our activity. Let there not be lacking a severity which can restrain a woman under a cleric, so that she may receive our very consolation with trembling, and may so feel the kindness of the visit that she reveres the cleric. And lest it be tedious to range through particulars, ⟨ ⟩ whatever we do can be honourable if the signs of honourableness always shine out in us: as the apostle Paul embraced all things, saying: Let all your things be done honourably. And again: As we instructed you, he says, that you walk honourably. Whatever is done at random does not turn out well; and what is done as holy is not holy unless what is holy is carried out holily, as Solomon asserts, saying: For those who keep just things justly shall be justified. Sincerity itself, therefore, must be kept sincerely; and everything that belongs to the vow must also be marked in action, lest the vows commend one thing and the actions suggest another. On every side the purpose of the will must be proved, and on every side the course of each contest must be completed, lest something be lacking for the triumph if the fight is not fought out more fully. Hence the apostle Paul brings forward lessons drawn from contests: But he too who strives in the contest, he says, will not be crowned unless he has striven lawfully. And again: Do you not know, he says, that those who run in the stadium all indeed run, but one received the prize? So run that you may obtain. For everyone who contends in the contest abstains from all things; and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown, but you an incorruptible. This, then, is the fullness of holiness and the perfect palm: that on no side does one keep with oneself what one rejects, lest by holding it one seem to love what one professes to hate.
Quod si aliquis dicit: Captivum teneo adversarium meum, cui semper insultem, videat ne forte
But if someone says: I hold my adversary captive, so that I may always mock him, let him take care lest perhaps
Editors' notes and page, col. 849
Footnotes
[EDIT. OXON. NOTAE — lemma notes without call marks; numbered here in print order. Lemmata not visible in the page-foot image are placed by inference.] (printed under page 416)
(1) ‹anchor: Ut ipsam consolationem nostram suscipiat› · lemma note, col 849 (lemma above the image)
Ut ipsam consolationem nostram suscipiat. Vetus excusus ac Remboldus, et hoc et sequentia plurali numero legunt, sed praecedit feminam. PAMEL.
"That she may take up our very consolation." The old printed edition and Rembold read both this and what follows in the plural; but "feminam" (a woman) precedes. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 416)
(2) ‹anchor: et omne quod voti est› · lemma note, col 849
Et omni quod voti est. Confirmatum hinc votum tacitum castitatis annexum coelibatui clericorum, de quo paulo post apertius.
"And all that belongs to a vow." Hence is confirmed the tacit vow of chastity attached to the celibacy of clerics, of which more openly a little later. [No signature printed.]
(printed under page 416)
(3) ‹anchor: et palma perfecta› · lemma note, col 849
Et palma perfecta. Hinc apparet atque etiam legi debere: unus accepit palmam. Sicut ubique legit Cyprianus. PAMEL.
"And the perfect palm." Hence it appears that one should also read "one received the palm", as Cyprian reads everywhere. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 416)
(4) ‹anchor: Ipse se voluit superari› · lemma note, col 849 or 850 (lemma below the image)
Ipse se voluit superari. Vet. exc. et Remboldus penetrari. PAMEL.
"He willed himself to be overcome." The old printed edition and Rembold have "penetrari" (to be pierced). PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 416)
(5) ‹anchor: Sine causa dicit› · lemma note, col 849 or 850 (lemma below the image; runs into col 850)
Sine causa dicit. Vet. exc. non dicit: sed prius placet. PAMEL.
"He says without cause." The old printed edition has "non dicit" (does not say); but the former pleases. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 416)
(6) ‹anchor: Qui spernit modica, paulatim cadet› · lemma note, col 850
Qui spernit modica, paulatim cadet. Erasmus, male, cadit; nam prius habet Ecclesiasticus. PAMEL.
"He who despises small things shall fall little by little." Erasmus, wrongly, has "cadit" (falls); for Ecclesiasticus has the former. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 416)
(7) ‹anchor: Fit studio autem› · lemma note, col 850
Sic studeo autem, etc. Hoc Erasmo placet pro eo quod erat, arbitrio. Legendum videtur, fit studio. PAMEL.
"But so I strive," etc. This pleases Erasmus in place of what stood there, "arbitrio". It seems one should read "fit studio" (it comes about by the zeal). PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 416)
(8) ‹anchor: quam bonos effectus mulieris› · lemma note, col 850
Quam bonos effectus mulieris. Erasmus affectus, minus recte. PAMEL.
"Than the good effects of a woman." Erasmus has "affectus" (affections), less correctly. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 416)
(9) ‹anchor: agit prius masculum et feminam› · lemma note, col 850
Agit prius masculum et feminam, etc. Remboldus omiserat conversari, et Erasmus legeba adjicit, illud vero habet vet. exc. PAMEL.
"He first brings man and woman," etc. Rembold had omitted "conversari" (to live together), and Erasmus read [as printed: legeba] "adjicit" (adds); but the old printed edition has the former. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 416)
Page
- running head: 849 DE SINGULARITATE CLE[RICORUM] (cut off at right edge)
- marginal letters: A ‹turpis consuetudo noscatur›; B ‹veritas non desit, quae sub clerico›; C ‹vota commendent, et aliud actus›; D ‹amare.›
- old-edition numerals: (none)
adversus eum captivus incipiat praevalere. Numquam securus cum thesauro latro tenetur inclusus: nec intra unam caveam habitans cum lupo tutus est agnus. Ipse se voluit superari, qui hostem proprium in suas portas induxit; et intestinum gladium sibi ipse supposuit, qui locum habitationis suae adversarii ingressibus reseravit; et qui fretus est conversari cum scandalo, sine causa dicit: Pacatus esse volo cum diabolo; contra Apostolum dicentem: Nolite locum dare diabolo. Omni ergo modo muniendus est locus, ubi fuerit thesaurus absconditus, ne per unam cavernam totum parietem latro suffodiat. Nam si deforis expugnans vix muris expellitur, quantum valebit si intra muros acceperit habitaculum? Et si illi qui contra eum claudunt, aliquotiens ab eodem capiuntur; quanto magis ille, qui ultroneus illi patefecerit ingressum, decipitur? Cum dicat Salomon: Si justus vix salvus fit, injustus ubi parebit? Omnes ergo rimae, ne dicam portae, claudendae sunt, ne per unum foramen castra omnia penetrentur: et universa componenda sunt munimenta, ne per modicum non munitum tota civitas ruat, sicut Salomon repetit, dicens: Qui spernit modica, paulatim cadet.
against him the captive begin to prevail. Never is a robber kept safely shut in with a treasure; nor is the lamb safe living within one cage with the wolf. He has willed to be overcome who has led his own enemy within his gates; and he has set a sword from within against himself who has unbarred the place of his dwelling to the entries of the adversary; and he who trusts himself to live together with a stumbling-block says without reason: I wish to be at peace with the devil, against the Apostle, who says: Do not give place to the devil. In every way, therefore, the place where the treasure has been hidden must be fortified, lest through one hole the robber undermine the whole wall. For if, when he assaults from outside, he is scarcely driven back by the walls, how strong will he be if he has gained a dwelling within the walls? And if those who shut [the gates] against him are sometimes taken by him, how much more is he deceived who of his own accord has opened an entrance to him? Since Solomon says: If the just man is scarcely saved, where will the unjust appear? All chinks, therefore, not to say gates, must be shut, lest through one opening the whole camp be penetrated; and all defences must be set in order, lest through a small part left unfortified the whole city fall, as Solomon repeats, saying: He who despises small things will fall little by little.
Fit studio autem hujus perversitatis arbitror, ut a clericis ad communitatem femina magis quam masculus eligatur. Numquid tantum mulier utilior est commodis clerici, quantum prodest masculus continens, vel puer masculo continenti? Aut ipsa erit decens utilitas, quam indecens communitas facit? Et ubi erit quod Salomon ait: Omne animal diligit simile sibi? Et iterum: Volatilia ad sibi similia conveniunt. Sed et si femina utilior existimatur, non oportebat carnalia emolumenta praeponere utilitatibus spiritalium commodorum: et expediebat qualemcumque virum inutilem sustinere pro existimatione munienda, quam bonos effectus mulieris cum existimatione turpissima. Quod Salomon comparat, dicens: Melior est, inquit, iniquitas viri, quam benefaciens mulier. Artificialia sunt itaque semper diaboli veneficia, quibus ingenium suae calliditatis exercens, sanctimoniae deditos dolosis commoditatibus juvat ut perdat: et inter continentes quasi necessaria emolumenta mutuis adjuvaminibus subministrans, agit prius masculum et feminam pariter conversari; ut postquam inseparabiles fecerit per alterutra solatia, possit occidere dantes simplices animos ad castitatis vota servanda: et impugnationis suae arma subducens interim, quasi placidus fautor suggerit
But it comes about, I think, through zeal for this perversity, that a woman rather than a male is chosen by clerics for a shared life. Is a woman more useful for the conveniences of a cleric to the same degree that a continent male is of benefit, or a boy to a continent male? Or will that be a seemly usefulness which an unseemly sharing of life produces? And where will be what Solomon says: Every animal loves its like? And again: Birds gather to their like. But even if a woman is thought more useful, one ought not to set carnal advantages before the benefits of spiritual goods; and it was better to bear with any useless man whatever for the safeguarding of one's reputation than the good services of a woman with a most shameful reputation. This Solomon compares, saying: Better, he says, is the iniquity of a man than a woman doing good. Skilfully contrived, therefore, are the devil's poisonings always, by which, exercising the ingenuity of his cunning, he aids those devoted to holiness with deceitful conveniences so that he may destroy them; and, supplying among the continent as it were necessary advantages by mutual helps, he first brings it about that male and female live together alike, so that, after he has made them inseparable through reciprocal comforts, he may slay those who give their simple souls to keeping the vows of chastity; and, meanwhile withdrawing the weapons of his attack, like a gentle supporter he suggests
Editors' notes and page, col. 850
Page
- running head: [DE SINGUL]ARITATE CLERICORUM. 850 (left part of the running head cut off at the image edge)
- marginal letters: A adversus eum captivus incipiat; B tur; quanto magis ille; C mile sibi? Et iterum; D tia, possit occidere
- old-edition numerals: (none)
- other: Nolite printed with damaged l (looks like Nofite), set Nolite; stray dash printed before sanctimoniae ignored; left-column fragments belong to col. 849 and are not set; EDIT. OXON. NOTAE (Pamelius notes) at page foot not set
sanctitatis argumenta, donec diutius inter ambos inimicam nutriat concordiam. Facit affabiles sibi invicem et deservire, et assentator infestus impedimenta removens universa, commodis eorum gaudet efficaciam commodare; ut tota eos sibimetipsis necessitate commendans, exhibere eos possit in alterutrum solita consolatione pendere. Non vult eos in aliquo impedire, ne separet tam spiritaliter quam carnaliter. Inconcussos efficit vivere, ne ipsa societatis initia immaturo tempore foedera coepta conturbent. Usque adeo illos, videntibus cunctis, ad perfectum sanctitatis invitat, fovet, sublevat: ut Dei esse computent beneficia ipsa contraria, quibus inducuntur ut pereant; nescientes numquam Deum juvare quod vetat. Quibus in tantum diabolus blandiens securitatem praeparat sanctimoniae, ut conjunctos se magis aestiment quam disjunctos, immobiles circa libidinem perdurare: quos cum omni tranquillitate deducens, nullis procellis aut fluctibus inquietat; et velut in medio mari minus cautos inducit relaxare vela, nec quaerere gubernacula, ut subita tempestate concitatos, naufragos ex insperata commotione submergat. Hanc primo exhibet lenitatem, ut duas naves oblectet ad invicem convenire; quas cum fecerit junctas, repentinis turbinibus in semetipsas elidere possit et frangere: et his utitur blandimentis, ut subtractis omnibus jaculis compescens adversa, suggerens prospera, tamdiu sopitum ignem sine ullis flammis occultet, donec duas faculas jungens, simul ambas accendat: et tamdiu cessat saevitiae suae tela supponere, donec sicut peritus venator quos occisurus est laquei sui vinculis alliget. At ubi indissolubili catena devinctos adstrinxerit; velut lanista protinus duos gladiatores adversus invicem compellit armari; et subinde stimulans membra, statim gladios aptat; statim succendit insaniam, et vulnificos amplexus impingens, utrumque simul uno ictu mortificat. Sic explicat quod ante praestare videtur, sic de simplici charitate amorem conflat illicitum, sic per sanctitatem sibi inducit interitum; dum contentus est cedere, sic valet fortius occupare; et dum summissus patitur semetipsum praebere devictum, sic plenius devincere gloriatur. Cujus versutias Paulus apostolus sic intelligit, dicens: Non enim ignoramus, inquit, astutias ejus. Male itaque in hac participatione pacati sunt, qui ad bella pacificante diabolo perducuntur, et non bene in sanctitate proficiunt, quibus ad detrimentum profectus ipse inimici artificio subornatur; nec recto cursu moliuntur continentiae scalas
proofs of holiness, until he has for a long while nourished a hostile concord between the two. He makes them affable towards one another and devoted in serving each other, and as a hostile flatterer, removing every hindrance, he rejoices to lend effectiveness to their conveniences; so that, commending them to one another with an entire necessity, he can make them hang upon each other with accustomed consolation. He does not wish to hinder them in anything, lest he separate them as much spiritually as carnally. He makes them live unshaken, lest at an unripe time they should throw into confusion the very beginnings of their fellowship, the compacts entered upon. So far does he invite, cherish and lift them up towards the perfection of holiness, with all looking on, that they reckon as God's benefits the very adversities by which they are led on to perish, not knowing that God never helps what He forbids. For these the devil, flattering them, prepares so great a security of sanctity that they think themselves, joined together, more able than when apart to endure immovable with respect to lust: and leading them on in all tranquillity, he disturbs them with no storms or waves; and as it were in the middle of the sea he induces them, now less cautious, to slacken the sails and not to look for the rudders, so that, stirred up by a sudden tempest, he may sink them shipwrecked by an unexpected upheaval. This gentleness he shows at first, so that he may entice two ships to come together with one another; and when he has made them joined, he can dash them against each other with sudden whirlwinds and break them: and he uses these blandishments, so that, withdrawing all his darts, holding back adversities, suggesting prosperity, he may keep a slumbering fire hidden without any flames, until, joining two little torches, he kindles both at once: and he ceases so long from setting the weapons of his savagery in place, until, like a skilled hunter, he binds those whom he is about to kill with the bonds of his snare. But when he has tied them fast, bound with an indissoluble chain, then like a trainer of gladiators he at once compels the two gladiators to be armed against one another; and forthwith goading their limbs, he immediately fits on the swords, immediately kindles madness, and thrusting them into wound-dealing embraces, he kills both at once with one blow. Thus he unfolds what he seemed to offer before; thus out of simple charity he forges an illicit love; thus through holiness he brings on death; while he is content to yield, thus he is able more strongly to seize; and while, submissive, he suffers himself to appear vanquished, thus he boasts the more fully of conquering. His cunning the apostle Paul thus understands, saying: For we are not ignorant, he says, of his wiles. Badly, therefore, are they at peace in this partnership, who are led on to wars by the devil making peace, and they do not make good progress in holiness for whom progress itself is suborned to their harm by the enemy's artifice; nor do they strive with a straight course the ladder of continence
Editors' notes and page, col. 851
Footnotes
[EDIT. OXON. NOTAE — lemma notes without call marks; numbered here in print order. Lemmata not visible in the page-foot image are placed by inference.] (printed under page 417)
(1) ‹anchor: in semetipsas elidere› · lemma note, col 851
In semetipsas elidere. Censeo legendum illidere. PAMEL.
"To dash against each other." I think "illidere" should be read. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 417)
(2) ‹anchor: ignem sine ullis flammis occultet› · lemma note, col 851
Ignem sine ullis flammis occultet. Recte sic Morellius et Gravius cum vet. exc. et Remboldus pro eo quod alii occultat. PAMEL.
"Hides the fire without any flames." So, rightly, Morel and Gravius, with the old printed edition and Rembold, instead of the others' "occultat". PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 417)
(3) ‹anchor: et dum summissus› · lemma note, col 851
Et dum summissus. Adjicio dum et vet. exc. PAMEL.
"And while submissive." I add "dum" (while), and [so] the old printed edition [as printed: "et vet. exc."]. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 417)
(4) ‹anchor: Controversias, actionesque causarum› · lemma note, col 851 or 852 (lemma above the images)
Controversias, actionesque causarum. Genuina quoque est haec lectio, et Remboldus pro eo quod reposuit Erasmus: controversas actiones, quae causarum. PAMEL.
"Disputes, and the pleadings of cases." This reading too is genuine, and Rembold's, in place of what Erasmus put: "disputed pleadings, which of cases". PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 417)
(5) ‹anchor: sed per correctionem› · lemma note, col 852
Sed per correctionem. Placet et ista pro correptionem. PAMEL.
"But by correction." This too pleases, in place of "correptionem" (rebuke). PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 417)
(6) ‹anchor: et in caeteros actus› · lemma note, col 852
Et in caeteros actus. Etiam haec pro inter. PAMEL.
"And in other acts." This too in place of "inter". PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 417)
(7) ‹anchor: Video plane sic› · lemma note, col 852
Video plane sic. Et hic et paulo post adjecit negationem non, Erasmus; sed non est opus. Est enim ironia, sicut et in eo quod sequitur cognosco, etc. Idem est judicium de his adjuncta ab illo negatione, ad illam sententiam, si Christus seipsum, etc. praesertim si legamus cum illis facit pro faciet. PAMEL.
"I plainly see thus." Here and a little later Erasmus added the negative "non"; but there is no need. For it is irony, as also in what follows, "I recognize", etc. The same judgement holds of the negative he attached to these words at the sentence "if Christ himself", etc., especially if we read with them "facit" (does) for "faciet" (will do). PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 417)
Page
- running head: 851 LIBER
- marginal letters: A sanctitatis argumenta; B curitatem praeparat sanctimoniae; C supponere, donec sicut; D pacati sunt, qui ad bella
- old-edition numerals: (none)
- other: "tota" is printed with an accent (totâ/totá), set without it; scripture citation (2 Cor. 2:11) has no printed reference; heading "EDIT. OXON. NOTAE" at page foot runs into the cut-off right column and is not set; the editors' notes at the foot (Pamelius) are not set; the column ends mid-sentence at "scalas"
ascendere, quos ut de alto praecipitet, elaborat ad culmen adversarius protelare. Sed necesse est caducis lapsibus elidantur, qui viam lubricam tenuerunt, de qua Salomon sic praedicat, dicens : Est via quae videtur apud homines recta esse; novissima autem ejus veniunt in profundum infernorum.
to climb, whom the adversary labours to draw on to the summit so that he may hurl them down from on high. But those who have held to the slippery road must be dashed down in ruinous falls, the road of which Solomon thus proclaims, saying: There is a way which seems among men to be right; but its last ends come into the depth of the nether regions.
Sed aiunt : Si de hac conjunctione clerici denotantur, notandi sunt etiam sancti plerique nobiscum. Sicut Helias, qui mansit apud viduam : sive Apostoli, qui mulieres secum comites circumducebant : ut Joannes, qui matrem Domini assumpsit, eodem Domino delegante; aut ipse Dominus, cui de suis facultatibus alimenta praestabant aliquae mulieres religiosae, cui etiam Martha ministrabat ad mensam, et qui singulariter locutus est ad puteum sedens cum alienigena muliere Samaritana, vel cui recumbenti femina lacrymis pedes lavit, et capillis extersit. Callidi argumentatores et jurisperiti fallaces : qui dum cupiunt praevaricari controversias actionesque causarum, etiam ipsa jura transvertunt; et cum nolunt competentibus coerceri jussionibus legum, ad illudendos judices inconvenientibus exemplis velut similes conjecturas juris objiciunt : qui per Salomonem ipsius legis sagacitate produntur : Peccator, inquit, homo evitat correptionem, et ad voluntatem suam invenit comparationem. Tales ergo non per orationem, sed per correctionem potius revincendi sunt, ut non ante interpretatis orationibus instruantur, quam admiserint quod ad defensionis solatium repererunt; sicut nos adversus hujusmodi homines Salomon edocet, dicens : Noli, inquit, respondere insipienti ad ipsius insipientiam, ne similis fias illi; sed responde insipienti contra ipsius insipientiam, ut non videatur sibi sapiens esse.
But they say: If clerics are censured for this association, then many saints too must be censured along with us. Such as Elijah, who stayed with the widow; or the Apostles, who led women about with them as companions; as John, who took the mother of the Lord to himself, the same Lord entrusting her to him; or the Lord Himself, to Whom certain religious women supplied sustenance from their own means, Whom Martha also served at table, and Who spoke alone at the well, sitting with a foreign woman of Samaria, or Whose feet, as He reclined, a woman washed with tears and wiped with her hair. Cunning arguers and deceitful lawyers! who, while they desire to pervert the controversies and actions of cases, twist even the laws themselves; and when they are unwilling to be restrained by the fitting commands of the laws, they put forward, to make sport of the judges, unsuitable examples as though they were like conjectures of law: who are exposed through Solomon by the shrewdness of the law itself: A sinful man, he says, avoids correction, and finds a comparison to suit his will. Such men, therefore, are to be refuted not by speech, but rather by correction, so that they may not be furnished with speeches explained to them beforehand, before they have committed what they have found as a comfort for their defence; just as Solomon teaches us against men of this kind, saying: Do not, he says, answer a fool according to his folly, lest you become like him; but answer a fool against his folly, so that he may not seem to himself to be wise.
Revera magni homines qui se comparant sanctis, et eximia conversatio nostra, quae Prophetis vel Apostolis videatur aequalis. Ad occasionem luxuriae nostrae in perversum sanctos volumus imitari; et in caeteros actus vestigia justorum nolumus sequi. In quibusdam infirmos nos excusamus ad imitanda facta majorum; et in aliis nos aequales majoribus protestamur : cum Helias ipse in angustia constitutus, imparem se patribus suis ante Deum fateatur. Numquid, inquit, melior sum patribus meis? Hoc Helias de antecessoribus suis in infirmitate sua cogitur exclamare : et nos Heliae vel Prophetis, et Apostolis, et Domino virtutem nostram non dubitamus aequare? Video plane sic apud vos calcari avaritiam, sicut Apostoli propria cuncta dimiserunt. Video crapulam
Truly great men are they who compare themselves to the saints, and outstanding is our way of life, which would seem equal to the Prophets or Apostles! As an occasion for our wantonness we wish to imitate the saints perversely; and in our other acts we are unwilling to follow the footsteps of the just. In some things we excuse ourselves as too weak to imitate the deeds of our forebears; and in others we declare ourselves equal to our forebears: whereas Elijah himself, placed in distress, confesses himself unequal to his fathers before God. Am I, he says, better than my fathers? This Elijah is compelled in his weakness to cry out about his predecessors: and do we not hesitate to make our virtue equal to Elijah, or the Prophets, and the Apostles, and the Lord? I plainly see avarice trodden underfoot among you just as the Apostles gave up all their own possessions. I see gluttony
Editors' notes and page, col. 852
Page
- running head: LIBER (cut off at left) 852
- marginal letters: A ascendere, quos ut de alto; B nigena muliere Samaritana; C lomon edocet, dicens; D re : et nos Heliae
- old-edition numerals: (none)
- other: full-width line "...IT. OXON. NOTAE." (Oxford edition notes heading) above the page-foot notes, cut off at left edge, not set; page-foot editors' notes (Pamelius) not set; "Helias" in the second paragraph blurred (looks like "ffelias"), set Helias; "cupiunt" partly damaged, read with confidence from context
et ebrietatem sic vestris conviviis abesse, sicut Apostoli nihil habentes frequenter coacti sunt esurire. Cognosco taliter in nobis jejunia, sitim, famem, nuditatem propter instantiam doctrinae solius ubique pollere, sicut in Apostolis legimus triumphasse; et approbantur apud nos eadem exercitia fervere virtutum, quibus Apostoli omnia vitia tremuerunt. Plane quadraginta dierum jejunium Domini meditamur, et orationes excubiasque quibus ille per solitudines etiam nocturna silentia rumpebat. Numquid similes agones frequentamus contra luctamina vitiorum, et sic agimus rigore, austeritate, vigiliis, passionibus, labore, necessitate, afflictione, abstinentia, quibus peccata calcantur, ut nemo de nobis mali aliquid suspicetur? Per quae Paulus apostolus conscientiam suam innotuisse omnibus gloriatur: In omnibus, inquit, commendantes nosmetipsos quasi Dei ministros, in sustentatione multa, in pressuris, in tentationibus, in tribulationibus, in angustiis, in plagis, in custodiis, in carceribus, in seditionibus, in invocationibus, in laboribus, in vigiliis, in jejuniis, in castitate, in scientia, in longanimitate, in bonitate, in Spiritu sancto, in charitate non ficta, in verbo veritatis, in virtute Dei, per arma justitiae a dextris et a sinistris. Ad has imitationes infirmi sumus; et ad mulieres circumducendas possibilitatem nobis comparandae imitationis adsciscimus: quod si etiam cuncta illorum quisquam se implere jactasset; me tamen nullius suadela poterat inclinare, ut alios nunc Apostolos crederem, contra apostoli Pauli professionem: Numquid, inquit, omnes Apostoli? Numquid omnes Prophetae? Si Christus seipsum comparare ausus est Deo, qui ait: Pater major me est; aut si Apostoli coaequare semetipsos ausi sunt Christo! nos hodie Apostolis aequales facit consimilis fortitudo. Misera humanitas in hac aequalitate non times fulminari, quae de Filio Dei, aut de filiis tonitrui, non cunctaris peccatis tuis exempla velut similia mutuare? Cum superbiae sit elata jactantia, etiam minimis Ecclesiae quemquam comparabilem velle conscribit, cum Paulus moneat et dicat: Alter alterum superiorem sibi existimantes. Et inferius addidit, dicens: Hoc sentite de vobis quod et in Christo Jesu, qui cum in forma Dei esset constitutus, non rapinam arbitratus est esse se aequalem Deo, sed semetipsum exinanivit, formam servi accipiens.
and drunkenness to be thus absent from your banquets, just as the Apostles, having nothing, were frequently compelled to go hungry. I recognize that among us fasts, thirst, hunger and nakedness, on account of the urgency of teaching alone, prevail everywhere in such a way as we read that they triumphed in the Apostles; and the same exercises of the virtues are shown to be fervent among us, by which the Apostles trembled at all vices. Plainly we meditate on the forty days' fast of the Lord, and on the prayers and vigils with which He broke even the silences of the night throughout the solitudes. Do we frequent similar contests against the wrestlings of the vices, and do we act with such rigour, austerity, vigils, sufferings, labour, necessity, affliction and abstinence, by which sins are trampled down, that no one suspects anything evil of us? Through these things the apostle Paul glories that his conscience had become known to all: In all things, he says, commending ourselves as ministers of God, in much endurance, in pressures, in temptations, in tribulations, in straits, in stripes, in custodies, in prisons, in seditions, in invocations, in labours, in vigils, in fasts, in chastity, in knowledge, in long-suffering, in goodness, in the Holy Spirit, in love unfeigned, in the word of truth, in the power of God, through the arms of justice on the right and on the left. For these imitations we are weak; and for leading women about we claim for ourselves the possibility of a comparable imitation: but even if anyone had boasted that he fulfilled all their deeds, yet no one's persuasion could incline me to believe that there are now other Apostles, against the declaration of the apostle Paul: Are all, he says, Apostles? Are all Prophets? If Christ, Who says: The Father is greater than I, dared to compare Himself to God; or if the Apostles dared to make themselves equal to Christ! a like fortitude makes us today equal to the Apostles. Wretched humanity, do you not fear to be struck by lightning in this equality, you who do not hesitate to borrow for your sins examples, as though similar, from the Son of God or from the sons of thunder? Since it is the elated boasting of pride to wish anyone to be enrolled as comparable even to the least of the Church, since Paul admonishes and says: Each esteeming the other superior to himself. And further on he added, saying: Think this of yourselves which [was] also in Christ Jesus, Who, though He was established in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal to God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant.
Minus itaque de nostris viribus sentiendum est, nec fortitudini sanctorum nostra infirmitas comparanda est, sicut nobis apostolus Paulus de semetipso magisterium proponit, et dicit: Non enim audemus, inquit, comparare nos aut conferre quibusdam qui seipsos commendant, sed ipsi in nobis ipsis nosmetipsos nobis commendantes: non supra mensuram
We must therefore think less of our own strength, and our weakness is not to be compared with the fortitude of the saints, just as the apostle Paul sets forth teaching for us from his own example, and says: For we do not dare, he says, to compare or match ourselves with some who commend themselves, but we ourselves, within ourselves, commending ourselves to ourselves: not beyond measure
Editors' notes and page, col. 853
Footnotes
[EDIT. OXON. NOTAE — lemma notes without call marks; numbered here in print order. Lemmata not visible in the page-foot image are placed by inference.] (printed under page 418)
(1) ‹anchor: In invocationibus› · lemma note, col 853 (lemma above the image)
In invocationibus. Voces nonnullae hic redundantes e margine videntur in textum irrepsisse.
"In invocations." Some superfluous words here seem to have crept into the text from the margin. [No signature printed.]
(printed under page 418)
(2) ‹anchor: unus per rupes› · lemma note, col 854
Unus per rupes. Vetus exc. et Remboldus ripas. PAMEL.
"One over the crags." The old printed edition and Rembold have "ripas" (banks). PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 418)
(3) ‹anchor: Paulus apostolus decernit, dicens› · lemma note, col 854
Paulus apostolus decernit, dicens. Adjicio dicens ex vet. exc. PAMEL.
"The apostle Paul decrees, saying." I add "saying" from the old printed edition. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 418)
(4) ‹anchor: quid aliud exemplum nolunt› · lemma note, col 854
Quid aliud exemplum volunt. Ex eodem cum Morellio lego sic, pro volunt. PAMEL.
"What other example do they want." From the same [edition], with Morel, I read so, instead of "volunt". [As printed, lemma and rejected reading are both "volunt"; the text above reads "nolunt".] PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 418)
(5) ‹anchor: et qui Apostolis› · lemma note, col 854
Et qui Apostolis. Solus Manutius Apostolicis. PAMEL.
"And he who [contends to be equalled] to the Apostles." Manutius alone has "Apostolicis" (to apostolic men). PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 418)
Page
- running head: DE SINGULARITATE CLE (cut off at the image edge; presumably DE SINGULARITATE CLERICORUM)
- marginal letters: A ‹et ebrietatem sic vestris conviviis›; B ‹suam innotuisse omnibus gloriatur›; C ‹quid, inquit, omnes Apostoli?›; D ‹formam servi accipiens.›
- old-edition numerals: (none)
- other: "velle conscribit" is set as printed; the sense suggests "conscribi", which may be a misprint. It is translated as "conscribi". UNSURE about the punctuation "Christo!" and "est;": both are set as they appear. The editors' notes at the page foot (EDIT. OXON. NOTAE, Pamel.) are not set. The right-hand column (854) is cut off and is not set.
gloriantes, sed ad mensuram gratiae, quam nobis mensus est Deus. Etenim contemplamur quod iterum dixit: Plus ab illis omnibus laboravi, nihil melius, nihil aptius mihi proponitur, unde vincam, nisi ut de ipso de quo mihi praescribitur, ego ipse praescribam. Certe plus omnibus ipse laboravit, et tamen ad mulieres circumducendas collegas suos imitari contremuit, ne se ad interitum subjiceret tentationi carnali. Unde ipse rationem sic reddidit, dicens: Ego, inquit, sic curro, non quasi in incertum: sic pugno, non quasi aerem caedens, sed affligo corpus meum et in servitutem redigo, ne forte aliis praedicans, ipse reprobus inveniar. Huic ergo te compara, qui Apostolum jactas; et ex ipso disce quid metuas, qui clamat et dicit: Oro vos, imitatores mei estote. Noluit itaque de mulieribus circumducendis habere fiduciam; qui non ignorabat quantum aliae virtutes ab aliis virtutibus differant, et aliam claritatem solis, et aliam lunae, aliam vero stellarum, de charismatibus Ecclesiasticis similitudinem comparans intimaverat. Sed nos contra de apostolica nobis coaequatione blandimur, non intendentes penitus quid Apostoli et sancti omnes invicta virtute gesserunt, et difficilem rumpere quaerimus viam, cum per facilia planior sit nobis apposita; contra Salomonem dicentem: Non te credas, inquit, viae laboriosae, ne ponas animae tuae scandalum. Nec ullus considerat, quoniam unus securus in lubrico graditur, et alius qui impar est, labitur: unus per rupes cursu montes ascendit, alius si se coarctavit, cadit. Uni contingit per tempestates navigia feliciter explicare, et alteri talis felicitas non potest evenire; quod Paulus apostolus decernit, dicens: Unusquisque, inquit, proprium donum habet ex Deo, unus quidem sic, alius vero sic.
glorying, but according to the measure of the grace which God has measured out to us. For indeed we consider what he said again: I have laboured more than all of them; nothing better, nothing more fitting is set before me by which I may prevail, than that I myself should enter my plea on the strength of the very one on whose strength a plea is entered against me. Certainly he himself laboured more than all, and yet he trembled to imitate his colleagues in leading women about, lest he should subject himself to destruction through carnal temptation. Hence he himself gave his reason thus, saying: I, he says, so run, not as into uncertainty; so I fight, not as beating the air, but I afflict my body and bring it into servitude, lest perhaps, while preaching to others, I myself should be found reprobate. Compare yourself therefore with him, you who boast of the Apostle; and learn from him what you should fear, from him who cries out and says: I beg you, be imitators of me. He was therefore unwilling to have confidence in the matter of leading women about; he who was not ignorant how much some virtues differ from other virtues, and who, drawing a comparison concerning the gifts of the Church, had intimated that the brightness of the sun is one, and that of the moon another, and that of the stars yet another. But we, on the contrary, flatter ourselves with being made equal to the apostles, not attending at all to what the Apostles and all the saints accomplished by unconquered virtue, and we seek to break through a difficult way, when a plainer one through easy places is set before us; against Solomon, who says: Do not trust yourself, he says, to a laborious way, lest you set a stumbling block for your soul. Nor does anyone consider that one man walks securely on slippery ground, and another, who is unequal to it, falls; one climbs mountains at a run over the rocks, another, if he has hemmed himself in, falls. To one it befalls to bring his ships successfully through storms, and to another such good fortune cannot come; which Paul the apostle determines, saying: Each one, he says, has his own gift from God, one in this way, another in that.
Sed qui mihi de sanctorum exemplo praejudicant; quid aliud exemplum nolunt contemplari, quod metuant; et qui Apostolis coaequari contendit, quare non magis presbyteros adulteros apud Danielem ad formidinem sibimetipse proponit? Haec autem non ideo propono, ut quasi Apostolorum imitatoribus contradicam, sed ut illos confundam, qui se sanctis exaequent. Nec nego ipsos esse sectandos, quos doctores accepimus cuncti; sed adversus eos contendo, qui cupientes ad mala sua bonorum historias depravare, legem Dei sibi aestimant suffragari; sicut omnes qui perire festinant, et sub obtentu sanctorum dedecora sua volunt esse celata, ut sub imitatione majorum contraria quaeque committant; quos apostolus Paulus prodit et publicat, dicens: Quod autem facio, et facturus sum, ut amputem occasionem; eorum qui volunt occasionem; ut in eo in quo gloriantur, tales inveniantur quales et nos sumus. Nam et hujus
But those who prejudge against me from the example of the saints, why are they unwilling to contemplate another example, which they should fear; and he who strives to be made equal to the Apostles, why does he not rather set before himself, to make him afraid, the adulterous elders in Daniel? Now I do not set these things forth in order as it were to contradict the imitators of the Apostles, but to confound those who make themselves equal to the saints. Nor do I deny that those whom we have all received as teachers are to be followed; but I contend against those who, desiring to distort the histories of the good in favour of their own evils, reckon that the law of God supports them; as do all who hasten to perish, and wish their disgraceful deeds to be concealed under the pretext of the saints, so that under the guise of imitating their elders they may commit every contrary thing; whom the apostle Paul exposes and makes public, saying: But what I do, and shall do, is that I may cut off the occasion of those who want an occasion; so that in that in which they glory, they may be found such as we also are. For also of this
Editors' notes and page, col. 854
Page
- running head: ...ARITATE CLERICORUM. 854 (left part of running head cut off at image edge)
- marginal letters: A ‹gloriantes, sed ad mensuram›; B ‹itaque de mulieribus circumducendis›; C ‹pestates navigia feliciter›; D ‹vare, legem Dei sibi›
- old-edition numerals: (none)
- other: "tem-pestates" at margin C and "depra-vare" at margin D joined; "nolunt" set as printed (a foot note proposes "volunt"); full-width heading "EDIT. OXON. NOTAE." at page foot, part of apparatus, not set; running head and left column (853) cut off at image edge; no scripture references printed in this column
modi pseudo-apostoli sunt operarii dolosi, transfigurantes se in Apostolos Christi. Hoc addunt ad cumulum perditionis cumulandum, ut bonos infament, quorum exemplo utuntur ad malum; quibus utile esset satis et salubre, si cujuscumque historiae seipsos magis crederent non intellexisse rationem, quam aliquid inhonestum arbitrarentur in lege: quos apostolus Paulus corripit et confundit, dicens: Non intelligentes neque quae loquuntur neque de quibus affirmant. Et iterum: Si quis putat se scire aliquid, necdum cognovit quemamodum eum oporteat scire. Vacant itaque praejudicia petulantium, quos ingenia suae perversitatis errabunda transducunt; et quaerunt competentes suis sensibus historias quas exponant, qui male agentes mutuant legalia patrocinia. Bene agentibus bona sunt omnia, quaecumque scripta sunt, qui benedicta bene suscipiunt; sicut Paulus apostolus pollicetur: Scimus quoniam bona est lex, si quis ea legitime utatur.
sort false apostles are deceitful workers, transforming themselves into Apostles of Christ. This they add to heap up the heap of perdition, that they defame the good, whose example they use for evil; for whom it would be useful and wholesome enough if they believed rather that they themselves had not understood the reason of any narrative whatever, than that they should judge anything in the law to be dishonourable: whom the apostle Paul rebukes and confounds, saying: Understanding neither what they say nor concerning what they affirm. And again: If anyone thinks that he knows something, he has not yet known how he ought to know. Void, therefore, are the prejudgements of the wanton, whom the wandering inclinations of their perversity lead astray; and they seek out narratives suited to their own notions to expound, they who, doing evil, borrow the protections of the law. To those who do well all things are good, whatever things are written, to those who receive well what is well spoken; as Paul the apostle assures: We know that the law is good, if anyone uses it lawfully.
Obtinuimus confundendo contradictores. Convertamur subinde eosdem quos vicimus insuper erudire, ne aut ut sanctos remanere patiamur in crimine, aut ignari deputemur in reddendo rationem, ut publice victi poenitentiam gerant: aut si noluerint, nos expunximus quod ad nostram pertinet diligentiam; ut quomodo satisfecimus supra dictae sententiae Salomonis, ita satisfaciamus Paulo apostolo concionanti: Servum, inquit, Domini non oportet litigare, sed mitem esse ad omnes, docibilem, patientem, cum omni modestia corripientem eos qui resistunt veritati; ne forte det illis Deus poenitentiam ad cognoscendam veritatem, et resipiscant a diaboli laqueis, a quo captivi tenentur secundum ejus voluntatem.
We have prevailed by confounding the gainsayers. Let us turn next to instruct, moreover, those same men whom we have overcome, lest either we allow the saints, as it were, to remain under accusation, or we be reckoned ignorant in rendering an account, so that, publicly overcome, they may do penance: or if they refuse, we have discharged what pertains to our diligence; so that, as we have satisfied the above-mentioned saying of Solomon, so we may satisfy Paul the apostle when he preaches: The servant of the Lord, he says, must not quarrel, but be gentle towards all, apt to learn, patient, with all modesty rebuking those who resist the truth; lest perhaps God may give them penitence to know the truth, and they may come to their senses out of the snares of the devil, by whom they are held captive according to his will.
Omne quidquid ab auctoribus nostris gestum est, rationabiliter gerebatur: ut posteris nobis adversus praevaricatores munita undique auctoritas traderetur, propter haeresin amputandam quam superius taxavimus, de assumendis feminis; quam sive per semetipsum, sive per servos suos Dominus paululum relaxavit, ne nimio rigore in totum Domini fabrica damnaretur; praevidebantur a Domino haeretici qui nuptias auferunt; et quos Dominus junxit, contra naturae principium, et contra Evangelium separare contendunt. Quibus interdicens jam tunc auctoritas parabatur, ne maritatae mulieres accidere vetarentur ad Christum, qui in praesentia servierunt. Sed non sine moderamine fuit etiam ipsa permissio procurata, quae non sibi operabatur quod gerebat, sed caeteris. Nam sic allocutus Dominus Samaritanam, ad horam docuit et recessit, nec defensionem continuandis excessibus fecit. Ad horam quoque Martham passus est ministrantem. Sed quid erat aliud Domino, nisi regni
Everything whatsoever that was done by our authorities was done with reason: so that to us, their posterity, an authority fortified on every side might be handed down against transgressors, for the cutting off of the heresy which we censured above, concerning the taking in of women; which the Lord relaxed a little, whether through Himself or through His servants, lest by excessive rigour the Lord's building should be condemned altogether; heretics were foreseen by the Lord who take away marriage; and those whom the Lord has joined they strive to separate, against the principle of nature and against the Gospel. To forbid them an authority was even then being prepared, lest married women, who served [Him] in His presence, should be forbidden to come to Christ. But not without restraint was even that very permission arranged, which brought about what it did not for itself but for others. For thus the Lord, having addressed the Samaritan woman, taught for an hour and withdrew, nor did He make a defence for continued excesses. For an hour also He suffered Martha to minister. But what else was there for the Lord, except of the kingdom
Editors' notes and page, col. 855
Footnotes
[EDIT. OXON. NOTAE — lemma notes without call marks; numbered here in print order. Lemmata not visible in the page-foot image are placed by inference.] (printed under page 419)
(1) ‹anchor: quos Dominus junxit› · lemma note, col 855
Quos Dominus junxit. Aut sic legendum cum Erasmo, aut cum vet. exc. et Remboldo, quod Dominus jussit; prius tamen arridet magis. PAMEL.
"Those whom the Lord has joined." Either one should read so with Erasmus, or with the old printed edition and Rembold, "what the Lord commanded"; the former, however, appeals more. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 419)
(2) ‹anchor: Sic Apostolos mulierum comitatus decebat› · lemma note, col 855 (lemma above the image)
Sic Apostolos mulierum comitatus decebat. Vet. exc. Apostolus, etc. docebat. PAMEL.
"So did the company of women befit the Apostles." The old printed edition has "Apostolus" (the Apostle), etc., "docebat" (taught). PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 419)
(3) ‹anchor: Ubi tota Ecclesia propemodum videbitur› · lemma note, col 855 (lemma above the image; runs into col 856)
Ubi tota Ecclesia propemodum videbitur. Locus prorsus obscurus. Vet. excusus vero et Remboldus legunt conjurationes improbrosas, pro convivationes improbas, non recte. PAMEL.
"Where nearly the whole Church will be seen." A wholly obscure passage. The old printed edition and Rembold read "conjurationes improbrosas" (shameful conspiracies) instead of "convivationes improbas" (wicked banquetings), not correctly. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 419)
(4) ‹anchor: Ideo non inde scribitur› · lemma note, col 856
Ideo non inde scribitur. Hoc ex cod. vet. exc. pro quo Remboldus, adeo; Erasmus vero, ad ea bene describitur. Morell. adeo non bene. PAMEL.
"Therefore it is not written thence." This from the manuscript and the old printed edition; for it Rembold has "adeo"; Erasmus, "ad ea bene describitur" (is well described for those things); Morel, "adeo non bene". PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 419)
(5) ‹anchor: Tamen non possum› · lemma note, col 856
Tamen non possum. Istud rursum ex illorum utroque, pro eo quod Erasmus possunt. PAMEL.
"Yet I cannot." This again from both of them, instead of Erasmus's "possunt" (they can). PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 419)
Page
- running head: 855 LIBER (rest of running head cut off at image edge)
- marginal letters: A ‹modi pseudo-apostoli sunt operarii›; B ‹Bene agentibus bona sunt omnia›; C ‹forte det illis Deus poenitentiam›; D ‹ad Christum, qui in praesentia servierunt›
- old-edition numerals: (none)
- other: column begins with the fragment "modi", the rest of a word (hujus-/ejus-modi) broken from col. 854, set as printed; "accidere vetarentur ad Christum" printed thus, probably for accedere, left as printed (unsure whether misprint or variant); full-width heading "EDIT. OXON. NOT." at the page foot above the editors' notes, not set; the notes themselves (Quos Dominus junxit..., Sic Apostolos..., Ubi tota Ecclesia...) left for the later pass; no editors' matter in the text block.
coelestis prandia ministrare? Numquid sub Domino non fuere convivia? Aut sub majestate ejus erat alias cibus aut potus, quam disciplina tantummodo quae pascebat? Testante ipso Domino ac dicente: Meus cibus est, ut faciam voluntatem ejus qui misit me. Sic Apostolos mulierum comitatus decebat non ut perderent, sed ut discerent reverentiam, et propter humanitatis exhibendum ministerium sequebantur, sicut in Evangelio de Domino et de ipsis pariter memoratur: Et factum est, inquit, post haec et ipse iter faciebat per civitates et castella evangelizans regnum Dei, et duodecim cum illo, et mulieres quae erant curatae a spiritibus immundis et infirmitatibus, Maria quae vocatur Magdalene, de qua daemonia septem exierant, et Joanna, uxor Chuzae procuratoris Herodis, et Susanna, et aliae multae quae et ministrabant ei de facultatibus suis.
of heaven, to serve the meals? Were there no banquets under the Lord? Or under His majesty was there any other food or drink than the discipline alone which fed them? As the Lord Himself testifies and says: My food is to do the will of Him Who sent Me. Thus the company of women befitted the apostles, not that they might lose reverence but that they might learn it, and the women followed for the sake of rendering a service of kindness, as is recorded in the Gospel of the Lord and of them alike: And it came to pass, it says, after these things, that He Himself also journeyed through cities and villages, preaching the good news of the kingdom of God, and the twelve with Him, and women who had been cured of unclean spirits and infirmities, Mary who is called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others who also ministered to Him from their resources.
Numquid adhaerebant singularibus singulae, aut indisciplinatae commorantes, perseverabant illecebroso consortio conversantes? Ubi tota Ecclesia propemodum videbitur, ut non ad convivationes improbas, sed ad discenda bonae conversationis studia sequerentur. Ideo non inde scribitur, quod nostris convivationibus coaequetur, non risus, non jocus dicitur affuisse. Nec sicut apud quosdam nunc usque assolet fieri, chorus psallentium virginum aures venenosis cantibus asseritur demulsisse. Et ut de Apostolis breviter probem, quantum illis fluxa familiaritas potuit displicere, qui compulsi sunt et de ipso Domino loquente cum femina dubitare, nisi eos majestatis notitia probata compesceret, sicut Evangelista refert, dicens: Inter haec, inquit, venerunt discipuli ejus, et mirabantur quod cum muliere loqueretur. Nemo tamen dixit illi: Quid quaeris, aut quid loqueris cum ea? Quid autem loquar accessum feminae ad pedes Domini provolutae, cujus luctus et planctus ad defensionem lasciviae suae non erubescunt improbi flagitare? Usque adeo illos propria caecitas rapit, ut nec de similibus causis audeant reluctari, de quibus Salomon: Excaecavit, inquit, eos malitia eorum, ut nescirent sacramenta Dei. Joannes autem matrem Domini suscepisse videtur, sed matrem cujus mores maternum indicat nomen. Tamen non possum et alias Christi matres admittere, nec aequanda est mulieribus cunctis, quae genuit Majestatem. Helias quoque jussus est a Domino relinquere solitudinem et ingredi tabernaculum viduae. Pro imperio Domini laboravit ut in domo mansisset, cui solitudo solatium praestabat et requiem; occasionem illi Dominus obtulit ad magnalia facienda, ut magis famis tempore tam ipsi viduae quam pupillis ejus sufficientia tribueret alimenta, qui jejuniis usquequaque afflictus toleraverat
Did the women cling one each to individual men, or, staying together undisciplined, did they persist in keeping company in an enticing fellowship? There almost the whole Church will be seen, so that they followed not for wicked feastings but to learn the pursuits of good conduct. Therefore nothing is written there that might be likened to our feastings; neither laughter nor jesting is said to have been present. Nor, as is customary among some even to this day, is a choir of psalm-singing virgins asserted to have soothed ears with poisonous songs. And that I may briefly prove from the apostles how much loose familiarity could displease them: they were driven to doubt even concerning the Lord Himself when He was speaking with a woman, had not the proven knowledge of His majesty restrained them, as the Evangelist relates, saying: Meanwhile, it says, His disciples came, and they marvelled that He was speaking with a woman. Yet no one said to Him: What do You seek, or why do You speak with her? But what shall I say of the approach of the woman prostrate at the Lord's feet, whose weeping and lamentation the wicked do not blush to demand in defence of their own wantonness? So far does their own blindness carry them away that they do not dare to resist even in similar cases, of whom Solomon says: Their malice, he says, blinded them, so that they did not know the mysteries of God. John, moreover, is seen to have taken in the mother of the Lord, but a mother whose character the name of mother indicates. Yet I cannot admit other mothers of Christ as well, nor is she who bore the Majesty to be made equal to all women. Elijah too was commanded by the Lord to leave the solitude and to enter the dwelling of a widow. At the Lord's command he laboured to stay in a house, he to whom solitude afforded comfort and rest; the Lord offered him an occasion for doing great works, so that rather in a time of famine he might provide sufficient food both for the widow herself and for her orphans, he who, afflicted by fasting at every point, had endured
Editors' notes and page, col. 856
Page
- running head: LIBER 856 (left part of the running head cut off at the image edge)
- marginal letters: A coelestis prandia ministrare; B dis, et Susanna; C notitia probata compesceret; D que jussus est a Domino
- old-edition numerals: (none)
- other: column begins mid-sentence with "coelestis"; last word "tolerave-" hyphenated across the column break (toleraverat or similar), English likewise broken. "alias cibus" set as printed (other editions read alius), taken as the adverb in the English; UNSURE whether a misprint. Full-width heading "[ED]IT. OXON. NOTAE." at the page foot, cut off at the left edge, not set; the Pamelius notes below it (Variae lectiones/notes) are left for the later pass. No editors' matter in the text block.
indigentiam; et qui missus venerat pasci, pastus quinimo conferens miseris, miserias egestatis fecit excludi. Et hoc non potest cujusquam favere luxuriae; cum nulla fuerit opportunitas scandali ubi transeunter quod pejus est egestosam habuerit mansionem, quam quicumque hospes effugeret. At hic apud quos hospitatus est, implevit et rediit; qui etiamsi moraretur, suspectus esse non potuit. Qualis illic fuit communitatis effectus, ubi non erat victus? Et qualem ad viduam habuit Helias introitum, cui fames dedit hospitium? Quisquis es qui te vis Heliae de commoratione viduae vocari discipulum, prius solitudinis afflictiones, et quadraginta dierum tolera jejunii exitum, et aut non quaeres feminam, aut non erit qui cum femina commoretur, et tamen si valueris tibi serva. Nobis autem in spiritu et virtute Heliae non alium quam Joannem solum Angelus, et Dominus Christus insinuat.
their need; and he who had been sent to be fed, once fed, and indeed bestowing on the wretched, caused the miseries of want to be shut out. And this cannot favour anyone's luxury, since there was no opportunity for scandal where, passing through, he had (what is worse) a needy lodging, such as any guest would flee. But he filled those among whom he was lodged, and went back; and even if he had stayed, he could not have been suspected. What sort of effect of fellowship was there, where there was no food? And what kind of entry to the widow did Elijah have, to whom hunger gave hospitality? Whoever you are who wish to be called a disciple of Elijah on the ground of his staying with the widow, first endure the afflictions of solitude and the outcome of a fast of forty days, and either you will not seek a woman, or there will be no one to stay with a woman; and yet, if you are able, keep yourself. But to us the Angel, and the Lord Christ, point to none other than John alone in the spirit and power of Elijah.
Proh dolor! dolere cogimur quod docemus: qui usque ad hoc venimus, ut in comparatione fluxorum, de sanctorum tremendis virtutibus disputemus. Parce, jam parce, protervitas. Numquam tibi sancti consentiunt; qui religiosa, modesta, veneranda, pudica, pudorata cum feminis negotia peregerunt. Aut si adhuc per sanctos cavillationis anfractus contendis exquirere; nos tamen amicos Dei non novimus, nisi ad venerationem tantummodo memorari, quod David docuit, dicens: Mihi autem vehementer honorificati sunt amici tui, Deus. Eant nunc praedones pudoris, et plagiarii castitatis, mulierculis suis exponere molestias querelarum. Apud sanctos nostros non habent omnino suffugium, quibus misceri Ecclesiae auctoritate Pauli apostoli prohibetur: Et hos, inquit, devita; ex his enim sunt qui repunt in domos, et captivas ducunt mulierculas oneratas peccatis, quae ducuntur variis desideriis.
Alas, the grief! We are compelled to grieve over what we teach, we who have come to this, that we debate the awe-inspiring virtues of the saints in comparison with dissolute men. Spare, now spare, O wantonness. Never do the saints agree with you, they who conducted their dealings with women in a religious, modest, venerable, chaste and bashful manner. Or if you still strive to search out the windings of cavilling through the saints, yet we know that the friends of God are to be remembered only for veneration, as David taught, saying: But to me Thy friends, O God, are exceedingly honoured. Let the robbers of modesty and the kidnappers of chastity now go and lay out the vexations of their complaints to their little women. With our saints they have no refuge at all, they with whom the Church is forbidden to mingle by the authority of the apostle Paul: And these, he says, avoid; for of these are those who creep into houses and lead captive little women laden with sins, who are led by various desires.
Post hoc edictum utinam confidant sibi Angelorum exempla conducere. Nos jam non valent flectere, qui novimus et Angelos cum feminis cecidisse. Ab ipsis equidem bene patrocinia mutuantur, sed nos nullum Angelum audimus contra Paulum apostolum: Etsi, inquit, ego aut Angelus Dei aliter evangelizaverit vobis, praeterquam quod evangelizavimus vobis, anathema sit. Insaniunt prorsus, ardent desiderio feminarum, quotquot huic interdictioni non cedunt; et obscoenitatibus inhiantes, malunt mori, quam contenti sint a lateribus mulierum aliqua disjunctione divelli: ut ad explendam suae aviditatis ingluviem etiam puncto temporis non sint sine feminae voluptate: et hunc habent in mulieribus fructum, ut in illis semper defixa intentione, desideria satient oculorum,
After this edict, would that they might trust that the examples of the Angels serve their purpose. They can no longer sway us, who know that Angels too fell with women. From them indeed they fittingly borrow their patronage, but we hear no Angel against the apostle Paul: Even if, he says, I or an Angel of God should preach the gospel to you otherwise than what we have preached to you, let him be anathema. They are utterly mad, they burn with desire for women, all who do not yield to this prohibition; and gaping after obscenities, they would rather die than be content to be torn from the sides of women by any separation, so that, to fill the gluttony of their greed, they are not even for a moment of time without the pleasure of a woman; and this is the fruit they have in women, that with their attention ever fixed on them they may sate the desires of the eyes,
Editors' notes and page, col. 857
Footnotes
[EDIT. OXON. NOTAE — lemma notes without call marks; numbered here in print order. Lemmata not visible in the page-foot image are placed by inference.] (printed under page 420)
(1) ‹anchor: Egestosam› · lemma note, col 857 (lemma above the image)
Egestosam. Sic recte Morellius, Remboldus et vet. exc. quum alii egestuosam. PAMEL.
"Needy." So, rightly, Morel, Rembold and the old printed edition, whereas others have "egestuosam". PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 420)
(2) ‹anchor: amicos Dei non novimus› · lemma note, col 857
Amicos Dei non novimus, nisi ad venerationem. Locus insignis pro veneratione Sanctorum. PAMEL.
"We know the friends of God only for veneration." A notable passage in support of the veneration of the saints. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 420)
(3) ‹anchor: qui novimus et Angelos cum feminis cecidisse› · lemma note, col 857
Qui novimus et Angelos cum feminis cecidisse. Etiam hic auctor filios Dei (Gen. VI) Angelos interpretatur. PAMEL.
"We who know that angels too fell with women." Here too the author interprets the sons of God (Gen. 6) as angels. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 420)
(4) ‹anchor: suae aviditatis ingluviem› · lemma note, col 857
Suae aviditatis ingluviem. Vet. exc. et Remboldus illuviem, neutrum displicet. PAMEL.
"The gluttony of their greed." The old printed edition and Rembold have "illuviem" (filth); neither displeases. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 420)
(5) ‹anchor: Quando indigeant› · lemma note, col 857 or 858 (lemma not in the image)
Quando indigeant. Hoc certe ex illo reposuimus pro cum. PAMEL.
"When they are in need." This, certainly, we restored from it, in place of "cum". PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 420)
(6) ‹anchor: Si talis Christiana charitas annotatur› · lemma note, col 858
Si talis Christiana charitas adnotatur. Rectius sic vet. exc. et Remboldus, quam alii advocatur. PAMEL.
"If such is noted down as Christian charity." So, more rightly, the old printed edition and Rembold, than the others' "advocatur" (is called). PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 420)
Page
- running head: 857 DE SINGULARITATE CLE[cut off at the image edge]
- marginal letters: A rat indigentiam; et qui missus venerat pasci, pastus; B ris tibi serva. Nobis autem in spiritu; C lestias querelarum. Apud sanctos nostros; D et obscoenitatibus inhiantes, malunt mori
- old-edition numerals: (none)
- other: column begins with the word fragment "rat", broken from the previous column; "femina" in "qui cum femina commoretur" is blurred (looks like "femma"), set as femina, UNSURE; a stray mark before "vocari" and after "prohibetur" is not set; the full-width heading "EDIT. OXON. NOT[AE]" above the page-foot notes is not set; the editors' notes at the page foot (Egestosam..., Amicos Dei non novimus..., Qui novimus et Angelos...) are left for the later pass; the right-hand column on the page (858) is cut off and not set
ne vel momentum aliquod transeat, quando indigeant quod affectant. Sic inter eos integritas emoritur; ubi omnis commoratio, sive convivendo, sive commanendo corruptis affectionibus inquinatur. Quos sanctus Petrus apostolus designavit, dicens: In conviviis suis luxuriantes, oculos habentes plenos moechationibus, et incessabilibus delictis, capientes animas infirmas. Hos etiam ita Salomon denotat: Abominatio est, inquit, coram Domino defigens oculum. Plane contra, purum oculum testatur se habere Job, qui ait: Et si oculis consensit cor meum. Verum enimvero ille potest suis oculis obnoxius non teneri; cui nolenti repentinus occursus mulieris scandalum moverit, quod protinus mens quod nolebat expellit. Ille autem commotionem sui visus non meretur evadere, qui apud se scandali materiam tenet, qui vult intentionis suae affectibus frui, qui affectat habere quod oculis offensionem ingerat, quorum aviditas inexplebilis inter offendicula continua nullo modo potest omnino compesci; quod Salomon approbat, dicens: Infernus et interitus non satiantur, similiter oculi hominum insatiabiles sunt. Et in alio loco: Non satiatur oculus videndo, Et iterum: Nequius oculo quid creatum est?
lest even some moment pass when they lack what they desire. Thus among them integrity dies; where every lingering together, whether by living together or by dwelling together, is defiled by corrupt affections. These the holy apostle Peter marked out, saying: Revelling in their banquets, having eyes full of adulteries and of unceasing sins, enticing weak souls. These too Solomon denotes thus: An abomination, he says, before the Lord is he who fixes his eye. Plainly to the contrary, Job testifies that he has a pure eye, who says: And if my heart has consented to my eyes. But indeed that man can be held not liable for his eyes in whom, against his will, the sudden encounter of a woman has stirred a stumbling, because the mind at once expels what it did not want. But he does not deserve to escape the disturbance of his sight who keeps the matter of stumbling by him, who wishes to enjoy the affections of his intention, who desires to have what thrusts offence upon the eyes, whose insatiable greed among continual stumbling-blocks can in no way be wholly restrained; which Solomon confirms, saying: Hell and destruction are not satisfied, likewise the eyes of men are insatiable. And in another place: The eye is not satisfied with seeing, And again: What has been created more wicked than the eye?
Hac castigatione non compuncti, divina interdicta nefandae familiaritatis obstinatione contemnunt, et adhuc insuper de charitate causantur, qui secundum verbum Esaiae amaritudinem pro dulcedine devorantes, nudam foeditatem velamento boni nominis tegunt; dum apud eos sub falsa dilectione, vera dilectio violatur. Sed exclamat charitas et appellat, tales ego non junxi, falsa altera est quae me simulando confinxit. Numquam Dei praeceptis obsisto, numquam fluxis faveo, per me sanctitatem non opto culpari. Calumnias mihi aversa germanitas facit, pericula et ego inter falsos fratres incurri. Succurre, meus praeco, succurre, Paule apostole, dic testimonium meum, ne quod de me annuntias pervertatur. Finis autem praecepti est charitas de corde puro, et conscientia bona, et fide non ficta. Dilectio deputabitur, per quam sanctitatis injuria criminationibus appetitur? Aut illorum erit sincera fraternitas aestimanda, de quibus filiae matris Ecclesiae perducuntur in culpam? Si talis Christiana charitas annotatur; indubitanter odia meliora sunt, quae dum separant, neminem maculant. Haec autem parricidalis dilectio fratres persecutores adunare consuevit, qui libenter patiuntur de suo consortio filias Ecclesiae fornicarias diffamari, contra charitatem quam Paulus apostolus docuit, dicens: Dilectio proximi malum non operatur. Egregia probatio charitatis, quae non tantum noxia germanitate
Not pricked by this chastisement, they despise the divine prohibitions with the obstinacy of an abominable familiarity, and moreover they still plead charity as their excuse, who, according to the word of Isaiah, devouring bitterness for sweetness, cover naked foulness with the veil of a good name; while among them, under a false love, true love is violated. But charity cries out and appeals: Such people I did not join together; false is that other one who fashioned me by counterfeiting. Never do I resist the precepts of God, never do I favour loose things; I do not wish holiness to be blamed through me. A brotherhood turned against me brings calumnies upon me, and I too have run into perils among false brothers. Help, my herald, help, Paul the apostle, speak my testimony, lest what you proclaim of me be perverted. Now the end of the precept is charity from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned. Will that be reckoned love, through which holiness is assailed with the injury of accusations? Or is the brotherhood of those to be esteemed sincere, through whom the daughters of mother Church are led into guilt? If such a thing is noted down as Christian charity, undoubtedly hatreds are better, which, while they separate, stain no one. But this parricidal love has been accustomed to unite brothers as persecutors, who willingly suffer the daughters of the Church to be defamed as fornicators because of their company, against the charity which Paul the apostle taught, saying: Love of neighbour works no evil. An excellent proof of charity, which not only by harmful brotherhood
Editors' notes and page, col. 858
Page
- running head: ARITATE CLERICORUM. 858 (cut off at left edge; i.e. [DE SINGUL]ARITATE CLERICORUM)
- marginal letters: A ne vel momentum aliquod; B dere, qui apud se; C latur. Sed exclamat charitas; D lant. Haec autem parricidalis
- old-edition numerals: (none)
- other: column ends mid-word "germani-" (broken across the column break). Editors' notes at page foot (EDIT. OXON. NOTAE, Pamelius) not set; their heading line runs across from the cut-off left column. Stray apostrophe-like marks before "quando" and "meus" taken as print specks.
officit proximo, sed etiam subjecta non vult esse praescriptionibus Apostolicae jussionis. Confundantur assertores dilectionis hujuscemodi, quos judicant illi, qui pro communibus commodis etiam consanguineam deserunt charitatem.
harms its neighbour, but it also refuses to be subject to the prescriptions of the Apostolic command. Let the champions of love of this kind be put to shame. They are judged by those who, for the common good, forsake even the affection owed to their own blood.
In omni mundo pene totum junctum est genus humanum, et ubique cognatio naturalis alterna peregrinatione discernitur. Possunt parentes, possunt filii, possunt fratres, possunt et ipsi, quod plus est, conjuges a Deo concessa sibi naturae vincula disrumpere; et clerici Deo non concedente, insuper prohibente, mulierum nexibus ancillatam non valent recusare charitatem? Optanda semper cognatis absentatur affinitas proximorum; et peregrinari ab extraneis feminis clerici reluctantur? quibus faciendum fuerat, etiam si peculiare aliquid vel inconsuetum Dominus imperasset; qui ad explicanda impossibilia habent Spiritum sanctum, quem mundani homines non habent. Unde Joannes apostolus sic admonet, dicens: Filioli, vincite illos, quoniam major est qui in vobis est, quam qui in hoc mundo. Nunc vero possibile etiam gentibus (non dicam Christianis) et leve prospicitur, et apud clericos sine ullis effectibus evacuatur; ut parum sit eis Dei mandata despicere, nisi aliud dedecus habeant quod nec sectantur, non dicam vincunt omnium gentium consuetudinem: quibus Dominus per Ezechielem exprobrat et dicit: In legalibus meis non ambulastis, et justificationes meas non fecistis. Sed neque secundum justificationes gentium, quae sunt in circuitu vestro, fecistis. Pudendum nescio quid dilectio ista significat, quae extorqueri contra naturam putatur.
In the whole world almost the entire human race is joined together, and everywhere natural kinship is divided by people living away from one another in turn. Parents can, children can, brothers can, and even spouses themselves can, which is more, break the bonds of nature granted to them by God. And are clerics, though God does not grant it and indeed forbids it, unable to refuse an affection made a slave to the ties of women? The ever-desirable closeness of those near to them is withdrawn from kinsfolk; and are clerics reluctant to keep away from women who are strangers to them? They ought to have done it even if the Lord had commanded something peculiar or unaccustomed, for they have the Holy Spirit for accomplishing impossible things, Whom worldly men do not have. Hence John the apostle admonishes thus, saying: Little children, overcome them, because He Who is in you is greater than he who is in this world. But now what is seen to be possible and light even for the Gentiles (I will not say for Christians) is emptied among clerics without any effect. So it is a small thing for them to despise the commandments of God, unless they have a further disgrace as well: that they do not even follow, I will not say surpass, the custom of all the Gentiles. To them the Lord, through Ezekiel, says in reproach: In My statutes you have not walked, and My ordinances you have not done. But neither have you done according to the ordinances of the Gentiles, which are round about you. This love signifies something shameful, I know not what, since it is thought to be wrung out against nature.
Adhuc habeo quid mirari: Cum videam de Christianis plerosque maritos pariter et uxores continentiam destinantes, domicilia singularia magis eligere, ut consensu communium votorum sine irritatione praesentiae et concordante secessu valeant obtinere: et eunuchi nostri non durant sine feminae sodalitate dormire? Apud illos amor conjugalis continentiae amore pensatur; et apud spadones cohabitatio feminae numquam potest habere fastidium. Dicat eunuchorum charitas, dicat, ne forte in hac secessione magis conjugalis charitas peccet; ut apostoli Pauli consilium videatur conjugibus insinuasse divortium: Tempus, inquit, quod restat, breve est. Reliquum est ut et qui habent uxores, sic quasi non habentes esse nitantur, et qui non habent, quasi habentes esse glorientur. De his ipse Apostolus ait: Gloria in turpitudine ipsorum.
I have something more to wonder at. I see that many Christian husbands and wives alike, resolving on continence, choose separate dwellings instead, so that by the agreement of their common vows they may keep it without the provocation of each other's presence and by a withdrawal they both agree on. Do our eunuchs, then, not endure sleeping without the companionship of a woman? Among those couples conjugal love is outweighed by love of continence; but among the eunuchs cohabitation with a woman can never become wearisome. Let the charity of the eunuchs say, let it say, whether perhaps in this withdrawal it is rather conjugal charity that sins, so that the counsel of the apostle Paul would seem to have suggested divorce to spouses: The time, he says, that remains is short. It remains that those who have wives should strive to be as though not having them, and those who do not have them should glory in being as though having them. Of these the Apostle himself says: Glory in their shame.
Editors' notes and page, col. 859
Footnotes
[EDIT. OXON. NOTAE — lemma notes without call marks; numbered here in print order. Lemmata not visible in the page-foot image are placed by inference.] (printed under page 421)
(1) ‹anchor: Adhuc habeo quid mirari› · lemma note, col 859
Adhuc habeo quid mirari. Non placet quod reposuit Erasmus, quid mirari non valeo, nisi addatur satis. Certe illud habent vet. exc. et Remboldus. Est autem locus de voto continentiae conjugum. PAMEL.
"I still have something to wonder at." What Erasmus put, "what I cannot wonder at", does not please, unless "enough" is added. Certainly the old printed edition and Rembold have the former. The passage concerns the vow of continence of married couples. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 421)
(2) ‹anchor: et eunuchi nostri non durant› · lemma note, col 859
Eunuchi nostri non durant. Neque hic arridet lectio Erasmi: Et eunuchi dubitant. PAMEL.
"Our eunuchs do not hold out." Here too Erasmus's reading does not appeal: "And the eunuchs hesitate". PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 421)
(3) ‹anchor: Potestatem unius› · lemma note, col 859 or 860 (lemma not in the image)
Potestatem unius. Adjecerat Erasmus conversationis, sed superflue. PAMEL.
"The power of one." Erasmus had added "conversationis" (of conduct), but superfluously. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 421)
(4) ‹anchor: Non cunctati sunt depellere› · lemma note, col 859 or 860 (lemma not in the image; runs into col 860)
Non cunctati sunt depellere. Hoc rursum ex vet. exc. cum Gravio et Morellio, pro eo quod corrupte Remboldus et caeteri contati. Manutius vero contenti. PAMEL.
"They did not hesitate to drive away." This again from the old printed edition, with Gravius and Morel, instead of the corrupt "contati" of Rembold and the rest; Manutius has "contenti" (content). PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 421)
(5) ‹anchor: Verum fatear, si permittor› · lemma note, col 860 (lemma not in the image)
Verum fatear, si permittor. Etiam haec Morellii et illorum genuina est lectio, pro eo quod Erasmus fateor, si permittar. PAMEL.
"Let me confess the truth, if I am permitted." This too is the genuine reading of Morel and those others, instead of Erasmus's "I confess, if I may be permitted". PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 421)
(6) ‹anchor: Nec minus eos, sed pejus etiam illi confundunt› · lemma note, col 860
Nec minus eos, sed pejus etiam illi confundunt. Mendum cod. Remboldi hic quoque remansit hactenus in excusis, nec minis eos sed poenis. PAMEL.
"Nor less, but even worse, do those put them to shame." The error of Rembold's manuscript has remained here too in the printed editions till now: "nor with threats but with punishments". PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 421)
Page
- running head: 859 LIBER (the rest of the running head is cut off at the right edge)
- marginal letters: A tate officit proximo; B etiam si peculiare aliquid; C ctio ista significat; D est ut et qui habent uxores
- old-edition numerals: (none)
- other: the column begins with "tate", the end of a word broken from the column before. The full-width heading "EDIT. OXON. NO[TAE]" is cut off at the right edge and is not set. The editors' notes at the page foot (Adhuc habeo quid mirari... PAMEL.) are left for the later pass. UNSURE: "imperasset" may be printed with a capital I. Blurred or damaged type was read as "jussionis", "clerici", "significat" and "divortium". "quam" may carry an accent in print.
Dilectio est, inquiunt. O dilectio quae invidet sibi! O charitas quae cupit se in vituperatione laudari! Grande miraculum, ut virginum charitas virgines faciat velut conjuges credi: et conjugum charitas conjuges faciat velut virgines aestimari. Ecce vera dilectio, quae in conjugalitate dividit, ut in castitate conjungat. Ecce sancta dilectio, quae conjugalibus ad communem laudem inducit absentiam. Hi pro certo sese inseparabiliter diligunt, qui ut triumphos sibi inferant, a seipsis discedunt; quibus nec crimen, nec natura, nec lex, nec Dominus, nec Apostolus potestatem unius interdixit aut tulit, sed pro tuendis paribus votis, semota unanimitate absentari charitas quam voverunt, qui nec crimini, nec naturae, nec legi, nec Domino, nec Apostolo, nec ipsi conjugalitati succumbunt; quos tantum virginitas probrosa condemnat, quantum illos conjugalitas castrata glorificat, quibus sufficiat ad supplicium dedecorosum, quod spadones a conjugibus judicantur. Ad quorum increpationem non tacendi sunt etiam filii Israel, qui apud Esdram uxores et filios contra divina jura susceptos non cunctati depellere, nec contra Domini charitatem conati sunt excusare. Verum fatear, si permittor. Qui nunc pro dimittendis feminis, alienis adhaerent: quid facerent si liberos et uxores projicere jubeantur? Aut quando valebunt pro Christo renuntiare cognatis, qui mulierculas non suas praeponunt Christi praeceptis? Dico eos facilius pro iisdem mulierculis parentes proprios abnegare, quam propter Christum ipsas mulierculas relinquere posse; despicientes quod in Evangelio ipse Dominus dixit: Si quis venit ad me et non odit patrem suum, aut matrem, aut uxorem, aut filios, aut fratres, et sorores, et animam suam, non potest meus esse discipulus.
It is love, they say. O love that envies itself! O charity that desires to be praised in reproach! A great marvel, that the charity of virgins makes virgins be believed to be as it were married, and the charity of the married makes the married be reckoned as it were virgins. Behold true love, which divides in marriage so as to join in chastity. Behold holy love, which brings upon the married an absence for the sake of common praise. These surely love one another inseparably who, in order to bring triumphs upon themselves, depart from one another; from whom neither crime, nor nature, nor law, nor the Lord, nor the Apostle has forbidden or taken away the power of either, but, for the protecting of matching vows, with their oneness of mind set aside, the charity which they vowed is made absent; who yield neither to crime, nor to nature, nor to law, nor to the Lord, nor to the Apostle, nor to marriage itself; whom a shameful virginity condemns as much as a castrated marriage glorifies them; for whom let it suffice as a disgraceful punishment that they are judged eunuchs by their spouses. For the rebuke of these, the sons of Israel must not be passed over in silence either, who in Ezra did not hesitate to drive away the wives and children taken against the divine laws, nor attempted to make excuse against the charity of the Lord. Let me speak the truth, if I am permitted. Those who now, instead of dismissing the women, cling to women belonging to others: what would they do if they were ordered to cast off children and wives? Or when will they be able to renounce their kinsfolk for Christ, who set little women not their own before the commandments of Christ? I say that they could more easily deny their own parents for the sake of these same little women than leave these little women for Christ's sake; disregarding what the Lord Himself said in the Gospel: If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father, or mother, or wife, or children, or brothers, and sisters, and his own soul, he cannot be My disciple.
Si de abjiciendis parentibus dubitantes, indigni sunt Christo, quid sibi promittunt, quos contemptores exhibet Christo non parentalis affectio? Ac per hoc illorum meritis evacuantur, quos vident contemplatione Christi nullas personas excipere cognatorum. Nec minus eos, sed pejus etiam illi confundunt, qui metuentes non tantum cum aliena, sed etiam cum sua carne luctari amputatis genitalibus abscedunt. De quibus modo examinationis suspendo sententiam, relinquens alia disputatione promendam. Secundum confusionem spadonum, non dubito meliores asserere, qui nec sibi parcunt quidem, dicam feminis audent tentamenta porrigere. Respondeant spiritales eunuchi, quis furor in dilectione mulierum, vel quod sit in contubernalitate feminae mysterium, ut in perniciem
If those who hesitate about casting off their parents are unworthy of Christ, what do they promise themselves whom an affection that is not even for parents shows to be despisers of Christ? And by this they are made void by the merits of those whom they see, out of regard for Christ, making exception of no persons among their kin. Not less than these, but even worse, do those put them to shame who, fearing to wrestle not only with another's flesh but also with their own, withdraw with their genitals cut off. Concerning these I suspend for now the sentence of examination, leaving it to be brought forth in another disputation. Next to the confusion of the eunuchs, I do not hesitate to declare better those who do not indeed spare themselves, I will say, who dare to offer temptations to women. Let the spiritual eunuchs answer what madness there is in the love of women, or what mystery there is in cohabitation with a woman, that to the ruin
Editors' notes and page, col. 860
Page
- running head: LIBER
- marginal letters: A Dilectio est, inquiunt.; B bunt; quos tantum; C Evangelio ipse Dominus; D qui nec sibi parcunt
- old-edition numerals: (none)
- other: "uxoreset" printed without a space, set as "uxores et"; "absentari" partly blurred; "et non odit" (printed letter looks like "ei", read as et); "feminis" in the D line partly damaged; last word "per-" is split at the column break; EDIT. OXON. NOTAE at the page foot not set; no editors' matter in the text block; no full-width line
suam alienis membris indulgeant, cum illi sua quoque incunctanter abscindant? Hi confirmatos in se artus abjiciunt; et illi adversariis artubus glutinantur. Hi pro integritate spiritali cum tormento non integri corporis dimicare non dubitant; et illi sine tormento, integri esse sine feminarum dimidietate detrectant. Sed adversus illos comparatio nulla est facienda de nostris; ne consolentur addicti quibuscumque judiciis Christianis. Pejores sunt et aliqui memorandi, ut major poena sit a detruncato damnari. Judaeos considerent usque hodie pro legis imperio carnis suae partem circumcisione truncare; et sciant quid mereantur, qui, Evangelio jubente, dissimulant circumcisi mulierum praesentia peragere Domini voluntatem, non intelligentes quod ipse Dominus dixerit: Nisi abundaverit justitia vestra plus quam Scribarum et Pharisaeorum, non intrabitis in regnum coelorum. Puto etiam de Gallis suis nobis idololatrae exprobranter insultent, qui abscindentes semetipsos libenter excruciant, dummodo cum damno status sui, simulacrorum dissimulationibus pareant. Clerici autem nostri, ad lucrum magis corporis proprii, damnum volunt mulierum secum commorantium sustinere; quas etiam de substantia propria evellere oportebat, si cum illis nasci contingeret, ne comparati idololatris et sacrilegis, erubescerent. De quibus et Dominus contemptores arguit, dicens: Prudentiores sunt filii saeculi hujus filiis lucis. Ergo nostris clericis talium profana devotio est praeponenda, quibus cum tantis exitiis amabilia sunt turpia sacerdotia. Clerici vero pro dignitate sacerdotii coelestis non sanguinem fundunt, non tolerant ferrum, non est aliquod vulnus, non est aliquis cruciatus; sed solus contra Dominium feminae tenet aspectus. Sic in foeminas ruunt, sic feminas amant, ut non sperent manifestari dilectionis suae quandoque posse impura mysteria; sicut per consimiles eorum turpiter publicata sunt et detecta; quos Paulus apostolus praeviderat, jam tunc, dicens: Quorumdam hominum peccata manifesta sunt praecedentia ad judicium, quosdam autem et sua subsequuntur. Similiter autem et facta bona manifesta sunt, et quaecumque aliter se habent abscondi non possunt.
of themselves they should indulge the members of others, when those men unhesitatingly cut off even their own? These cast away limbs firmly fixed in themselves; and those are glued to hostile limbs. These do not hesitate to fight for spiritual integrity with the torment of a body not whole; and those, without any torment, refuse to be whole without the half that is women. But against those men no comparison is to be drawn from ours, lest Christians given over to whatever judgements should take consolation. Some too are worse and deserve mention, so that it is a greater penalty to be condemned by a mutilated man. Let them consider that the Jews to this day, at the command of the law, cut off part of their flesh by circumcision; and let them know what they deserve who, though the Gospel commands it, neglect to carry out the will of the Lord by being circumcised from the presence of women, not understanding that the Lord Himself said: Unless your righteousness abounds more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. I think also that the idolaters reproachfully insult us with their Galli, who, cutting themselves off, willingly torment themselves, provided that, at the loss of their condition, they obey the dissemblings of idols. But our clerics, rather for the gain of their own body, are unwilling to bear the loss of the women who dwell with them; whom they ought even to tear away from their own substance, if it happened that they were born together with them, lest, compared with idolaters and the sacrilegious, they should blush. Of these too the Lord rebukes the despisers, saying: The children of this age are wiser than the children of light. Therefore the profane devotion of such men, to whom foul priesthoods are lovable at the cost of such great ruin, is to be preferred to our clerics. But clerics, for the dignity of the heavenly priesthood, shed no blood, endure no iron; there is no wound, there is no torture; but only the sight of a woman holds out against the Lord's dominion. So do they rush upon women, so do they love women, that they do not expect the impure mysteries of their love ever to be made manifest; just as through men like them they have been shamefully published and exposed; whom the apostle Paul had foreseen even then, saying: The sins of some men are manifest, going before them to judgement, but the sins of some also follow after them. Likewise also good deeds are manifest, and whatever things are otherwise cannot be hidden.
At contra et ipsi dicunt: Nonnulli de contemptoribus nostris similiter feminas habentes in domibus, martyrium consecuti sunt, ut illorum innocens conscientia probaretur. Nolo mihi martyrio quisquam moveat actionem; quia saepius et moechi, et sanguinarii, et ebriosi, et omnium scelerum rei, reperta pugnae occasione conversi, meruerunt ad martyrii veniam pervenire. Ideo enim martyrium appellatur tam corona, quam baptisma; quia baptizat pariter et coronat. Auge nunc, si licuerit quibusdam inviolata feminarum societate martyrium promereri; sine indulgentia quoque illis martyrium ipsum non fuit, quos
But they for their part say in reply: Some of those who despise us, who likewise had women in their houses, have attained martyrdom, so that their innocent conscience was proved. I do not want anyone to bring a case against me from martyrdom; for quite often adulterers, and men of blood, and drunkards, and those guilty of every crime, having found an occasion for combat and been converted, have earned the right to come to the pardon of martyrdom. For this is why martyrdom is called both a crown and a baptism: because it baptizes and crowns alike. Grant further that it has been allowed to some to merit martyrdom while their association with women remained inviolate; even for them martyrdom itself was not without indulgence, whom
Editors' notes and page, col. 861
Footnotes
[EDIT. OXON. NOTAE — lemma notes without call marks; numbered here in print order. Lemmata not visible in the page-foot image are placed by inference.] (printed under page 422)
(1) ‹anchor: De Gallis suis› · lemma note, col 861 (lemma above the image)
De Gallis suis. Galli uti vere annotavit Remboldus erant sacerdotes Cybeles, a Gallo fluvio sic dicti. PAMEL.
"Of their Galli." The Galli, as Rembold truly noted, were priests of Cybele, so called from the river Gallus. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 422)
(2) ‹anchor: meruerunt ad martyrii veniam› · lemma note, col 861 (runs into col 862)
Meruerunt ad martyrii veniam. Reposuit Erasmus palmam, sed quia de peccatoribus loquitur, qui ipso martyrio veniam impetrabant, illud illorum placet. PAMEL.
"Merited to come to the pardon of martyrdom." Erasmus put "palmam" (palm); but since he is speaking of sinners who obtained pardon by martyrdom itself, their reading pleases. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 422)
Page
- running head: 861 DE SINGULARITATE CLE (cut off at the image's right edge; presumably CLERICORUM)
- marginal letters: A ‹niciem suam alienis membris›; B ‹verit justitia vestra plus quam›; C ‹tii coelestis non sanguinem fundunt›; D ‹scientia probaretur. Nolo mihi›
- old-edition numerals: (none)
- other: column begins with the fragment "niciem" of a word broken from column 860 (probably perniciem); "Dominium" read as printed (Dominum may be intended), unsure; "intelligentes" (in-|telligentes) blurred, the l looks like f, read as intelligentes; the right-hand column belongs to col. 862 and is not set; the Edit. Oxon. notes at the page foot are not set (later pass).
reatus prohibitae contubernalitatis non absolvit. Nec innocentes in ipsa innocentia potuit approbare; quibus contemptum legis et conversationis illicitae foeditatem, et, quod est gravius super omnia, crimen Ecclesiae cernitur ignovisse. Etenim noxia est innocentia, quae sponsae Christi officit famae. Et cum Christus agnus innocens, immo ipse coelestis innocentia, quod est verius, totum se contempserit pro Ecclesia, ut eam sine macula ulla vel ruga redderet illibatam; qualis est clericus cui ad hoc sponsa Christi committitur, ut pro unius feminae amore culpari totam Ecclesiam patiatur. Audemus dicere: A Deo patre missus est Filius de sinu Patris, et regno absens esse duravit, ut Ecclesiam faceret innocentem, et clericus mulieris latus deserere non potest, ne Christi Ecclesiam reddat infamem?
the guilt of the forbidden cohabitation does not absolve. Nor could it approve as innocent those in their very innocence, for whom it is seen to have pardoned contempt of the law and the foulness of illicit converse, and, what is graver above all, the crime against the Church. For harmful is that innocence which injures the good name of the bride of Christ. And since Christ, the innocent Lamb, nay rather, what is truer, heavenly innocence itself, held Himself wholly of no account for the Church, that He might render her unimpaired, without any spot or wrinkle, what sort of cleric is he to whom the bride of Christ is entrusted for this end, that for the love of one woman he suffers the whole Church to be blamed? Do we dare to say: The Son was sent by God the Father from the bosom of the Father, and endured to be absent from the kingdom, that He might make the Church innocent; and a cleric cannot leave a woman's side, so as not to render the Church of Christ infamous?
Sed aiunt: In martyrio ignoscitur nobis, sicut indultum est parentibus. Hoc ergo et nos omnes de peccatis nostris confidamus; ut qui agere bene laboramus, inter luxurias evagemur, et discurramus per semitas peccatorum, retinacula dimittamus, et fraena laxemus: Eamus nos quacumque mundus abstulerit, et ubicumque nos diabolus invitaverit, libere fornicemur, invideamus, rapiamus, fraudemus, omnia mala securi committamus; martyrium subveniet et evademus. Sic enim Paulus apostolus pollicetur: Faciamus mala ut veniant bona: quorum damnatio justa est. Huic martyrio spem tradant, quos mathematici docuerunt habere de crastino praescientiam; has coronas exspectent, qui super Angelos et Christum per astrologos didicerunt scire tempora, quae Pater in sua posuit potestate, ut vel tunc recordentur, ante martyrii tempus bene agere debuisse, cum diem Domini senserint sicut furem. Sed credamus super illos martyrium jam jamque pendere. Interim priusquam martyres fiant, legibus subjacent; ut judicio subjiciantur, nisi armis exarmentur. Audaciae nefas est, illis adversus auctoritatem Domini parentum personas objicere, quibus ipse Dominus contradictionis hujus abstulit vocem. In legalibus, inquit, patrum vestrorum nolite ambulare, et justificationes eorum nolite custodire; et studiis eorum nolite commisceri, et nolite inquinari. Ego Dominus Deus vester, in praeceptis meis ambulate, et justificationes meas custodite.
But they say: In martyrdom we are pardoned, as it was granted to the fathers. Let us all, then, trust in this too concerning our sins; so that we who labour to do well may wander about among luxuries, and run to and fro along the paths of sins, let go the restraints and slacken the bridles: Let us go wherever the world carries us off, and wherever the devil invites us, let us freely fornicate, envy, plunder, defraud, commit every evil without care; martyrdom will come to our aid and we shall escape. For thus Paul the apostle promises: Let us do evil that good may come; whose condemnation is just. Let those entrust their hope to this martyrdom whom the mathematicians have taught that they have foreknowledge of the morrow; let those await these crowns who, beyond the angels and Christ, have learned through astrologers to know the times which the Father has put in His own power, so that they may at least then remember that they ought to have done well before the time of martyrdom, when they perceive the day of the Lord coming like a thief. But let us suppose that martyrdom is even now hanging over them. Meanwhile, before they become martyrs, they are subject to the laws, so that they are subjected to judgement, unless they are stripped of their arms. It is an impious piece of audacity for them to set the persons of the fathers against the authority of the Lord, from whom the Lord Himself has taken away the voice of this objection. In the statutes of your fathers, He says, do not walk, and do not keep their ordinances; and do not mingle in their pursuits, and do not be defiled. I am the Lord your God: walk in My precepts, and keep My ordinances.
Sciant nunc adempta sibi esse parentalia patrocinia, qui huc atque illuc recurrentes contradictionum latebras quaerunt, ne unquam feminis careant: et quia undique defensionis suffragio deseruntur, novissimis cunctis argumentis exhaustis, sententiam Pauli apostoli opitulari sibi opinantur, et dicunt: Tu qui es, qui de servo alieno judices? Agnoscit equidem Paulus apostolus constitutionis suae verba prolata; sed constitutionarios et prolatores ipsos ignorat.
Let them know now that the patronage of the fathers has been taken from them, who, running back hither and thither, seek out the hiding-places of objections, so as never to be without women; and since on every side they are deserted by the support of any defence, all their arguments at last exhausted, they suppose that a saying of Paul the apostle comes to their aid, and they say: Who are you, to judge another's servant? Paul the apostle indeed recognizes the words of his ordinance as uttered; but the ordinance-makers and utterers themselves he does not know.
Editors' notes and page, col. 862
Page
- running head: LARITATE CLERICORUM. 862 (left part of the head cut off at the image edge; presumably DE SINGULARITATE CLERICORUM.)
- marginal letters: A ‹reatus prohibitae contubernalitatis›; B ‹siam reddat infamem?›; C ‹tum per astrologos didicerunt›; D ‹Sciant nunc adempta›
- old-edition numerals: (none)
- other: recordentur printed with a damaged letter that looks like recordehtur, taken as damaged type; quaerunt and ne in paragraph 3 printed with damaged letters; last word igno- split at the column break; the EDIT. OXON. NOTAE heading and the editors' note at the page foot (palmam, sed quia...) are apparatus, not set; left column (861) partly visible at the image edge, not set
Illis enim contulit defensionem, qui nullam partem legis impugnant; et ipsis tribuit patrocinium, qui ex voto suo aliquid faciunt, nec quidquam Ecclesiasticis juris impediunt. Jus tractat vivendi, et non edendi; arbitrium uniuscujusque confirmans. De similibus neminem jussit judicari, quae voluntati singulorum auctoritas divina concedens, in utraque parte faciendi et non faciendi clementer indulsit. Illos autem Ecclesiasticis tribunalibus subdidit, quos transgressores ordinariae transgressionis nulla impunitas excusavit; ut qui passim (Tu quis es, qui de servo alieno judices?) adversus nos veluti libellum contradictorium proferant, rationabile simul et certum recognoscant quod accipimus ab eodem Paulo apostolo repulsorium: Praecipimus, inquit, vobis fratres in nomine Domini nostri Jesu Christi, ut separetis vos a fratribus ambulantibus inordinate, et non secundum traditionem quam accepistis a vobis.
For he granted defence to those who attack no part of the law; and he gave protection to those who do something of their own vow, and in no way hinder anything of Ecclesiastical right. He deals with the right of living, and not of eating, confirming the choice of each one. Concerning like matters he ordered that no one be judged, things which divine authority, granting them to the will of individuals, has mercifully allowed on either side, of doing and of not doing. But he has subjected to the Ecclesiastical tribunals those transgressors of an ordinary transgression whom no impunity has excused; so that those who everywhere bring forward against us, as though a document of objection, (Who are you, who judge another's servant?), may recognize the rebuttal, at once reasonable and certain, which we receive from the same apostle Paul: We command you, he says, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you separate yourselves from brothers who walk disorderly, and not according to the tradition which you have received from you.
Evasimus, opinor, tanta ligamina quaestionum, quibus amatores eunuchos amplexus feminei ligaverunt: qui perversis interpretationibus decreta legalia demutare coguntur; et malunt audiri proponentes vana et fabulosa commenta, quam ipsi quae vera sunt audiant: quos Paulus apostolus annuntiat, dicens: A veritate quidem auditum avertent, ad fabulas autem convertentur. Quiquid volunt adhuc exquirant, ut obsistant pro mulieribus veritati. Victoriam non habent, apud quos contra Esdram mulier potius quam veritas vicit. Vos autem, filii charissimi, non tantum persuasione, sed potestate convenio. Tale deliramentum despicite; quorum quaestiones Paulum apostolum scitis ubique damnasse, sicut ad Romanos scripsit, dicens: Rogo vos, fratres, diligenter observare eos qui dissensiones et offendicula praeter doctrinam quam vos didicistis, aut dicunt, aut faciunt, et declinate ab ipsis. Sic et Timotheo delegat: Noli, inquit, verbis contendere; nihil enim utile est, nisi in subversionem audientium. Sollicite cura teipsum probabilem exhibere Deo, operarium irreprehensibilem, recte tractantem verbum veritatis. Stulta autem et inania eloquia devita: multum enim proficiunt ad impietatem, et sermo eorum sicut cancer serpit. Atque ut ostenderet clericis disponendis ad evacuandas quaestiones quae sit doctrina conveniens, etiam Tito sic insinuat, dicens: Tu autem loquere quae conveniunt sanae doctrinae: majores natu sobrios esse, prudentes, sanos in fide, in charitate, in p⟨a⟩tientia sincera. Ergo auditiones simplices obedientia
We have escaped, I think, such great bonds of questions, with which the embraces of women have bound eunuch lovers: who are compelled to alter the decrees of the law by perverse interpretations; and they prefer to be heard putting forward vain and fabulous fictions rather than themselves to hear the things that are true: of whom the apostle Paul gives notice, saying: They will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned to fables. Whatever they wish let them seek out further, so as to stand against the truth on behalf of women. They do not have the victory, among whom, against Ezra, woman rather than truth has conquered. But you, dearest sons, I address not only with persuasion but with authority. Despise such madness; you know that the apostle Paul everywhere condemned their questions, as he wrote to the Romans, saying: I beg you, brothers, to observe carefully those who either speak or cause dissensions and stumbling-blocks contrary to the doctrine which you have learned, and turn aside from them. So too he charges Timothy: Do not, he says, contend with words; for it is useful for nothing except for the subversion of the hearers. Take careful pains to present yourself approved to God, a workman beyond reproach, rightly handling the word of truth. But avoid foolish and empty speeches: for they advance much towards impiety, and their speech creeps like a cancer. And so that he might show the clergy who are to be set in order what doctrine is fitting for doing away with questions, he also suggests thus to Titus, saying: But speak the things that befit sound doctrine: that the elders be sober, prudent, sound in faith, in charity, in sincere patience. Therefore simple hearings obedience
Editors' notes and page, col. 863
Footnotes
[EDIT. OXON. NOTAE — lemma notes without call marks; numbered here in print order. Lemmata not visible in the page-foot image are placed by inference.] (printed under page 423)
(1) ‹anchor: Jus tractat vivendi et non edendi› · lemma note, col 863 (lemma above the image)
Jus tractat vivendi et non edendi. Obscurus locus. PAMEL.
"He treats the law of living and not of eating." An obscure passage. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 423)
(2) ‹anchor: Transgressores ordinariae transgressionis› · lemma note, col 863 (lemma above the image)
Transgressores ordinariae transgressionis. Recte sic Erasmus pro eo quod illi ordinari. PAMEL.
"Transgressors of an ordinary transgression." So, rightly, Erasmus, instead of their "ordinari". PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 423)
(3) ‹anchor: Rationabile› · lemma note, col 863 or 864 (lemma above the image)
Rationabile. Et hic et supra alicubi vetus excusus, et Remboldus rationali. PAMEL.
"Reasonable." Here and somewhere above, the old printed edition and Rembold have "rationali". PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 423)
(4) ‹anchor: Alteris placere debent qui alteris vivunt› · lemma note, col 864
Alteris placere debent qui alteris vivunt. Haec quoque genuina est lectio, pro eo quod non male Erasmus, altaribus placere debent, qui de altaribus vivunt. PAMEL.
"Those who live for others ought to please others." This too is the genuine reading, in place of Erasmus's not bad "those who live by the altars ought to please the altars". PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 423)
(5) ‹anchor: ministerium nostrum› · lemma note, col 864
Ministerium nostrum. Prorsus sic legendum cum Morellio pro vestrum, quia consentit Apostolus. PAMEL.
"Our ministry." It should certainly be read so, with Morel, instead of "vestrum" (your), because the Apostle agrees. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 423)
(6) ‹anchor: casus exaltat› · lemma note, col 864
Casus exaltat. Male Erasmus casas, neque vero etiam placet, quod reposuit ipse; rapinas exigit, pro eo quod illi μεταφορικῶς, ripas eripit. PAMEL.
"It exalts falls." Erasmus wrongly has "casas" (huts); nor does what he put in pleases, "rapinas exigit" (it exacts plunder), in place of their figurative "ripas eripit" (it tears away the banks). PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 423)
(7) ‹anchor: multiplices mortes invehit› · lemma note, col 864
Multiplices mortes invehit. Vetus excus. simplices mentes. Remboldus et alii plerique simplices mortes, pro quo Gravius et Manut. mores; Morellius autem multiplices mortes, quod placet maxime. PAMEL.
"It brings in manifold deaths." The old printed edition has "simple minds"; Rembold and most others "simple deaths", for which Gravius and Manutius have "mores" (manners); Morel, however, has "manifold deaths", which pleases most. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 423)
(8) ‹anchor: et pessimae conversationis› · lemma note, col 864
Et pessimae conversationis. Interjecerat Remboldus denuo strages, sed non est opus. PAMEL.
"And of the worst way of life." Rembold had inserted "strages" (slaughters) again, but there is no need. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 423)
Page
- running head: 863 LIBER
- marginal letters: A rat. Illis enim contulit defensionem; B tres in nomine Domini nostri Jesu Christi; C deliramentum despicite; D quae conveniunt sanae doctrinae
- old-edition numerals: (none)
- other: column begins with "rat." the end of a word broken from the previous column; column ends "obe-" continued in the next column (obedientia); "a vobis" as printed (Vulgate has "a nobis"), kept and rendered literally; one letter lost in "p⟨a⟩tientia"; page-foot heading "EDIT. OXON. NOTAE" and the notes beneath it not set (later pass); right-hand column (864) partly visible, not set
vestra suscipiet, et versipellem contradictionum vitate fallaciam. Purum iter vestris gressibus mundate, et super spinas et tribulos nolite seminare vel calcare, ne bonum semen non possit vobis propter spinae frutices sanctitatis fructus afferre. Unde propheta Hieremias sic hortatur et docet, dicens: Nolite, inquit, serere in spinis. Circumcidite vos Deo vestro, circumcidite praeputium cordis vestri. Abscindenda sunt ergo de agro nostro cuncta quae pungere et lacerare consueverunt; ne animus agricultoris in possessione sua malignis sentibus inseratur. Et amputanda sunt omnia nobis, quaecumque igniferi fomitis sulphurantibus flammis scatens fornax ebullientis carnis exaestuat; ne vel tenuis quidem scintilla servata majora conflet incendia. Quod Salomon manifestat, dicens: Ab scintilla una augetur ignis. Avertite occasiones impuras, quibus interiora pectoris penetrantur, ut liquida in vobis perspicuitas honoretur. Contenti estote singularitatem laboriosam pro pudore servando potius sustinere, quam sine labore ad dedecus pervenire.
of yours will receive, and avoid the shape-shifting deceit of contradictions. Clear a pure path for your steps, and do not sow or tread upon thorns and thistles, lest the good seed be unable to bring forth for you the fruits of holiness because of the thorn bushes. Whence the prophet Jeremiah thus exhorts and teaches, saying: Do not, he says, sow among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to your God, circumcise the foreskin of your heart. Therefore everything that is wont to prick and tear must be cut away from our field, lest the mind of the husbandman be entangled in his own estate by malignant brambles. And all things must be cut off by us, whatever the furnace of seething flesh, teeming with the sulphurous flames of fire-bearing tinder, boils up; lest even a tiny spark kept alive kindle greater conflagrations. This Solomon makes plain, saying: From one spark a fire is increased. Turn away impure occasions, by which the inner parts of the breast are penetrated, so that a limpid clearness may be honoured in you. Be content rather to endure a laborious singleness for the sake of preserving modesty than to come without labour to disgrace.
Contemplamini quid sit populo sancto praeesse, et considerate quale sit divinis sacramentis insistere. Alteris placere debent, qui alteris vivunt, et talis convenit cura sinceritatis sacratis, qualia sunt sacra ipsa quibus exhibent officia servitutis; ne circa Dominum offendant ipsi quod tractant, aut circa populum incipiant impedire quod praedicant. Propter quod Paulus apostolus sic testificatur: Et omnia, inquit, sustinemus, ne quod impedimentum demus Evangelio Christi. Et iterum: Nemini dantes ullam offensionem, ut non vituperetur ministerium nostrum. Hac igitur institutione vobis quam plurimum laborandum est, de iis quibus ad manifestandam gravitatem singularitas magis quam pluralitas testis vera est. Respicite quanta mala conversatio hujus acquirat; quae non nisi corruptionem seminat, pullulat vitia, cupiditatem concipit, ignominiam parit, rabiem concitat, porrigit furiam, lasciviam pascit, petulantiam nutrit, casus exaltat, ruinas aedificat, ripas eripit, praecipitia instruit, periculis navigat, naufragiis velificat, perditione gaudet, interitum fovet, confusionem mercatur, thesaurizat opprobrium, criminationes exaggerat, accusationes inflammat, et catervatim semel in fascem glomerans numerosas indagines captionum, per infinita dedecorum, multipl⟨i⟩ces mortes invehit in perniciem perditorum.
Consider what it is to preside over a holy people, and reflect what it is to attend upon the divine sacraments. Those who live for others ought to please others, and to consecrated men belongs such a care for sincerity as befits the sacred things themselves to which they render the offices of their service; lest with regard to the Lord they themselves offend in that which they handle, or with regard to the people begin to hinder that which they preach. Wherefore the apostle Paul testifies thus: And all things, he says, we endure, lest we give any hindrance to the Gospel of Christ. And again: Giving no offence to anyone, that our ministry may not be blamed. By this instruction, therefore, you must labour as much as possible concerning those things in which, for the showing of gravity, singleness rather than plurality is the true witness. Consider how many evils this kind of living together acquires; for it sows nothing but corruption, sprouts vices, conceives cupidity, gives birth to ignominy, stirs up rage, holds out fury, feeds wantonness, nourishes petulance, exalts falls, builds up ruins, snatches away the banks, sets up precipices, sails among dangers, makes sail for shipwrecks, rejoices in perdition, fosters destruction, buys confusion, treasures up reproach, magnifies charges, inflames accusations, and, gathering in troops at once into a bundle numerous nets of entrapment, through infinite disgraces it brings manifold deaths to the ruin of the lost.
Tot itaque et tantas strages calamitatis et pessimae
So many, therefore, and such great havocs of calamity and of the worst
Editors' notes and page, col. 864
Page
- running head: LIBER
- marginal letters: A dientia vestra suscipiet; B lomon manifestat, dicens; C gelio Christi. Et iterum; D captionum, per infinita
- old-edition numerals: (none)
- other: column begins with fragment "dientia" of a word broken from col. 863 (presumably obedientia); column ends with "pessi-" (pessimae, cf. the note "Et pessimae conversationis"); "multipl'ces" printed with damaged i; "Evangelio" and "laborandum" have partly damaged letters but are legible; running head page number read as 864; EDIT. OXON. NOTAE at page foot: the notes of page 423, including those on this column's lemmata, are set in n863 (printed under page 423); no full-width line set; no editors' matter in text block
- other (Q1): in n863's note (6) (Casus exaltat), the English "nor does what he put in pleases" should read "nor does what he put in please"
conversationis nemo prosternit, nemo calcat, nemo funestat, nisi singularis castitas sola: quae munimen invictum est sanctimoniae, et expugnatio fortis infamiae; fortitudinis firmitas, et lasciviae petulantis infirmitas; probitatis praesidium, et improbitatis excidium; animae victoria, et corporis praeda; ubertas gloriarum, et sterilitas criminum; pronuba sanctitatis, et repudium turpitudinis; sinceritatis indicium, et abolitio scandalorum; exercitium continentiae, et evacuatio tota luxuriae; pax secura virtutum, et debellatio quieta bellorum; puritatis culmen, et libidinis carcer; honestatis portus, et ignominiae naufragalis locus: virginitatis mater, et hostis immunditiae; lorica ⟨p⟩udoris, et spolium probrositatis; corruptionis exitium, murus rigoris et destructio vulgaritatis; severitatis gladius, triumphator et occisor dissolutionis; armatura virium, et exarmatura fluxorum; integritatis dignitas; et fornicationis addictio; claritatis fastigium, et dedecoris praecipitium; voluntas bonorum operum, et afflictio vitiorum; refrigerium pudicitiae, poena petulantiae; acquisitio triumphorum, et facinorum detrimentum; requies salutis, et perditionis exilium; vita spiritus, et carnis interitus; status qualitatis angelicae, funus humanae substantiae. Hujus retinaculis omnis obscoenitas fraenatur, et compedibus ejus calces furentis libidinis statuuntur. In hanc velut in scopulos franguntur impetus qualescumque sanguinis inundantis; et in illa sedatur spumans humoris insania corporalis. Quae dum sibi subtrahit adminicula concupiscentiae, mortua membra sua cognoscitur bajulare: de quibus apostolus Paulus pr⟨ae⟩monet, dicens: Mortificate ergo membra, quae sunt super terram; fornicationem, immunditiam, libidinem, concupiscentiam malam, et avaritiam, quae est idolorum servitus, propter quae venit ira Dei.
conduct no one lays low, no one tramples down, no one defiles, except solitary chastity alone: which is the unconquered bulwark of holiness and the strong storming of infamy; the firmness of fortitude and the weakness of wanton lasciviousness; the safeguard of probity and the destruction of wickedness; the victory of the soul and the plunder of the body; the abundance of glories and the barrenness of crimes; the bridesmaid of sanctity and the divorce of foulness; the token of sincerity and the abolition of scandals; the exercise of continence and the complete emptying-out of luxury; the secure peace of the virtues and the quiet subduing of wars; the summit of purity and the prison of lust; the harbour of honour and the place of shipwreck for disgrace: the mother of virginity and the enemy of uncleanness; the breastplate of modesty and the stripping of shamefulness; the ruin of corruption, the wall of strictness and the destruction of vulgarity; the sword of severity, the triumpher over and slayer of dissoluteness; the arming of strength and the disarming of the loose; the dignity of integrity, and the condemnation of fornication; the pinnacle of renown and the precipice of disgrace; the will for good works and the affliction of vices; the refreshment of chastity, the punishment of wantonness; the acquiring of triumphs and the loss of misdeeds; the repose of salvation and the exile of perdition; the life of the spirit and the death of the flesh; the state of angelic quality, the funeral of human substance. By its reins all obscenity is curbed, and by its fetters the heels of raging lust are held fast. Against it, as against rocks, the onrushes of every kind of overflowing blood are broken; and in it the foaming bodily madness of the humour is calmed. While it withdraws from itself the props of concupiscence, it is known to carry its own members as dead: about which the apostle Paul gives warning, saying: Mortify therefore the members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, lust, evil concupiscence, and avarice, which is the service of idols, on account of which the wrath of God comes.
Ab his omnibus non nisi splendido singularitatis cultro castratur humana natura, ut illibatos spadones ad convivium sanctitatis dispensante circumcisione introducat. Cui sanctitas ita promisit annuli sui nuptiale signaculum, ut sine ipsa virginitas resignetur, quae se sola contenta cupidinem domat, mentemque rectificat, concupiscentiam subigit, desideria ardoris extinguit, artus debilitat, corpus ancillat: et ita carnalia crucifigit, ut tam masculus quam femina videatur in conversatione mentiri, dum illos utriusque sexus operatiose abscidit: aut neutrum faciens de duobus, tertiam formam conferre gloriatur ambobus, ut ante resurrectionem resurrectionis imaginem, ad instar Angelorum meditari noscatur. Quod promittens Dominus futurum: Qui digni, inquit, habentur saeculi illius et resurrectionis a mortuis, non
From all these things human nature is castrated only by the splendid knife of singleness, so that, with circumcision as dispenser, it may bring unblemished eunuchs into the banquet of holiness. To it holiness has so promised the nuptial seal of its ring that without it virginity is unsealed; it, content with itself alone, tames desire and sets the mind right, subdues concupiscence, extinguishes the desires of burning, weakens the limbs, makes the body a handmaid: and so crucifies carnal things that both male and female seem in their manner of life to belie [their sex], while it diligently cuts off those of either sex: or, making neither out of two, it glories in conferring a third form upon both, so that before the resurrection it is known to contemplate the image of the resurrection, after the likeness of the Angels. Which the Lord, promising it as to come, says: Those who are held worthy of that age and of the resurrection from the dead, do not
Editors' notes and page, col. 865
Footnotes
[EDIT. OXON. NOTAE — lemma notes without call marks; numbered here in print order. Lemmata not visible in the page-foot image are placed by inference.] (printed under page 424)
(1) ‹anchor: Et sterilitas criminum› · lemma note, col 865 (lemma above the image)
Et sterilitas criminum. Haec lectio vet. excus. genuina est, quia praecedit ubertas, pro qua cum Remboldus legeret cupiditas, reposuit, Erasmus captivitas. PAMEL.
"And barrenness of crimes." This reading of the old printed edition is genuine, because "ubertas" (fruitfulness) precedes; where Rembold read "cupiditas" (greed), Erasmus put "captivitas" (captivity). PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 424)
(2) ‹anchor: Immortalitas enim est memoria illius› · lemma note, col 865 (lemma above the image; runs into col 866)
Immortalitas enim est memoria illius. Contra hic recte non posuit Erasmus immortalitas est enim memoria illius; quia illud reperitur ad verbum Graece. Recte tamen ipse quia pro quae; Graece enim est ὅτι. PAMEL.
"For immortality is the memory of it." Here, on the other hand, Erasmus did not rightly put "immortalitas est enim memoria illius", because the former is found word for word in the Greek. Rightly, however, he has "quia" (because) for "quae" (which); for the Greek is ὅτι. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 424)
(3) ‹anchor: Suspectae pluralitatis› · lemma note, col 865 or 866 (lemma above the image)
Suspectae pluralitatis. Rursum hic legebatur ex mendo cod. Remboldi parilitatis. PAMEL.
"Of suspect plurality." Here again, from an error of Rembold's manuscript, "parilitatis" (of equality) used to be read. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 424)
(4) ‹anchor: Non habet claritatem› · lemma note, col 865 or 866 (lemma above the image)
Non habet claritatem. Ego negationem superfluam censeo. PAMEL.
"It has no brightness." I judge the negative superfluous. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 424)
(5) ‹anchor: ut omnes pro illa splendere non dubitent› · lemma note, col 866
Ut omnes pro illa splendere non dubitent. Metaphrasis efficit ut Erasmus reponeret spondere. PAMEL.
"That all may not hesitate to shine on its behalf." A paraphrase led Erasmus to put "spondere" (to pledge). PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 424)
Page
- running head: 865 DE SINGULARITATE CL (cut off at the image edge)
- marginal letters: A ‹mae conversationis nemo prosternit›; B ‹veritatis gladius, triumphator›; C ‹jularc : de quibus apostolus Paulus›; D ‹que sexus operatiose abscidit›
- old-edition numerals: (none)
- other: column begins with fragment "mae" of a word broken from the previous column; "lorica | udoris": p lost to damaged type; "pr.emonet": ae damaged; "videatur" and "domat" look like "videafur"/"domaf" in the scan, read as t (unsure); "Hujus rc tinaculis" read as retinaculis; scripture quotations (Col. 3:5; Luke 20:35) carry no printed references; EDIT. OXON. NOTAE at page foot not set (later pass)
nubent, neque nubentur, neque enim morientur. Nam sunt similes Angelis Dei: quia resurrectionis filii sunt. Hoc exigit sancta singularitas clericorum, ut antequam transfiguretur, jam transfigurata cernatur in Angelicae claritatis aspectum, quae omnia sibi amputans concupiscentiae certamina depraedatur: cujus laudes Salomon exequitur, dicens: Melius est esse sine filiis cum claritate. Immortalitas est enim in memoria illius; quia et apud Deum nota est, et apud homines. Cum praesens est, imitantur illam, et desiderant eam, cum se abduxerit; et in perpetuum coronata triumphat, incoinquinatorum certaminum praelium vincens.
marry, nor are given in marriage, for neither will they die. For they are like the Angels of God, because they are sons of the resurrection. This is what the holy singleness of clerics demands: that before it is transfigured it should already be seen transfigured into the appearance of angelic glory, which, cutting off from itself all the struggles of concupiscence, despoils them. Its praises Solomon sets forth, saying: Better is it to be without children with glory. For immortality is in the memory of it, because it is known both with God and with men. When it is present, men imitate it, and they long for it when it has withdrawn itself; and, crowned for ever, it triumphs, winning the battle of undefiled contests.
Non est sine filiis cum claritate, nisi singularitas sola, quam non solum conscientia sua nullis sordibus maculat, sed etiam nullae opiniones suspectae pluralitatis infamant. Nam si castitas, quod est difficile, masculum et feminam pariter in virginitate conservet, non habet claritatem; quam communitas ipsa non potest nisi quibusdam probrositatum tenebris obscurare. Singularitas vero ita clara est omnibus et exerta, ut cunctis splendore sui candoris pura manifestetur et lucida. Unde sic nos Apostolus edocet, dicens: Sicut filii lucis ambulate: fructus enim luminis est in omni bonitate, et justitia, et veritate, probantes quod beneplacitum sit Deo. Et iterum: Omnia, inquit, facite sine murmuratione et haesitatione, et sitis irreprehensibiles et simplices sicut filii Dei immaculati in medio nationis pravae et perversae, inter quos lucetis sicut luminaria in mundo. Sic ubique singularitas splendet, ut omnes pro illa splendere non dubitent: et ita sanctitatem in semetipsa clarificat, ut laudem sibi ab ipsis quoque inimicis extorqueat. Quod maxime de praeposito quocumque Paulus apostolus mandat, dicens: Oportet autem eum et testimonium habere bonum ab his qui foris sunt, ut non in opprobrium incidat et laqueum diaboli. Hanc igitur amate, hanc tenete, quae sola potest feminas debellare: cum adhuc concupiscentia nulla pectus impulsat, et dum adhuc simplicitas incorrupta permanet vel quieta, ad secretae singularitatis tutelam cito concurrite, ne postmodum non valeatis effugere.
No one is without children with glory except singleness alone, which not only is stained by its own conscience with no filth, but is also defamed by no suspicious reports of plurality. For if chastity, which is difficult, should preserve male and female alike in virginity, it does not have glory; for the very living together cannot but darken it with certain shadows of disgrace. But singleness is so glorious and so conspicuous to all that it is shown to everyone pure and shining in the splendour of its whiteness. Hence the Apostle teaches us thus, saying: Walk as sons of light: for the fruit of the light is in all goodness, and justice, and truth, proving what is well-pleasing to God. And again: Do all things, he says, without murmuring and hesitation, and may you be blameless and simple, as sons of God without spot in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world. Thus singleness shines everywhere, so that none hesitates to shine on its behalf; and it so glorifies holiness in itself that it wrings praise for itself even from its very enemies. This Paul the apostle especially enjoins concerning any superior whatever, saying: But he must also have a good testimony from those who are outside, so that he may not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. Love this, therefore; hold fast to this, which alone can overcome women: while as yet no concupiscence strikes the breast, and while simplicity still remains uncorrupted or at rest, run quickly to the protection of secluded singleness, lest afterwards you be unable to escape.
Praeoccupandus est aditus cunctis insidiis, ne hostilitas prior obrepens occurrat improvidis. Salutare remedium est praevenire potius quam praeveniri: et anticipare potius quam anticipari, viribus fortibus congruit. Ubicumque fuerit providentia, frustrantur universa contraria; ubi autem providentia negligitur, omnia contraria dominantur. Ante famem certamus, ante inopiam laborando fatigamus. Sic per omnia calamitatibus
The entrance must be closed in advance against all snares, lest hostility, creeping up first, fall upon the unprepared. It is a salutary remedy to forestall rather than to be forestalled; and to anticipate rather than to be anticipated befits strong forces. Wherever there is foresight, all adverse things are frustrated; but where foresight is neglected, all adverse things hold sway. Before famine we strive; before want we weary ourselves with labouring. Thus in all things from calamities
Editors' notes and page, col. 866
Page
- running head: [DE SINGU]LARITATE CLERICORUM. 866 (start of head cut off at left edge of image)
- marginal letters: A ‹nubent, neque nubentur›; B ‹maculat, sed etiam nullae›; C ‹ubique singularitas splendet›; D ‹remedium est praevenire›
- old-edition numerals: (none)
cunctis tollimus locum, dum gerimus providentiam temporum futurorum. Quanto magis ante praevenienda est omni provisione calamitas feminarum; cujus cupido si admittitur incipere, numquam prorsus accipit finem? Cujus comparationem Salomon explicat, dicens: Infernus, et amor mulieris, et terra quae non satiatur aqua, et ignis non dicit: sufficit. Unusquisque itaque qui securus est quia necdum tentatur, timeat; quia nihil de eo dicitur, prospiciat ne dicatur: Homines sumus, fragilitatem nostram carne portamus. Sic jam undique nos circumspecta vivacitate circumdare debemus et cingere, ut non sit pars aliqua quae vacillet. Accipimus quidem fortitudinem spiritalem, per quam substantiae nostrae fragilitas roboretur. Sed ita nobis spiritalis fortitudo collata est; ut providos non ut praecipites tueatur: ut illos muniat qui renuntiant importunitatibus delictorum, non eos qui se magis importunis delictis immergunt. Custos nobis datus est spiritus, sed ut contraria declinantibus assistendo subveniat, non ut contraria eligentibus faveat; nec ut voluntarios et pronos in adversa confortet, sed ut ab adversis nitentes separari confirmet. Nam quicumque perniciosis conatibus audet exercere virtutem, juvamen non habet Spiritus sancti, qui neminem vult ultroneum virum fortem ad fraudulentas victorias coarctari: nec protegit illum, quinimino sed deserit, quem periculis irruentem per illicitos eventus exquirere triumphos agnoverit; sicut ipse jam tunc per Salomonem locutus est, dicens: Amans periculum, in ipso peribit.
one and all we take away the opportunity, while we exercise foresight for the times to come. How much more must the calamity of women be forestalled beforehand with every precaution, the desire for whom, if it is allowed to begin, never at all reaches an end? Its comparison Solomon sets out, saying: Hell, and the love of a woman, and the earth that is not sated with water, and fire does not say: It is enough. Therefore let each one who is secure because he is not yet tempted be afraid; because nothing is said about him, let him take care that it not be said: We are men, we carry our frailty in the flesh. So now we ought to surround and gird ourselves on every side with watchful vigilance, so that there is no part that wavers. We do indeed receive spiritual strength, through which the frailty of our substance may be strengthened. But spiritual strength has been conferred on us in such a way that it guards the provident, not the headlong; that it fortifies those who renounce the importunities of sins, not those who plunge themselves all the more into importunate sins. The Spirit has been given to us as guardian, but so that by standing by He may help those who turn aside from contrary things, not so that He may favour those who choose contrary things; nor so that He may strengthen those who are willing and inclined towards adversities, but so that He may confirm those who strive to be separated from adversities. For whoever dares to exercise his strength in pernicious endeavours does not have the help of the Holy Spirit, Who wills that no man who is strong of his own accord be constrained to fraudulent victories: nor does He protect him, but rather deserts him whom He has recognized as rushing into dangers to seek out triumphs through illicit outcomes; as He Himself spoke even then through Solomon, saying: He who loves danger shall perish in it.
Ordine suo igitur, non nostro arbitrio virtus sancti Spiritus ministratur, et secundum institutum ejus praelia prosperantur. Numquam nisi praecipitatus exercitus cecidit, qui avidus fortiter faecre ducis vel imperatoris sui dispositiones irrupit; multo magis perperam erogat fortitudinem, qui sine armis doctrinae magistri Spiritus praesumpserit triumphare: cum dicat: Vae qui per praesumptionem suam aliquid faciunt, non per Deum.
Therefore the power of the Holy Spirit is administered in its own order, not at our discretion, and battles prosper according to His ordinance. Never has an army fallen unless it was headlong, which, eager to act bravely, broke through the dispositions of its general or commander; much more wrongly does he spend his strength who presumes to triumph without the arms of the teaching of the Spirit, the master: since He says: Woe to those who do anything through their own presumption, not through God.
Si qua igitur in vobis est fiducia virium spiritalium, quid spiritales deceat recordemini: et si creditis vos spiritaliter militare, agnoscite quod docemus non esse carnale, sicut Paulus apostolus loquitur, dicens: Si quis putat se prophetam esse, aut spiritalem, cognoscat quae scribo vobis. Non est quod vobis in hac persuasione deceptoria blandiamini, ut quia spiritales estis, velitis inter flagitiosorum armamenta versari, nec vos inhabiles esse pro clericatus dignitate: quia majores majoribus consueverunt conflictiones occurrere. Acrius divitibus quam pauperibus invidetur, et non inopes, sed locupletes inquietat infestatio saeva
If therefore there is in you any confidence in spiritual strength, remember what befits spiritual men: and if you believe that you serve as soldiers spiritually, recognize that what we teach is not carnal, as the apostle Paul speaks, saying: If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him recognize what I write to you. There is no reason for you to flatter yourselves in this deceptive persuasion, so that, because you are spiritual, you would wish to move among the arsenals of the shameful, and [think] that you are not unfit for the dignity of the clerical state: for greater conflicts are wont to meet greater men. The rich are envied more keenly than the poor, and it is not the needy but the wealthy that are disturbed by the fierce harassment
Editors' notes and page, col. 867
Footnotes
[EDIT. OXON. NOTAE — lemma notes without call marks; numbered here in print order. Lemmata not visible in the page-foot image are placed by inference.] (printed under page 425)
(1) ‹anchor: Ut providos, non ut praecipites tueatur› · lemma note, col 867 (lemma above the image)
Ut providos, non ut praecipites tueatur. Adjecimus cum Morelio ex vet. exc. et Remboldo ut, omissa tamen voce nos: cum iisdem. PAMEL.
"That he may protect the prudent, not the headlong." With Morel, from the old printed edition and Rembold, we have added "ut", leaving out, however, the word "nos", with the same sources. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 425)
(2) ‹anchor: fortiter facere ducis› · lemma note, col 867
Fortiter facere ducis, etc. Cum iisdem adjecimus fortiter. PAMEL.
"To act bravely ... of the general," etc. With the same sources we have added "fortiter" (bravely). PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 425)
(3) ‹anchor: multo magis perperam› · lemma note, col 867
Multo magis perperam. Hactenus corruptissime ex vitio codicis Remboldi legebatur per perituram. PAMEL.
"Much more wrongly." Until now, most corruptly, through a fault of Rembold's manuscript, "per perituram" was read. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 425)
(4) ‹anchor: quid spiritales deceat recordemini› · lemma note, col 867 (runs into col 868)
Quid spiritales deceat, recordemini. Remboldus denuo corrupte recordetur, pro quo Erasmus recordemur. At illud genuinum est. PAMEL.
"Remember what befits spiritual men." Rembold, again corruptly, has "recordetur", for which Erasmus has "recordemur" (let us remember). But the former is genuine. PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 425)
(5) ‹anchor: inter flagitiosorum armamenta› · lemma note, col 867
Inter flagitiosorum armamenta. Reposuerat Erasmus armenta. PAMEL.
"Among the armouries of the wicked." Erasmus had put "armenta" (herds). PAMELIUS.
(printed under page 425)
(6) ‹anchor: Protervitatis enim jam coepta› · lemma note, col 868
Protervitatis. Male haec cohaerent; nec promptum est conjicere quid sibi velit scriptor hic: qui etiam S. Scripturas quas passim adducit, pro libitu detorquet. Videtur per coepta intelligere initia.
"Of wantonness." These words hang together badly; nor is it easy to guess what the writer means here, who also twists at will the Holy Scriptures he cites throughout. By "coepta" he seems to mean "beginnings". [No signature printed.]
(printed under page 425)
Page
- running head: 867 LIBER
- marginal letters: A ‹lamitatibus cunctis tollimus locum›; B ‹ut providos non ut praecipites›; C ‹Ordine suo igitur, non nostro›; D ‹suasione deceptoria blandiamini›
- old-edition numerals: (none)
- other: column begins with the fragment lamitatibus (rest of calamitatibus broken from the previous column); faecre UNSURE, image blurred, may be facere as quoted in the foot note; column ends with saeva, not hyphenated; editors' notes at page foot (EDIT. OXON. NOT., Ut providos...) not set; no full-width line other than the running head; no editors' matter in the text block
latronum. Plus duces et principes quam milites ab hostibus appetuntur in pugna: et violentibus propulsantur ventis et turbinibus culmina, quaecumque sunt altiora. Ideo magis magisque quo plus caeteris unusquisque potest, sciat esse sibi metuendum ne in aliquo minoretur, propter quod Salomon sic admonet, dicens: Qui gloriatur, inquit in divitiis, paupertatem vereatur. Rogo vos quantum valeo, et ultra quam valeo, haec sint studia omnium clericorum, ut singularitatis inaccusabilis secessione fungantur: ne aut ipsi per feminas, aut feminae per illos ad ignominiosa ludibria provocentur. Si quis habet matrem, vel filiam, vel sororem, vel conjugem, vel cognatam, sic habeat, ut nulla ancilla intersit, neque aliqua ingrediatur extranea; ne ad hoc videatur tenere proximas suas, ut ipsarum causa libere sibi adhibeat alienas: quod si non possint ipsae quae sunt proximae sine famularum ministerio, vel sine amicarum esse solatio; expedit ut migrent ad aliud domicilium, quam propter illas personae contrariae teneantur. Humanum est enim, ut nec clericus illas necessariis feminis fraudet, nec ipsae clericum per importunas feminas sordident. Assignari possunt sanctis mulieribus, cum quibus vivant, dummodo cum clerico femina nulla commaneat. Non despecta, non vetula, sine affinitate, peculiariter suscipienda ad domesticum obsequium: quia magis illicito delinquitur, ubi sine suspicione securum potest esse delictum; maxime quia cupidini nulla deformitas, nulla despectio fastidii, vel vilis existit, sed diabolus pingens speciosum efficit quidquid foedum vel horridum fuerit.
of robbers. Leaders and chiefs, more than soldiers, are attacked by the enemy in battle; and it is the summits, whichever are higher, that are driven by violent winds and whirlwinds. Therefore the more anyone is capable than the rest, the more and more let him know that he must fear lest he be diminished in anything, for which reason Solomon admonishes thus, saying: He who glories, he says, in riches, let him fear poverty. I ask you as much as I am able, and beyond what I am able: let this be the endeavour of all clerics, that they keep to the seclusion of an irreproachable single life, lest either they themselves through women, or women through them, be provoked to shameful mockeries. If anyone has a mother, or a daughter, or a sister, or a wife, or a kinswoman, let him so have her that no maidservant be present and no woman from outside enter; lest he seem to keep his nearest kinswomen for this purpose, that on their account he may freely bring in women not his own. But if those who are his nearest cannot be without the service of maidservants, or without the solace of female friends, it is better that they move to another dwelling than that persons of the opposite sex be kept on their account. For it is humane that neither the cleric should deprive them of the women they need, nor they defile the cleric through intrusive women. They can be assigned to holy women with whom to live, provided that no woman stays with the cleric. Not a woman of mean appearance, not an old woman, [if] without kinship, is to be specially received into domestic service: for one sins the more unlawfully where the offence can be secure from suspicion; above all because in the eyes of desire no ugliness, no meanness, is a cause of disgust or is worthless, but the devil, painting it, makes beautiful whatever was foul or hideous.
Si quis autem modo profectione cogente apud fratres, vel apud extraneos hospitatur, ubi mulieres intersunt; omnino se arctet, ne passibilitate aliqua vitietur. Semotus ac secretus Deo vacet et sibi, ne intus capiatur a diabolo; et qui foris capi non potuit, apud suos cadat. Qui hostes effugit, ad tempus pro salutaribus causis procedat ad faciem, et iterum cito discedere de conspectu festinet. Ubique gustanda est cum mulieribus, non continuanda praesentia, sed quasi transeunter feminis exhibenda est accessio quodammodo fugitiva. Protervitatis enim jam coepta sunt repraesentari semper in medium; et perditionis meditatio est frequentativum inter mulieres celebrare processum. De qua re nobis Salomon moderamen imposuit, dicens: In medio mulierum noli assiduus esse. Sic igitur ambulate, sic agite, ut semper in clericis Ecclesiae senatus candidus constet. Severitas in vobis circa feminas vigeat, auctoritas polleat, vigor teneatur, gravitas veneretur.
But if anyone, compelled by a journey, is lodged with brethren or with strangers where women are present, let him restrain himself altogether, lest he be corrupted by any passion. Withdrawn and apart, let him be free for God and for himself, lest he be caught within by the devil, and he who could not be caught outside fall among his own. Let him who has escaped the enemy come forward to face them for a time for salutary reasons, and again make haste to depart quickly from their sight. Everywhere presence with women is to be tasted, not prolonged; rather, access to women is to be granted as if in passing, in a manner fugitive. For the beginnings of wantonness are already always being brought forth into the open; and to make a frequent progress among women is a rehearsal of perdition. On this matter Solomon has imposed a restraint upon us, saying: In the midst of women do not be assiduous. Walk thus, therefore, act thus, that the senate of the Church may always stand spotless in its clerics. Let severity towards women flourish in you, let authority prevail, let vigour be maintained, let gravity be revered.
Ut semel omnia colligamus ad clausulam, breviarium
That we may once for all gather everything together to a conclusion, the summary
Editors' notes and page, col. 868
Page
- running head: LIBER ... 868 (only "LIBER" visible of the running head)
- marginal letters: A latronum. Plus duces; B ipsarum causa libere; C dum fuerit.; D posuit, dicens
- old-edition numerals: (none)
- other: column begins mid-sentence with "latronum." and ends with "brevia-" broken across the column break; full-width heading "EDIT. OXON. NOTAE." at the page foot not set (start of editors' notes, apparatus, left for later pass); "violentibus", "illicito" and "vel vilis existit" kept as printed, sense uncertain; no scripture references printed for the two Solomon citations
relegimus vobis, quod ad compendiosam plenitudinem redigens Paulus apostolus insinuat : De caetero, fratres, quaecumque sunt vera, quaecumque pudica, quaecumque sancta, quaecumque amabilia,
we have read out again to you, which the apostle Paul, reducing it to a compendious fullness, intimates: For the rest, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever modest, whatever holy, whatever lovable,
quaecumque bonae famae, si qua virtus, s⟨i⟩ qua laus disciplinae, haec cogitate quae accepistis, et didicistis, et audistis, et vidistis in me. Haec agite; et Deus pacis et dilectionis erit vobiscum. Amen.
whatever things are of good repute, if there is any virtue, if any praise of discipline, think on these things which you have received, and learned, and heard, and seen in me. Do these things; and the God of peace and love will be with you. Amen.
Editors' notes and page, col. 869
Footnotes
[STEPH. BALUZII NOTAE — lemma notes without call marks, keyed by chapter; numbered here in print order. NB: this page's text is not De singularitate clericorum but the following pseudo-Cyprianic tract on the twelve abuses (Cap. I–II), so these notes belong to that work and to its own unit, they stand here only because the page is shared. Lemmata not visible in the page-foot image are placed by inference.] (printed under page 426)
(1) ‹anchor: Cap. I — Constituentis› · lemma note, col 869 (lemma above the image)
Cap. I. — Constituentis. Praedicantis apud Augustinum, tom. 6. Paulo ante apud eumdem complere.
Ch. I. — "Of one who establishes." "Of one who preaches" in Augustine, vol. 6. A little before, the same has "complere" (to fulfil).
(printed under page 426)
(2) ‹anchor: Rectoris› · lemma note, col 869
Rectoris. Largitoris, cod. Corbeiensis.
"Of their ruler." "Of their bestower", Corbie manuscript.
(printed under page 426)
(3) ‹anchor: Et gravioribus› · lemma note, col 869
Et gravioribus Sic duo codices mss. Reg. et Colbert. Aliter in edit. acrioribus flagellis gravioribusque vindictis vapulabit. Paulo ante apud Aug. solo suo merito.
"And heavier." So two manuscripts, the Royal and the Colbert. Otherwise in the editions: "shall be beaten with sharper scourges and heavier punishments". A little before, Augustine's [edition] has "by his own sole merit".
(printed under page 426)
(4) ‹anchor: Cap. II — Competit› · lemma note, col 869 or 870 (lemma below the image)
Cap. II. — Competit. Convenit apud Aug.
Ch. II. — "Is fitting." "Convenit" in Augustine.
(printed under page 426)
(5) ‹anchor: Deseruit› · lemma note, col 870
Deseruit. Deserit in duobus mss. et Morell. In sequenti periodo similiter legimus ut apud Aug. deseruit, quamvis legatur deserit in codicibus mss. et editis operum Cypriani.
"Has deserted." "Deserit" (deserts) in two manuscripts and Morel. In the next sentence likewise we read "deseruit", as in Augustine, though "deserit" is read in the manuscripts and in the editions of Cyprian's works.
(printed under page 426)
(6) ‹anchor: quomodo futura habitatio› · lemma note, col 870
Quam. Hanc vocem addidi ex edit. Aug. ubi sic legitur: Quam quomodo futurae aditus propere comprehendatur. In cod. Corb. futurae aditus prosperitatis; eamdem editionem sequimur in aliis nonnullis locis, de quibus necesse non est admonere.
"Than." I have added this word from the edition of Augustine, where it reads: "than how the entrance of the future [dwelling] may be quickly grasped". In the Corbie manuscript: "the entrance of future prosperity". We follow the same edition in some other places, of which there is no need to give notice.
(printed under page 426)
(7) ‹anchor: secum ad peccatum› · lemma note, col 870
Secum. Deest ea vox in duobus mss.
"With it." That word is missing in two manuscripts.
(printed under page 426)
Page
- running head: 869 DE DUODECIM ABUSIONIB (cut off at the image edge)
- marginal letters: A rium relegimus vobis; B CAPUT PRIMUM.; C raverit, a quo iterum doctore; D vapulabit (Luc. XII, 47).
- old-edition numerals: (none)
- other: column begins with the word fragment "rium" broken from the previous column; full-width title lines (DE DUODECIM ABUSIONIBUS / TRACTATUS / PERPERAM CYPRIANO ET AUGUSTINO...) printed across both columns between the opening lines and CAPUT PRIMUM, cut off, not set; full-width heading STEPH. BALUZII NOTAE above the foot notes, cut off, not set; Baluze's notes at page foot not set; reference "(Matth. VI, 23)" unsure, the last digit is blurred and could be read as 25; "Evangelio" unsure, the type could be read as "Evangello"; "exiget" set as printed.
- other: a full-width band stands across cols 869/870 in mid-page: the 1 paragraph(s) above it in col 870 are set here, after the 1 above it in col 869 (reading order, moved on receipt); the band itself (its title lines) is not set by the volunteer page: set it here, at the move, with full_width
- other: the column continues with CAPUT PRIMUM. (another unit); not set here
Editors' notes and page, col. 870
Page
- running head: …CIM ABUSIONIBUS SAECULI. 870 (left part cut off at image edge)
- marginal letters: A quaecumque bonae famae; B senex esse inveniatur; C in pallorem mutatur; D semper cogitationes machinari
- old-edition numerals: (none)
- other: full-width title lines between the first paragraph and "senex esse inveniatur" (…M ABUSIONIBUS SAECULI / …RACTATUS, / …O ET AUGUSTINO ADSCRIPTUS.) cut off at left edge, not set; second "s⟨i⟩" (before "qua laus") damaged type, prints s'; "namque" type damaged but legible; "harmoniam" looks like "barmoniam" in the image, probably blurred type (h reads as b elsewhere too), UNSURE; last word "Unicui-" split at column break; Baluzii Notae at page foot left for later pass
- other: the 1 paragraph(s) of this column above the full-width band are set under col 869 (reading order, moved on receipt)
- other: the text of this column below the full-width band belongs to the next unit; not set here (rail-only part)