Sermons on the Song of Songs

Nay, O Lord ; / will make mention of Thy righteousness^ even ef Thine only (Ps. lxxi. 16). For that is mine also, since Thou Thyself hast become my Righteousness. Have I any reason to fear Jest the one righteousness should not suffice for both ? It is not like that cloak of which the Prophet speaks, which was so narrow that it could not cover two (Is. xxviii. 20). Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness (Ps. cxix. 142). What is longer than eternity? And Thy Righteousness is eternal ; and so ample as amply to cover me equally with Thyself. In me, indeed, it shall cover a multitude of Horst reads wrongly, reum capitis membrum ; and Picard, veri capitis membrum. Our reading is genuine and easy, if in the former half of the sentence you understand membrum and supply sttam dicit, so that the sense will be, Sicut membru* rem capitis suam dicit.

Digitized by Google 369 sins ; but in Thee, O Lord, what does it cover but the treasures of Thy lovingkindness, the riches of Thy goodness to us ? These are the treasures which are laid up for me in the clefts of the rock. Of what great variety of sweetness are these good things, hidden, indeed, now, but only from those who perish ! For why is that which is holy given unto dogs, or pearls cast before swine ? God has revealed them to us by His Spirit, and has made us enter into His holy things by these open clefts. How great an abundance of sweetness is found in them, what fulness of grace, and what perfection of virtues I 6. I will enter into those storehouses so richly filled, and, according to the counsel of the Prophet, will leave the cities, and dwell in the rock (Jer. xlviii. 28). I will be as it were a dove making her nest in the deepest recess of the cleft, so that, being set with Moses in the cleft of the rock, I may attain to see the Lord at least from behind as He passes by (Exod. xxxiii. 23). For who shall stand before Him and look upon His Face, that is, behold His unchangeable Glory, except he to whom it shall be vouchsafed, to be brought not only into His holy place, but into the Holy of Holies ? Nor is that sight of the Lord a small favour, nor to be lightly thought of. Let Herod despise it if he will ; as for me, I am far from thinking it a small thing, and the farther, the more despisable it seems to Herod.

Even such a sight of the Lord has its own delights. Who knows whether God will not turn, and forgive, and leave behind Him a blessing ? A time shall come when He shall show to us the light of His Countenance, and we shall be saved. But in the meantime, may He prevent us {prarvefiiat — go before) with the sweetness of those blessings which He is wont to leave behind Him. Let Him now display to us His condescension, as it were, by a view of Him from behind, and reserve for another time the sight of His Countenance in its Glory. He is exalted high above all in His Kingdom, but upon His Cross He is all sweetness. T^et Him begin with me by the latter vision, and in the other bestow upon me the fulness of joy. Thou shall make me fall of joy, it is said, with Thy Countenance (Acts ii. 28). Each vision is saving, and each is sweet ; but the one is in supreme exaltation, the other in humility ; the one in Glory, the other in mortal pallor. 7. For, as says the Psalmist of the dove : The hinder parts of her back are covered with the paleness of gold (Ps. lxviii. 14. Douay). He cannot be other than pale

in death. But gold, though it be pale, is of more value than yellow and shining brass ; so also the foolishness of God is wiser than men (1 Cor. L 25). This gold is the Word, the wisdom of God. This gold has rendered its colour pale, hiding the Form of God, and putting on the form of a servant. From the Church also He has taken her golden brightness, for she says : Look not on me because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me (i. 6). Her back, then, also has the paleness of gold ; she does not blush at the blackness of the Cross ; she does not shudder at the scorching brands of the Saviour's Passion, nor fly from the livid 24 Digitized by Google 37<> marks of His wounds. She even takes delight in them, and desires that her last end may be like these. It is on that account that the words are spoken which she hears from the Bridegroom : My dove that art in the clefts of tlu rock ; because she dedicates herself with single-hearted devotion to the Wounds of Christ, and dwells in them with continual meditation. Thence comes the endurance which does not shrink from martyrdom ; thence the complete confidence which she has

in the Most High. The martyr can fear nothing who lifts his eyes to that bloodless and livid Face, by whose very paleness he is healed, and who nerves himself to show forth a glorious likeness of his Master's Death, even in the paleness of gold. Why should he fear to whom it is said by the Lord Himself : Let Me see thy countenance! (ii. 14). Why does He say this? I think it is not so much that He desires to see her, as that He desires to be seen by her.

For what is there that He does not see ? He has no need that anyone should show themselves to Him who sees all things, even though they be hidden. What He desires, then, is to be seen ; the Leader full of kindness and bounty desires that the countenance and the eyes of His devoted soldier should be fixed upon His wounds, to draw from them strength and encouragement, and to render him stronger to endure his sufferings, through the power of His Example. 8. In truth, while the martyr is gazing at the Wounds of his Saviour, he will not feel his own. He stands intrepid and triumphant, though his whole body be a mass of wounds ; and when the steel gashes his sides, he beholds the sacred blood of martyrdom spout forth from his body, not only bravely, but with gladness. Where, then, is the soul of the martyr ? It is in a place of safety ; in the Rock, in the Bosom of Jesus, which it enters through the open portal of His Wounds. If it were left to its own sensations only, assuredly the stabbing sword would be seen and felt ; the pain would be found unendurable ; it would succumb, and deny its Lord. But as it is abiding in the

Rock, what wonder if it should endure as a rock endures ? Nor if it is an exile from the body, is it wonderful that the pains of the body it does not feel. This is not the consequence of insensibility, but of the force of love. The senses are not lost, though they are controlled. The pain is felt, but the soul rises above it and scorns it. It is then from that Rock comes the fortitude of the martyr, and the power that is in him to drink of the cup of the Lord (Matt. xx. 22, 23). And that cup, so exciting in its passionate glow, how goodly is it! (Ps. xxiii. 5). Goodly, indeed; and that not less to the Leader who is keenly watching the struggle, than to the brave soldier who fights and conquers, for our strength is the joy of the Lord (Neh. viii. 10). How can it be otherwise than that the voice of a martyr's testimony, bravely sustained unto the end, should be to Him a cause of joy, since, in fact, He asks it so earnestly, in the words before us : Let Me hear thy mice. Nor will He delay, in His turn, to repay it according to His promise : Whouh Digitized by Google 371 ever, therefore, shall

confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in Heaven (Matt. x. 32). But let me cut short this sermon, for it cannot be finished at this time ; and it would be excessively long were I to complete all that remains to be said upon this verse which I have begun to expound. Let me reserve it, therefore, to the beginning of the next sermon ; and may all that I say, and the manner in which it is said, be a subject of satisfaction to Him, who is the Bridegroom of the Church, Jesus Christ our Ix>rd, who is above all, God blessed for ever. Amen.

WHAT IS MEANT BY THE ABIDING OF THE FAITHFUL SOUL IN THE CLEFTS OF THE ROCK, AND WHAT IN THE SECRET PLACES OF THE STAIRS. THAT IT IS NEEDFUL RATHER TO SEARCH WHAT IS THE WILL OF GOD THAN TO SEARCH INTO HIS MAJESTY, AND THAT PURITY OF INTENTION IS NECESSARY TO THE PREACHING ' My dove that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs." — Cant. ii. 14.

IT is not only in the clefts of the rock that the dove finds a safe refuge ; it is also in the secret places of the stairs. If, then, we take 'the stairs* as signifying, not a mere heaped-up pile of stones, but the assemblage of the Saints, may we not perhaps take the secret places or hollows in it to refer to the places left, as it were, empty in it by those Angels who, because of their pride, fell from Heaven, since those places are to be filled by men, even as ruins are built up with new and living stones ? Wherefore the Apostle Peter says : To whom coming, as unto a living stone, ye also as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house (1 Pet. ii. 4, 5). Nor do I think that it will be far from the fact if we understand by it the guardianship of Angels, as in some sort acting as a wall (maceria) around the Lord's vineyard, which is the Church of the predestinate, since St. Paul says : Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation ? (Heb. i. 14). And the Psalmist : The Angel of the Lord campeth about them that fear Him, and delivereth them (Ps. xxxiv. 7). And if that be adopted, the sense will be that two things console the Church in the time and place of her pilgrimage — one referring to the past, the memory of the Passion of Christ ; the other to the future, the thought and confident assurance of being received into the blessedness of the Saints. She looks forward and backward, and beholds each of these two with an earnest longing Digitized by Google 372 which never fails ; each of them seems to her immeasurably sweet, and each provides her with refuge and consolation against her griefs and afflictions which she endures from evil men. The consolation is complete, since the Church knows not only what she has to look for, but also from whom she has to look for it. Her expectation is full of joy ; nor is it doubtful, for it is founded on the Death of Christ. Why should she tremble at the greatness of the recompense, when she considers the value {dignitatem) of the price paid for it?

What happiness she experiences in reflecting upon those clefts through which flowed that most sacred Blood, which was the price of her salvation ! With what joy she traverses the hollows, the retreats, the mansions, which are so many, and so diverse, in the House of the Father, and in which He will place His children according to the diversity of their merits ! And because she is not, for the present, able to enter into the heavenly home in reality, she enters it in the only manner which is possible to her, in spirit and by continual remembrance of it. But the time will come when she shall fill up those waste places ; shall dwell in those hollows in body as well as in spirit ; when she shall make light with the presence of the vast numbers of her children those heavenly habitations which their former denizens have left void ; and then in the heavenly wall there shall appear no more empty hollows, but all shall rejoice in completeness and perfection. 2. Or, if you prefer the interpretation, let us say that by studious and pious souls these hollows are not found, but made. In what manner, do you ask ? By the force of their thoughts and their desires.

For that spiritual wall yields to the pious desire of the soul, just as soft stone yields to the edge of the mason's chisel ; it yields to pure contemplation, to frequent prayer. For the prayer of the humble pierceth the clouds (Ecclus. xxxv. 17). Not, indeed, that it cleaves the spacious heights of this material atmosphere, as a bird cleaves them in its flight and by the beating of its wings ; or that it pierces, as by the thrust of a sword, to the height of the dense firmament But there are heavens which are holy, living, reasonable, which declare the glory of God ; and these bend themselves, with a willing and gracious acquiescence, to our prayers : these allow themselves to be reached by our devout affections ; these receive us into their bosom as often as we knock at the door of them with a pure and worthy intention. For to him that knocketh it shall be opened. It will, then, be allowed to each of us, even during this period of our mortality, to hollow out for himself caves of refuge, in whatsoever part he will, of this heavenly wall ; even now to visit the Patriarchs and to salute the Prophets ; even now to mingle with the glorious company of the Apostles

and the noble army of Martyrs. It will be permitted to each, according as the fervour of his devotion shall bear up his soul as upon wings, to traverse in gladness and joy the dwelling place and the mansions of the blessed Virtues, from the least Angels to the loftiest Cherubin and Seraphin. And if he shall pause and knock Digitized by Google ABIDING OF THE FAITHFUL SOUL IN THE CLEFTS OF THE ROCK 373 perseveringly at the door of those to whom he is most strongly drawn, according to the impulse of the Spirit, who quickeneth whom He will, it shall be speedily opened to him ; and making, as it were, a cave of refuge in the mountains, or rather in those holy souls, who willingly incline themselves to him in benignant kindness, he shall repose among them for a little while. Of every soul that acts thus, both the countenance and the voice are always acceptable to God : the countenance because of its purity ; the voice because of the praises it renders to Him (Ps. 1. 23). And, in truth, the offering of thanks is fair in His sight ; wherefore, also, to such an one it is said : Let Me see thy countenance ; let Me hear thy voice. The voice is adoration

in the mind that is occupied in contemplation ; the voice is giving of thanks. God takes great delight in such hollows as these, from which sounds forth the voice of thanksgiving to Him, the voice of adoration and praise. 3. Happy is the soul whose study it has been frequently to hollow out for itself caves of refuge on this wall, and still more happy if its refuge be in the rock. For it is open to us to hew and hollow out our refuge even in the Rock ; but for this is required a sharper edge, as it were, of purity, a stronger force of will and pious intention, and, furthermore, more prevailing merits of sanctity.1 And who can be thought qualified in these respects ? Surely he who said : In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God: the same was in t/ie beginning with God (John i. 1, 2).

Does it not seem to you that this man is one who has plunged, and, as it were, whelmed himself in the abysses of the Word as in the depths of a sea, and who, from the recesses of the Heart of Jesus, has brought forth the very marrow of the deepest and most sacred Wisdom ? What shall I say of him who was wont to speak wisdom among them who were perfect, even the hidden wisdom, which none of the princes of this world knew (1 Cor. ii. 6-8) ? Did not that pious searcher, borne onward by a holy and religious, but penetrating, curiosity, pass through the first and the second heaven, and enter even into the third heaven in search of that wisdom ? And he has not been silent about it to us, but has set it forth faithfully in such faithful words as he could command. For he heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter (2 Cor. xii. 4), that is to say, not to man ; and of these he would discourse to God only.

Imagine, then, that God is consoling Paul, whose charity causes him to regret that he cannot make known this wisdom to his fellow-men, and saying to him : * Why are you troubled because men are not capable of hearing and understanding the thoughts you have conceived ? Let Me hear thy voice 1 — that is to say, * If it is not permitted to you to reveal to mortal ears the thoughts you have in your mind, yet be consoled, inasmuch as your voice is acceptable and welcome to the Divine ears.' Do you see how that holy soul at one time is editions have it, even the earliest.

Digitized by Google 374 sober because of its charity towards us, and at another beside itself to God, and in the power of its purity (2 Cor. v. 13) ? See also with regard to holy David whether he was not himself that man of whom, as if of another, he speaks with God : The thought of man shall give praise to Thee, and the rest of the thought make festival in Thine honour (Ps. lxxvi. 11). All, then, that the Prophet was able to make publicly known, by his word or his example, of his prophetic consciousness, that he used to render public praise to God, and thanksgivings among the people of the Lord ; while that which remained he reserved for himself and for God, and together they made festival with joy and gladness. This, then, is what he wished to make known to us by the verse quoted : that is to say, whatever of the mystery of wisdom he was able to arrive at by eager and attentive meditation, he partly shared with the people, according to his ability, by the careful preaching which he devoted to their salvation ; and the remainder, which the people were not capable of comprehending, he employed in praises and thanksgivings to God. You see that nothing is lost of holy contemplation, since that which cannot be expended to the edification of the peoples is put to good use for the praise of God, and is acceptable and agreeable to Him. 4. That being the case, it is clear that there are two kinds of contemplation : one, upon the state, the happiness, and the glory of the heavenly City, with which either in action or in repose a multitude of its citizens are occupied ; the other, upon the majesty, the eternity, and the Divinity, of the King Himself. The one may be said to have relation to the wall, the other to the rock. But the more difficult it is to hollow out this wall, the sweeter and more satisfying is the result attained when it is done. Do not fear that with which the Scripture threatens those who are searchers into Majesty (Prov. xxv. 27).

Only bring to that search an eye which is pure and simple, then you shall not be overwhelmed with glory, but shall be admitted [to behold it] — that is, unless you seek not the glory of God, but your own.

Whosoever does this is indeed overwhelmed, but by [the looking for] his own glory, not that of God ; for in pursuit of that your heart is, as it were, weighed down with desire of vainglory, and is unable to lift itself up to the glory of God. But if that is driven out of our soul we may then securely search1 the Rock in which are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. ii. 3). If you are still doubtful, hear what the Rock Himself says : They that work in Me shall not do amiss (Ecclus. xxiv. 22). Oh, that I had wings like a do7>ef for then would 1 fly away, and be at rest (Ps. Iv. 6). There the gentle and simple soul finds rest, where the fraudful, the arrogant, the covetous of vainglory, is overwhelmed. The Church is as a dove, and therefore finds rest. The Church is as a dove, because it is innocent and mournful. As a dove, I say, because it receives with meekness the ingrafted word And it rests in the Word, that is, in the rock ; for the Rock is the Word. The Church, then, abides in Digitized by Google ABIDING OF THE FAITHFUL SOUL IN THE CLEFTS OF THE ROCK 375 the clefts of the rock,

through which she looks forth and beholds the glory of her Spouse ; and yet she is not overwhelmed by that glory, because she does not arrogate it to herself. She is not overwhelmed by it, because it is not the Divine Majesty, but the Divine Will, into which it is her object to search. Sometimes, indeed, she ventures to contemplate that which belongs to His Majesty, yet not to scrutinize, but to adore. And if it is ever her lot to be transported into it by a sudden ecstasy, that is the Finger of God, who deigns thus to lift up man to Himself, not the temerity of man, presuming insolently to intrude into the deep things of God. For when the Apostle relates that he was caught up into Paradise, that he might excuse his venturing to glory (2 Cor. xii. 1, 2), what other mortal may presume by his own unaided efforts to introduce himself into the terrible sanctuary of this supreme Majesty, and to burst with eager gaze into the sight of its awful mysteries ? I conclude that those who are here spoken of as searchers into the Divine Majesty are those who burst upon it of their own accord, not those to whom it is revealed in ecstasy. It is the former, therefore, that

are overwhelmed by its glory. 5. A search into the Divine Majesty is, then, full of danger to be feared ; but a search into the Divine Will [that we may obey it] is as safe as it is dutiful and pious. Why, indeed, should I not employ myself with all diligence in ascertaining what is the Will of Him to whom I owe obedience in all things? Glory and sweetness also come from the contemplation of His sweetness, from the beholding of the riches of His goodness and tender mercies. Then, indeed, we have beheld this glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father (John i. 14). That part of His glory which is here displayed is full of goodness, and truly paternal. That glory does not overwhelm me, though I bend all my powers to contemplate it ; on the contrary, it impresses itself upon me. For when we with open face behold the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Cor. iii. 18).

We are transformed in Him, when we are conformed to Him. God forbid that the conformity of man to the Divine likeness should be presumed to consist in the glory of His majesty, and not rather in a modest and complete obedience to His Will. This is my glory, if ever I shall be so happy as to hear it said of me : 'I have found a man after My own heart.' The Heart of the Bridegroom is the Heart of His Father, and of what character is that ? Be ye therefore merciful. He says Himself, as your Father also is merciful (Luke vi. 36). It is this form and expression of countenance that He desires to see, when He says to the Church : Let Me see thy countenance : a form and expression of kindness and of piety. Such a countenance [the Church] lifts with all confidence towards the Rock, which it resembles.

They looked unto Him, says the Psalmist, and were lightened, and their faces were not ashamed (Ps. xxxiv. 5). How, indeed, shall a humble soul be confounded by One who is humble, a holy soul by the God of holiness, a modest soul by Him who is modesty itself? The pure Digitized by Google 376 countenance of the Bride will no more be abhorrent to the purity of the Rock, than virtue is abhorrent to virtue, or light to light. . 6. But as the Church is not able as a whole to draw near at present to the piercing of the Rock, because it is not in the power of all who are in the Church to penetrate the sacred mysteries of the Will of God, or to apprehend by their own selves the deep things of His counsels, therefore the Bridegroom declares that she dwells not only in the clefts of the rock, but in the secret places of the wall. With respect, then, to those of her members who are perfect, who by the purity of their conscience and the quickness of their intelligence are emboldened and enabled to search and to penetrate the secrets of wisdom, the Church dwells in the clefts of the Rock. With respect to others, she dwells in the secret places of

the wall ; that is to say, those who either are not qualified to hollow out for themselves caves of refuge in the Rock, or do not presume to do so, should be content to contemplate in spirit the glory of the saints, and, as it were, to abide in the secret places of the wall. If there is anyone to whom not even this is possible, let the Church set before him Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, so that even he may abide, without any toil of his own, in the clefts of the Rock at the hollowing out of which he has not laboured. The Jews have laboured [to pierce them], and he, that he may be a believer, shall enter into the labours of the unbelievers. Nor let him fear to be repulsed, for he is called to enter in. Enter into the rock, says the Prophet, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty (Is. ii. 10). To the soul that is feeble and undecided, such as is described in that verse in the Gospel in which one confesses of himself that he cannot dig, and to beg he is ashamed (Luke xvi. 3), a hollow is shown where he may hide in the earth until

he gather strength and make spiritual progress, so that then even he may hollow out for himself clefts in the Rock, and with increased vigour and purity of mind may enter into the inner meanings of the Word. 7. And if we understand as referring to this hiding-place hollowed in the earth that passage in which it is said, They have dug My Hands and Feet (Ps. xxii. 17, Douay), it cannot be doubtful that the wounded soul which shall abide in it shall speedily recover health. For what is so efficacious to the healing of the wounds of conscience, as to the purifying of the intention of the soul, as assiduous meditation upon the Wounds of Christ ? But until it is perfectly purified and healed I do not see how the words can be applied to it which are here spoken, Let Me see thy countenance, let Me hear thy voice. For how can the soul which is bidden to hide itself venture to show its countenance or lift up its voice? Hide thyself it is said, in the dust.

Wherefore ? Because the countenance is not fair, nor worthy to be seen. Nor shall it be worthy to be seen as long as it is not capable of seeing. But when, by the sojourn made in the dust, it has made such progress in the healing of the inward eye that it is able to contemplate the glory of God with open face, then at length the soul shall Digitized by Google ABIDING OF THE FAITHFUL SOUL IN THE CLEFTS OF THE ROCK 377 recount with confidence what it has seen, and shall be, both in voice and countenance, pleasing to the Lord. The countenance which is able to view fixedly the glory of God is necessarily able to please. For that it would not be able to do if it were not itself clear and pure, and transformed into the image of the glory which it contemplates.

Otherwise it would recoil from that glory on account of mere unlikeness to it, as if stricken by a brilliance new and unbearable. Therefore, when a soul shall be pure and therefore able to behold unshrinkingly the pure truth, then it is that the Bridegroom will desire to behold its countenance and to hear its voice. 8. For how greatly He is pleased by the preaching of the truth when it is done with a pure intention is shown by the words which are added : For sweet is thy voice. And that the voice would not be pleasing to Him if the countenance were displeasing may be inferred from the remainder of the sentence : And thy countenance is comely. What is the beauty of the inward countenance except purity ? The soul may please Him in very many respects without the voice of preaching ; but without a pure intention it can please Him in none.

To the impure Truth does not show itself, nor does Wisdom entrust itself to them. How, then, should they be able to speak of that which they have not seen ? We speak that we do know, saith the Scripture, and testify that we have seen (John iii. n). But you go and dare to give testimony about that which you have not seen, and to speak of that which you know not. Do you ask who it is that I say has not a pure intention ? He who seeks for the praises of men ; he. who makes a traffic of the Gospel ; he who preaches the Gospel as a means of livelihood ; to whom gain is godliness ; and who does not seek for spiritual fruit provided he obtains a gift. Such as these are wanting in pure intention ; and though their mixture of motive hinders their beholding the truth, it does not hinder their discoursing of it as if they did behold it. Why do you act so hastily ? Why do you not wait for light ? Why do you presume to undertake the work of light before the light is with you ? It is in vain that you rise before the light dawns upon you. The light, that is a pure intention, that is charity, which seeketh not her own (i Cor. xiii. 5). I^et this come first, that you speak not unadvisedly with your tongue, as one who setteth his foot at a venture. The truth is not discerned by the eye that is proud, but is clear to him that is upright and sincere. There is no truth which hides itself from the pure in heart, or that may not be uttered by him who is so. But unto the ivicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare My statutes, or that thou shouldest take My covenant in thy mouth (Ps. 1. 16) ? Many there are who, neglecting a pure intention, have tried to speak before they have seen the truth ; and have either fallen into grave error, knowing neither what they say nor of what they affirm, or have incurred derision and contempt, inasmuch as they have taken upon them to teach others, while they have not » themselves been taught. Let us pray Him who is the Bridegroom of the Church, Jesus Christ our Lord, to preserve us always from this twofold evil. He is above all, God blessed for ever. Amen. Digitized by 378

THAT A MAN WHO IS PIOUS AND WISE OUGHT TO CULTIVATE CAREFULLY HIS VINEYARD, THAT IS TO SAY, HIS LIFE, HIS SOUL, AND HIS CONSCIENCE ; THAT THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF FOXES, NAMELY, FLATTERERS AND DETRACTORS ; AND OF THE TEMP- * Take us the foxes , the little foxes , that spoil the vines : for our vines have tender grapes.1 — Cant. ii. 15. IT is clear that it was not without real need that attention was called to the vineyards, since foxes are found among the vines, who are despoiling them. That is the literal sense of the words. But what of the spiritual ? In the first place, we reject the common and familiar explanation altogether as absurd, insipid, and altogether unworthy to be received as the sense of a Scripture so sacred and authentic. Unless anyone is so dull of mind and devoid of reason as to imagine it a great thing to be taught here, after the fashion of the children of this world, to have a care for earthly possessions ; to guard and defend the vines against the wild animals which attackthem, for fear of possibly losing the fruit of the vine, in which is excess and riot, and of so losing at once their labour and their outlay.

Assuredly great would be the loss if we should read and study the holy Book with so much care and deep veneration, only to be taught in it to protect our vines from foxes, lest if we should be negligent in our care of them, our cultivation should end in our purses being left empty. You are not so unskilled, nor so wanting in spiritual graces, as to understand the Scripture in so carnal a manner. Let us, then, seek the sense of them in the spirit. We shall, indeed, find, but in a sense more reasonable and more worthy of Scripture, the vines which have tender grapes, and the foxes which spoil them, and upon whom we may expend our labour in driving them away or capturing them, at once more honourably and to better purpose. Can you possibly doubt that it is needful to employ much more watchfulness to keep souls in safety than a crop of grapes, and that it needs much more vigilant care to avoid the snares of spiritual wickedness on account of the one than to capture marauding foxes on account of the other ? 2. But now I must point out what these vines denote in a spiritual sense, and what these foxes. It will be your care, my dear sons, to apply, each to himself and to his own vineyard, whatever I may say in the course of this inquiry, that he may learn in what respect, and of what dangers, he has most necessity to take heed. To a wise man, then, this vineyard signifies his life, his soul, his conscience. For he who is wise ought to leave nothing in himself uncared for or desert.

With the foolish man it is quite otherwise. You will find that with Digitized by Google THE PIOUS AND WISE MAN OUGHT TO CULTIVATE HIS VINEYARD 379 him all things are lying neglected, dirty, and in disorder. Indeed, the foolish can hardly be said to have a vineyard at all, for how can there be a vineyard where nothing appears to be planted, nothing to be cultivated anywhere? The whole life of the foolish bristles, as it were, with thorns and briars growing wild ; and is that a vineyard ?

Even though it was once one, it is so no longer, for it has gone back to the condition of desert. Where is the vine of virtue ? Where are the grapes of good works ? Where the wine of spiritual joy ? I went, says the wise man, by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding ; and lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof and the stone wall thereof was broken down (Prov. xxiv. 30, 31). You see how the wise man ridicules the foolish, because he has left to perish by neglect the good endowments of nature and the gifts of grace, which he had perhaps received by the laver of Regeneration ; which was, as it were, his original vineyard, planted by God and not by man ; so that it is no longer a vineyard. And assuredly there can be no vine where there is no life. For I should regard the life of one who is void of understanding as rather death than life. How can there be life where there is barrenness ? The tree that is dry and barren, is it not regarded as dead ? Faggots and brushwood also are but dead wood.

He destroyed their vines with hail, says the Psalmist (Ps. lxxviii. 47), showing that vines condemned to perpetual sterility are, in fact, deprived of life. So the man void of understanding, inasmuch as his life is useless, is dead while he liveth. 3. It is, then, the wise man alone of whom it can properly be said that he has a vineyard, or, rather, that he himself is one, that has life.

He is a tree in the House of God which bears fruit, and is therefore living. For that very wisdom itself, by which a man becomes, and is called, wise, is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her (Prov. iii. 18). How can he that takes hold upon her fail to have life? He truly lives, but by faith. For it is the just who is wise, and the just lives by faith (Heb. x. 38). And if the soul of the just be, as it is, the seat of wisdom, then he is truly wise who is just. He, then, whether you call him the wise or the just, because he never ceases to live, will never cease to have (or, rather, to be) a vineyard. For the vineyard and the life are in him the same thing. And the vineyard of the just is good, or, rather, the just is a good vineyard, since in him virtue is as the vine, his [good] actions the branches and shoots, the testimony of his conscience the wine produced, and his tongue, as it were, the wine press. Our rejoicing is this, says the Apostle, the testimony of our conscience (2 Cor. i. 12). Do you perceive how in the wise nothing is without its use ? His discourse, his reflections, his manner of life, and all the rest of his conduct, what are they but entirely God's husbandry, God's building, and in one word, the vine of the Lord of Hosts ? And since, as we are assured, even its leaves shall not fall withered to the ground (Ps. i. 3), what can perish which belongs to it ?

Digitized by 38o 4. But yet to such a vine as this there will never be wanting persecutions from without, nor snares from within. For when goods increase, they are increased that eat them (Eccles. v. 11). The wise man will be no less careful to keep his vine in safety than to cultivate it ; nor will he suffer it to be devoured by foxes. Among the worst of these is the secret detractor, but the fawning flatterer is not less evil. Of both he who is wise will beware. He will direct his efforts, as far as in him lies, to 'take ' those who practise such arts, but to take them by kindnesses and courtesies, by salutary admonitions, and prayers to God on their behalf. He will not cease to heap such coals of fire upon the head of the abusive person (Rom. xii. 20) and also of the flatterer ; until he shall succeed, if possible, in drawing the envy from the heart of the one, and the dissimulation from that of the other, and thus fulfil the command of the Bridegroom : Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines. Does it not appear to you that a person is, as it were, 'taken/ whose countenance is covered wkh confusion, who blushes

for his own judgment, and is himself the witness of the shame and regret that he feels, whether for having regarded with hatred a man most worthy of love, or for having loved with only a pretended and wordy affection him by whom, as he has at length (though late) experienced, he was loved in deed and in truth ? He is evidently taken, and taken for the Lord, according to His own express command : Take [for] us. Would that I might be able thus to ' take ' all those who oppose me without a cause, that I might gain them for Christ, or restore them to Him ! That thus those who seek my life may be dismayed and confounded, that those who wish me evil may be turned backward and put to confusion, so that I for my part may be found obedient to the Bridegroom, and may take these foxes for Him,1 and not for myself, is my earnest desire. But let us return to our text at the beginning, that our explanation may proceed in due order. 5. Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the grapes. This passage relates to morals ; and, regarding it in a moral sense, we have already shown that these vines, spiritually understood, are nothing else

than spiritual men, whose inward nature and faculties are all cultivated ; which germinate, bear fruit, and bring forth a spirit of salvation, so that we are able to say of these vines of the Ix>rd of Hosts what is said of the Kingdom of God, that it is within us (Luke xvii. 21). For we read in the Gospel that the Kingdom of God shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof (Matt. xxi. 43). These are they which St. Paul enumerates, saying : The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance (Gal. v. 22, 23). These fruits, then, are our progress in virtue. These are accepted by the Bridegroom, because He has a care of us. Do you think that it is of mere plants of earth that God has care ? It is for men, not for trees, that the read : non modo in capiendo wipes, sed et in capiendo ipsi.

Digitized by Google THE PIOUS AND WISE MAN OUGHT TO CULTIVATE HIS VINEYARD 38 1 God Man has affection, and He regards our progress in holiness as His fruits. He observes diligently the season of these ; He smiles to see them appear, and takes care and shows solicitude that, when they have appeared, they should not perish for us, or rather that they should not perish for Him ; for He regards Himself as having the same interest in them as we. Therefore He commends, in His wise Providence, that the little foxes which lurk around them should be taken, lest they should ravage the fruits while still immature. And as if anyone should object, ' your fear is premature, for the time of fruit has not yet come.' He adds : 'That is not the case, for our vines have Under grapes.1 After the flowers1 the fruits do not delay ; the former are no sooner fallen than the latter burst forth and begin to appear. 6. That is a parable which applies to the time which is approaching. Do you see [that these signify] those Novices ? They have only lately come, they have only just been converted. We cannot say of them that our vine has been in flower, for it is flowering now.

That which in the meantime you see appear in them is the flower, but the time of fruit has not yet come. The flower is their new and altered manner of life, their recently adopted rule, and stricter method of conduct They have put on a mortified countenance, and a well regulated demeanour of their whole body. That which appears in them is, I confess, pleasing, for their outward man shows less care for dress and appearance, their speech is more sparing, their countenance more cheerful, their glances more modest, their movements more quiet and measured. But since they have practised these rules of life but a very little while, this very newness obliges us to regard them, so to speak, as flowers, and their actions as the hope of fruit, rather than as fruit themselves. I do not so much fear for you, my young sons, from the cunning of the foxes, since it is well known that their hostility is directed rather against fruits than flowers. Your danger comes from another direction. For you I fear the blasting of your flowers by the frost, rather than their being torn away by violence.

It is the chilling north wind that 1 suspect, and the morning frosts, which are wont to cut off the early and untimely flowers and the fruits in their germ. Therefore it is from the direction of the north wind that you are threatened ; for who can stand be/ore Bis cold? (Vs. cxlvii. 17). If this freezing cold has once pervaded the soul (as happens but too often to it when the spirit is in a condition of relaxation and torpor), then, if there is no one (which may God avert) to hinder its further progress, it enters into the secret places of the heart, and into the inmost part of the soul ; it stuns and paralyzes good dispositions, it closes up the avenues by which good advice and help might come, it troubles the light of the judgment, it fetters the impulses of the spirit ; then, as it happens also to those who are suffering under a fever of the body, the soul undergoes sudden and vehement chills, its vigour is relaxed, a languor creeps Digitized by Google over its powers, a horror of austerity is continually intensified, the fear of poverty troubles it more and more, the soul contracts, as it were, upon itself, grace ebbs away from it, life becomes wearisome, the reason is

stupefied, the courage stifled, the recent fervour of the man rapidly grows cold, a fastidious and dainty lukewarmness gains ground in the soul, brotherly charity grows cold, pleasure begins to have attractions, the man falls into a false security, and the habitude of vice resumes its former prevalence. What shall I say more ? The law is evaded, righteousness is rejected,1 obligation proscribed, the fear of the Lord abandoned altogether. Finally, such a person yields himself to the last degree of shamelessness, he makes that leap which is rashness itself, that fall most disgraceful, shameful, and full of confusion and ignominy, from the sky into the abyss, from the pavement of a palace into a dunghill, from a throne into the gutter, from heaven into a swamp of mire, from the cloister into the outer world — yea, from paradise into hell.2 It is not now the time to point out the origin and beginning of this downfall, or to show by what means it may be avoided, or by what strength it may be surmounted. That shall be the task of another day. At present let us proceed with what we have begun. 7. Our discourse must be brought back to those who are more advanced in virtue, and more stedfast in it ; to the vine which has

already flowered, whose flowers have nothing more to fear from the cold, though its fruits are not yet secure from despoiling foxes. It has yet to be explained at greater length what is to be understood spiritually by these foxes ; why they are called ' little why the command is not that they are to be driven away, or to be slain, but that they are to be ' taken and how the different kinds of these are to be distinguished, so that my hearers may learn to know them, and to be more on their guard against them. But we must not enter upon this subject in the present sermon that we may not weary you, and that our devotion may not cease to be marked by willingness and zeal, through the grace and to the glory of Him who is the great Bridegroom of the Church, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is above all, God blessed for ever. Amen. may be compared with St. Bernard's ' Letters,' 107, 108, 395. Digitized by Google 383

OF THE TEMPTATIONS OF MORE MATURE MONKS ) BY WHAT FOXES THEY ARE INFESTED, THAT IS, BY WHAT TEMPTATIONS THEY ARE MOST TRIED. ALSO OF THE TAKING OF HERETICS, WHO * Take us the foxes, the little foxes \ that spoil the vines : for our vines have tender grapes' — Cant. ii. 15. I AM now prepared to fulfil the promise I made. The foxes signify temptations. It is unavoidable that temptations should come. For who shall be crowned except he strive lawfully ? (2 Tim. ii. 5). And what occasion is there for striving if there be no enemy to oppose ? When, then, you enter into the service of God, endure constantly in fear, and prepare thy heart for temptation (Ecclus. ii. 1, 2), being assured that all who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution (2 Tim. iii. 12). Now, temptations are diverse according to the diversity of times. At the beginning of our spiritual course, when we are as tender and newly-planted flowers, it is evident that we are attacked, as it were, by the violence of cold.

Of this I have spoken in a former sermon (No. LXIII., n. 6), and shown how we are to guard against this danger. As to those who are more advanced in holy things, the powerful enemies of good do not venture openly to oppose them, but are wont to lay wait for them in secret, like foxes full of cunning, and, though vices in reality, to put on the appearance of virtues. How many, for example, have I myself known who, when they had entered upon the ways of life, when they had even attained a high degree of perfectness, when they were going on well and safely, and making progress in the ways of righteousness, were, by the devices of these foxes, overthrown with shame and disgrace, and have lamented too late over the fruits of virtues which were blighted in them ! 2. I have seen a man running well on his course, and lo, a sudden hesitation and scruple arises in him. Was not that due to one of these 'little foxes'? 'To how many/ he says, 'of my brethren and relations, of my friends and acquaintances, should I be able, if I were living in my own country and neighbourhood, to communicate of that good which I enjoy here alone ? They love me, and would

easily follow my advice. Why is this waste made ? I will go thither, and in saving many of them I shall equally save myself. There is nothing to be feared in a mere change of place. What matters it where I am as long as I am doing a good work ? And, in fact, I am without doubt the better placed where I am living a more useful and fruitful life.1 Why repeat more of his reasoning? He goes whither he desires, and, unhappy man, he perishes : rather as a dog returned Digitized by 3»4 to his vomit than as an exile who returns to his own land He both comes to a miserable end himself and he fails to save any of his own people. Surely this was a * little fox I mean the deceptive hope which he nourished of gaining over his friends. You are able to find out for yourself other and similar ideas to this in your own mind if you examine it closely. 3. Do you wish, nevertheless, that I should point out to you one more ? I will do so ; and even a third and a fourth, if I shall find that it renders you watchful to take those that you may perhaps discover in your own vineyard.

It happens sometimes that a man who is making good progress in virtue, and who feels that God has poured upon him an abundance of heavenly grace, conceives a desire to preach, not indeed to his relatives and connections, according to that saying, * Immediately 1 conferred not with flesh and blood1 (Gal. L 16), but as if with a purer impulse, and with a design to be more powerful and more fruitful, to preach to strangers, and indeed to all. But still with great prudence. He fears to incur that malediction of the prophet upon him who shall withhold corn from the people (Prov. xi. 26), and to act against the precept of the Gospel if he should not preach to all, and, as it were, upon the housetops, what he has heard in the ear (Matt. x. 27). Now this is the temptation, so to speak, of a fox, and of one who is so much the more dangerous than the former, as he knows how to present himself secretly. But I will take him for you. First, Moses says : Thou shalt do no work with the firstling of thy bullock (Deut. xv. 19). And this is St. Paul's interpretation : Not a novice, lest, being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the

devil (1 Tim. iii. 6) ; and again : No man taketh this honour unto himself but he thai is called of God, as was Aaron (Heb. v. 4) ; and still again : Houf shall they preach except they be sent? (Rom. x. 15).

And we know that the function of a rnonk is not to teach, but to mourn for sin (St. Jerome, Contr. Vigil.). Out of these and similar reasons I weave my net ; I take my fox, that he may not spoil the vine. From these considerations it is certain and clear that to preach in public is not expedient for a monk, is not becoming to a novice, nor, unless he be sent, even lawful What destruction, then, to the conscience to violate at once all three of these rules ! Therefore, whatever of this nature is suggested to the mind, whether it be by your own thoughts or by the prompting of an evil angel, recognise it always as the temptation of a wily fox presenting evil under the guise of good. 4. Look at another case. How many are there who, being fervent in spirit, have left their monasteries and taken upon them a solitary life, and who in the event have fallen back into lukewarmness, and by a careless, if not by an abandoned, way of living, have violated the law of the solitary ? It is plain that this was the work of a fox where so extensive a devastation of the vineyard was made ; that is, so deplorable an injury to the life and conscience of the man. He supposed that in a solitary life he should gather spiritual fruits with Digitized by Google much greater abundance than if he were in a community in which he obtained only the ordinary gifts of grace. And that imagination of his seemed good to him ; but the issue of it showed that it was due to a fox, who was as usual spoiling the vine. 5. What shall I say of that excessive and superstitious abstinence as practised by some among ourselves, who disturb us so often, and render themselves so troublesome to themselves and to all ? All the divisions which those singularities produce, do they not break up and lay waste the conscience of those who practise them, and destroy, as far as is in their power, that great vine which the Hand of God has planted, in destroying the unanimity which ought to exist among you all? Woe to that man by whom the offence cometh ! (Matt, xviii. 7).

Whosoever •, says the Saviour, shall offend one of these little ones (Mark ix. 42) — severe are the words which follow, but how much more severe a sentence does the person deserve who gives scandal to a community so great and so holy ! Assuredly, whosoever he is, a very severe judgment shall be passed upon him. But more of this another time. 6. Let us now consider what is said by the Bridegroom with regard to those small but cunning foxes which spoil the vines. ' Little/ not because they have little malice, but because of their subtlety. This kind of creature is by nature astute, and quick to inflict injury in secret. For this reason it seems to me well suited to be the type of certain very subtle vices, which are cloaked with an appearance of virtue, such as those of which 1 have already given some few examples.

For they have, in fact, no other power to injure than that which they derive from passing themselves off as virtues, and thus deceiving by a kind of likeness which they have to the latter. They are either the vain imaginations of men, or the suggestions of evil angels, the angels of Satan, who transform themselves into the Angels of light (2 Cor. xi. 14), who prepare their arrows within the quiver (that is, in concealment) that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart (Ps. xi. 2).

This is why, as I think, they are called 'little,' because, while other vices are, as it were, bulky, and show themselves openly, these are slender, subtle, and hard to be recognised, except by those who are perfect, experienced, and clear sighted, having their eyes enlightened to discern between good and evil, and especially by those advanced in the spiritual life, who are able to say with the Apostle, ' We are not ignorant of the devices [of Satan]' (2 Cor. ii. n). Perhaps, too, this is the reason why the command of the Bridegroom is, not that they should be exterminated, or driven away, or slain, but that they should be taken ; namely, because such little spiritual beasts (bestiolas) as these are full of craftiness, and require to be watched with the utmost vigilance and care, so that they may be taken (that is, caught in the trap of) their own craftiness. Therefore when their device is discovered, their fraud laid bare, their falseness demonstrated, then with the utmost fitness is it said that there is taken the little fox which spoiled the vine. It is thus, in fact, that we speak of a man being 25 Digitized by Google 386 taken in his discourse, as we read in the Gospel that the Pharisees took counsel that they might entangle Jesus in His talk (Matt. xxii. 15). 7. Thus, then, the Bridegroom orders the little foxes, which spoil the grapes, to be taken — that is, to be surprised, discovered, and convicted.

This kind of pest alone has it for a distinct mark that if known and recognised it has no power to harm, so that for it to be discovered is to be vanquished. For who, except a person void of understanding, would step knowingly and wilfully into a trap that is discovered to him ? It is sufficient, then, for temptations of that kind to be ' taken ' — that is, to be uncovered and brought into the light ; to those who have become aware of them they are harmless. It is not thus with other vices. For their attack is openly made, and their powers of injury are manifest ; they take captive even those who are aware of them, they overcome the reluctant, but by open force, and not by guile. Therefore against those (as it were) ferocious brutes what is needed is not to seek them out, but to overcome and render them powerless. Against these * little foxes ' (who, because they are unable to hurt if discovered, have extraordinary powers of concealing themselves) it suffices that they be brought out into the light, for they have hiding-places, and taken in their own craftiness. For such reasons those foxes are described as * little/ and ordered to be taken.

Or again, they may be named thus to show that vices should be diligently observed in their earlier stages, that they may be taken while they are still young and small, and not allowed to grow greater, when they will both do more injury, and be with greater difficulty mastered. 8. If we understand these words in an allegorical sense, so as to take the vines as signifying Churches, and the foxes as heresies, or rather as the heretics themselves, the simple and natural sense is that heretics should be * taken ' rather than merely driven away. They should be taken, I say, not by force of arms, but by force of arguments, by which their errors are refuted, and they themselves, if possible, brought back to the true faith, and reconciled to the Catholic Church.1 For this is the will of Him who desires all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. ii. 4). He shows here, in fact, that He desires this, since He says, not simply Take the foxes, but Take us the foxes. He desires, then, that they should be taken for Him. and for His Bride — that is, the Church Catholic, since He says : 1 Take them for us.' Therefore the Churchman, who is skilled and learned, if he undertakes to argue with a heretic, ought to direct his endeavours to convince him that he has erred, and to convert him, bearing in mind that saying of the Apostle James : He which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins (James v. 20).

If he is unwilling to be brought back, and is not convinced after a first and a second admonition, because he is entirely perverted, then, according to St. Paul, he is to be rejected (Titus iii. 10). In this Digitized by Google case it would be preferable, as I consider, that he should be driven away, or even a restraint put upon his liberty, than that he should be allowed to spoil the vines. 9. Let it not, therefore, be supposed that a man has done a small or unimportant thing who has vanquished and refuted a heretic, who has disproved his heresy, who has distinguished clearly and plainly his fair-seeming theories from the truth, who has shown by obvious and irrefragable reasoning the faultiness and erroneous nature of his dogmas ; and, in short, has subjugated that haughty and perverted intellect which set itself up against the knowledge revealed by God.

He who has brought about such results as these has * taken ' the fox nevertheless, though not to his conversion and saving ; he has taken him equally for the Bridegroom and the Bride, though after another manner. For the Church is strengthened in the faith, though that heretic be not raised up out of the mire of his errors ; while the Bridegroom, without doubt, rejoices in the spiritual progress of His Bride, and the joy of the Lord is our strength (Neh. viii. 10). He who is so condescending as to associate Himself with us, regards our advantage as a matter in which He has an interest, and, therefore, bids the foxes be taken, not for Himself, but for us with Himself. Note the phrase, 'Take for us' — what can be more companionable and friendly ? Does it not seem to you that He says this, as it were, like some father of a family, who possesses nothing separately for himself and his own advantage, but shares all things with wife and children and domestics ? And He who thus speaks is God ; yet He does not say this at all as God, but as the Bridegroom. 10. Take us the foxes. Do you see in how social and equable a manner He says this, He who has no companion or equal ? He might have said, 'Take for me/ but He delights to associate others with Himself, and, therefore, preferred to say, 'Take for us.' O sweetness, O grace, O power of love ! Is it possible that the Sovereign of all has become one of the mass of beings ? Who has done this ? It is Love ; which is regardless of dignity, rich in condescension, powerful in affection, efficacious in persuasion. AVhat more forceful than love? It prevails even with God. And yet, since it is Love, is there anything that is more gentle? What strength is that, I ask, which is so forceful for victory, so gentle in the face of violence? For the Lord emptied Himself (Phil. ii. 7), so that you might know it to be the effect of His great love, that His Fulness was poured forth and expended, that His loftiness was brought down to the level of others, and His unique position associated with them. With whom is it, O admirable Bridegroom, that you have so close and intimate an alliance? 'Take for us,' you say, out of the Gentiles ? That is composed of mortal and sinful beings.

What she is, we know ; but Thou, what art Thou, to be the devoted and eager spouse of this Ethiopian woman? (Num. xii. 1) Not another Moses, assuredly, but a greater than Moses. For Thou art Digitized by Google 3»8 He who is fairer than the children of men (Ps. xlv. 2). But in saying this I have said too little : Thou art the brightness of the Eternal Life, the Splendour and express Image of the Person of God (Heb. i. 3) ; and finally, Thou art above all, God blessed for ever. Amen. Notice.

It seems to us opportune to introduce in this place the following letter, written to St. Bernard by Eberwin, Provost of Steinfeld, near Cologne, on the subject of the heretics of that time, which was the occasion of the two following sermons. I had thought with Horst and others that in these Bernard was treating of the Henricians, against whom he wrote bis Letter 240. But the subjoined letter of Eberwin shows that those heretics, whose errors are refuted in the two following sermons, were others than the Henricians, since, while the latter infested Aquitaine chiefly, the former were found in Cologne and the neighbouring districts. However, it must be allowed that each class agreed in the same errors, and perhaps they were derived from the same source. I have spoken at greater length of these men in the General Preface, n. 6. I have no doubt that this Eberwin is the same as Eberwin, or Herwin, Abbot of Steinfeld, who is praised in Book vi. of the 1 Miracles of St. Bernard/ nn. 22 and 26. He was unquestionably of the Order of Premontre\ which has still an abbey at Steinfeld.1 To the Reverend lord and father Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux : Eberwin, humble minister of the Abbey of Steinfeld, wishes that he may be made strong in tht Lord, and may strengthen the Church of Christ.

I REJOICE, as one that findeth great spoils, over your eloquent utterances, in which you are wont both by tongue and pen to bring to our mind the sweet and abundant graces of God : and especially in the Canticle of the love of the Bridegroom and the Bride, that is, of Christ and the Church, so that we are able to say truly to the same Bridegroom : Thou hast kept the good mine until now (John ii. 10). He has set thee among us as a cupbearer of this precious wine ; do not cease to pour it forth, and do not hesitate, for it is not possible to exhaust the urns. Do not allow your bodily weakness, O holy father, to be an excuse, for in the discharge of that duty piety counts for more than bodily strength. Do not say that you are full of occupation ; I know not anything that ought to be preferred to a work so necessary as this to the common good. From Digitized by Google 3»9 that urn what an abundant stream you have, most holy father, already poured forth to us ! From the first you have drawn to the satisfaction of all, and it has rendered those who have partaken of it wise and strong against the teaching

and the force of the Scribes and Pharisees ; the second has strengthened them against the arguments and the cruelties of the Gentiles; the third, against the subtle deceptions of heretics ; the fourth, against false Christians ; the fifth, against the heretics who shall appear towards the time of the end of the world, and of whom the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of an Apostle, speaks manifestly in these words : Jn the latter times some shall depart from the faith , giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils ; speaking lies in hypocrisy . . . forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving (1 Tim. iv. T-3). From the sixth the faithful shall receive exaltation and joy of spirit (inebriabuntur), and be strengthened against him who in this departure from the faith shall be revealed ; I mean that son of sin, the man of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped ; whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness (2 Thess. ii. 3-10). After this, since the sons of men will be exalted in spirit with the abundance of

God's House, and the river of the pleasures which He bestows, a seventh will not be needful. You have in the meantime, O good father, poured forth sufficiently to all, from the fourth urn, for their correction, their edification, and their perfecting ; to all, I say, whether they be beginners, those who are making progress, or who are going on unto perfection ; and to the very end of the world it will be to their benefit against the coldness and the perversity which is in false brethren. Now is the time that you should draw from the fifth, and bring forth to us the wine from thence, against the new heretics who are now stirring almost everywhere, and casting forth the mud of the abyss throughout all the Churches, as if their chief was already beginning to be threatened with dissolution, and the day of the Lord was drawing nigh. And in the marriage song of Christ and of His Church that passage which you, my father, as you have yourself informed me, are now about to treat upon, namely, Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines, bears perfectly upon this subject, and conducts you naturally to this fifth urn. I entreat you, then, father, to distinguish between all the parts of the heresy

of those persons, which have come to your knowledge, and by opposing to them the authorities and reasons of our holy faith, to destroy them. 2. There have been lately discovered among us in the neighbourhood of Cologne certain heretics, of whom some have made amends for their fault (cum satisfaction) and returned to the Church. Two among them, namely, he who was called their bishop, and his companion, have withstood us in an open assembly of clerics and laymen, in which the lord Archbishop himself was present, and some nobleDigitized by men of high rank, and defended their heresy by the words of Christ and His Apostle. But when they saw that they could make no progress, they requested that a day might be assigned to them on which they might bring forward men of their community who were well skilled in their faith. They professed that, if they saw that their teachers were unable to reply satisfactorily to the objections made to them, they were willing to submit to the Church ; but that otherwise, they had rather die than give up their opinions. To these propositions reply was made by admonitions, continued during three days consecutively; but they were unwilling to yield or to come to a better mind. They were then seized and carried off by

the people, who were transported by an excessive zeal ; but quite against our will ; and being cast into the fire by them, were consumed ; and, which is a fact still more to be wondered at, they entered into and endured that torment of fire, not only with patience, but with joy. Here, holy father, I should wish, if I were present with you, to have your explanation, whence it is that those members of the devil have fortitude so great in their heresy as is scarcely equalled by those most sincerely attached to the faith of Christ 3. This is their heresy : They say that the Church exists among them only, since they alone follow closely in the footsteps of Christ, and remain the true followers of the manner of life observed by the Apostles, inasmuch as they possess neither houses, nor fields, nor property of any kind. They declare that, as Christ did not possess any of these Himself, so He did not permit His disciples to possess them. c But you/ they say to us, 1 add house to house, and field to field, and seek the things of this world. So completely is this the case, that even those among you who are considered most perfect, such as the monks and regular canons,

possess these things, if not as their private property, yet as belonging to their community.' Of themselves they say : * We are the poor of Christ ; we have no settled dwelling-place ; we flee from city to city, as sheep in the midst of wolves ; we endure persecution, as did the Apostles and the martyrs ; yet we lead a holy and austere life in fasting and abstinence, continuing day and night in labours and prayers, and seeking from these only what is necessary to sustain life. We endure all this/ they say, this world, you have peace with the world because you are, in fact, of it. False Apostles, adulterating the word of Christ, and seeking their own interests, have caused you and your fathers to wander far out of the right path ; but we and our fathers are the descendants of the Apostles, we have remained in the grace of Christ, and shall remain until the end of the world. The distinction between us and you is to be found in those words which Christ spake : By their fruits re shall know them (Matt. vii. 16). Our fruits are the following in the footsteps of Christ. ' In respect of food, they forbid every kind of milk, that which is made of milk,

and whatsoever is the product of that function. It is in this particular that their manner of living Digitized by Google is opposed to ours. In the reception of their Sacraments they cover the head with a veil, yet they have openly avowed to us that daily at their table when they eat they, according to the usage of the Apostles, consecrate, by saying the Lord's Prayer, their food and drink into the Body and Blood of Christ, so that by it they may be nourished as the members and body of Christ. They say that we do not hold the truth as to the Sacraments, but only a certain shadow of it, and tradition of men. They confess also plainly that besides the baptism with water, they give and receive a baptism with the Spirit and with fire, and are therewith baptized, adducing that testimony of John the Baptist, who, himself baptizing with water, said of Christ : He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire (Matt. iiL 11), and in another place : / baptize with water, but there standeth One among you whom ye know not (John i. 26) ; as if he had thus wished to say, 4 He shall baptize you with another Eaptism beyond that of water.1 And that such a

Baptism ought to be bestowed by imposition of hands, they have endeavoured to show by the testimony of St.

Luke, who, describing in the Acts of the Apostles the baptism of Saul (Pauli), which he received from Ananias at the direction of Christ, makes no mention of water, but only of the laying on of hands (Acts ix. 17, 18) ; and they pretend that whatever is found in • the Acts, or in the Epistles of St. Paul, respecting the laying on of hands has reference to this baptism. Whosoever among them has received this baptism is called by them Elect ; he has the power to baptize others, who shall be found worthy of receiving that baptism, and of consecrating at his table the Body and Blood of Christ.

They previously receive him by the laying on of hands, from the number of those whom they call Hearers, into the ranks of the Believers ; and thus he will gain the right to be present at their prayers, until, after sufficient proof of fitness, he shall be made one of the Elect. Of our Baptism they take no account. Marriage they condemn, but for what reason 1 have not been able to ascertain — either because they have no reason to give, or because they do not dare to avow it 4. There are also in our country certain other heretics who differ in all respects from the former ; indeed, it is by their mutual discord and contention that each kind of them is discovered to us. These latter deny that the Body of Christ is ever present (fieri) upon the Altar, because [they say that] the priests of the Church are none of them validly ordained (consecrati). According to them the Apostolic dignity has been corrupted by mixing itself with the affairs of this world, and as he who sits in the chair of Peter is not engaged in warfare for God, as was Peter, he has deprived himself of the power of consecrating and ordaining which was bestowed upon Peter.

That power, therefore, which it does not itself possess, the Archbishops and Bishops, who live in the Church after the manner of the world, cannot receive from it, or derive the power of ordaining anyone. This they profess to derive from the words of Christ : The Digitized by Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses" seat; all, therefore ', whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do (Matt, xxiii. 2, 3) ; as if in these words He had said that to those who resemble the Scribes and Pharisees is accorded the power of preaching and government, but nothing more. Thus they make null the Priesthood of the Church, and condemn the Sacraments, except Baptism alone. Baptism they administer to adults only, and these they say are baptized by Christ, whosoever may be the minister of the Sacrament They have no belief in the Baptism of little children, or [in any] except that of which it is said in the Gospel, He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved (Mark xvL 16). They call every marriage fornication, except that contracted between two virgins, a man and a woman ; and they support their belief by those words of the Lord, in which he replied to the Pharisees, What God hath joined together let not man put asunder; as

if those [only] were joined together by God who were wedded according to the condition and mutual relation of our first parents ; and they support this by that reply also which He made to the same opponents on the subject of a billet of divorcement : From the beginning it was not so ; and also that which follows in the same place : Whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery (Matt. xix. 6-9). Further, they quote that saying of the Apostle : Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled (Heb. xiii. 4). 5. In the intercessions of the Saints they put no trust Tbey maintain that fasts and other mortifications of the flesh which are undergone for sins are not necessary for the just, nor even for sinners, because in the very day that a sinner has mourned over, and lamented, his sins, they are all remitted unto him ; and other observances in the Church, which were established neither by Christ nor by His Apostles after Him, they call superstitions. They do not allow that there is any purgatorial fire after death, but hold that souls pass immediately on their going forth from the body either into eternal rest or eternal punishment, because of those words of Solomon : If the tree

fall toivard the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth9 there it shall be (Eccles. xi. 3). And thus they regard as useless the prayers and oblations of the faithful for the dead. 6. Against all these forms of evil, so many and so varied, I entreat you, holy father, to let your solicitude be on the watch, and to direct the point of your sharp arrow upon these beasts of prey. Do not reply to us that that tower of David to which we fly for refuge is sufficiently strengthened with ramparts and bulwarks, that on it hang a thousand bucklers, and that it has a complete garrison of brave men. We wish, father, that this garrison should be, on account of our inexperience and backwardness, drawn together and combined by your care and zeal, that it may be more successful in finding out, and more effectual in resisting, this host of monsters. You should know also, my lord, that those who have returned to the Church have toW us that they have a very great multitude of adherents scattered almost everywhere throughout the countries, and that among these they count Digitized by Google 393 very many of our clerks and monks. Those who were burned said to us in their defence that this

heresy has had a secret existence from the times of the martyrs even to our own day, and that it still remains in Greece and in some other countries. Such are those heretics who call themselves apostles, and have a pope of their own. Others there are who, though they do not acknowledge our Pope, yet allow that they have no other. Those emissaries (apostolici) of Satan have also among them (as they say) women vowed to continence, widows, and virgins ; they have also their wives, some among the elect, others among the believers, as if to follow the example of the Apostles, to whom was conceded the power of taking about their wives with them. Farewell in the Lord.

OF SECRET HERETICS, WHOSE PERVERSE DOCTRINES AND STUDIED CARE TO HIDE THEIR MYSTERIES ST. BERNARD SEVERELY CENSURES ; I HAVE already delivered to you two sermons upon one verse ; I propose to deliver a third, if it will not wear}' you to listen. And I think it even necessary to do so ; for though, as far as relates to our domestic vine, which is no other than yourselves, my brethren, I have, I think, sufficiently forearmed you, in the two preceding sermons, against the crafty advances of three kinds of foxes ; namely, flatterers, calumniators, and certain seducing spirits who are skilled and experienced in presenting evil under the guise of good ; yet that is not the case with the dominical, that is, the Lord's vine. I speak of that vine which has filled the earth, and of which we also are a part ; a vine great and spreading, planted by the Hand of the Lord, redeemed by His Blood, watered by His Word, propagated by His grace, and rendered fruitful by His Spirit. The more carefully I have dealt with that which was of private and personal concern, the less valuable were my remarks with regard to that which was common and public. But it troubles me greatly, on behalf of that vine, to behold the multitude of its assailants, the fewness of its defenders, and the difficulty of the defence. The hidden and furtive character of the attack is the cause of this difficulty. For from the beginning the Church has had foxes ; but they have been soon found out and taken. An heretic combated openly (indeed, that was the principal reason why the name was given, because the desire of the heretic was to gain an open victory), and was manifestly overcome. Those foxes, therefore, were easily taken. But what if a heretic, when the truth was set clear in the light before him, remained in the shadow of his obstinacy, and, bound (as it were) hand and foot in the outer darkness, Digitized by Google 394 withered away in solitude ? Even then the fox was deemed to be * taken ' when his impiety was condemned, and the impious one cast out, thenceforth to live in a mere show of life without fruitfulness.

From this to such an one, according to the Prophet, comes a sterile womb and dry breasts (Hos. ix. 14) : because an error, publicly confuted, does not soon shoot up again, and an evident falsehood does not take root. 2. What shall we do to take those foxes, the most malignant and dangerous of all, who prefer the inflicting of severe injury to the enjoyment of open victory, and who crawl to, and steal upon, their purpose in order not to be seen ? With all heretics the one intention has always been to obtain praise for themselves by the remarkable extent of their knowledge. But there is a heresy which alone is more malignant and more artful than others, since it feeds upon the losses of others, and neglects its own glory. It is instructed, I believe, by the examples of those ancient heresies which, when betrayed, were by no means suffered to escape, but were forthwith captured ; and so is careful to actuate secretly, by a new method of mischief, this mystery of iniquity, and that with the greater freedom the less it is suspected.

Furthermore, its promoters have met together, as it is said, at places appointed in secret, and concerted together their nefarious discourses. the other, * rather than betray the secret/ But at another time they do not consider it right by any means to swear, not even in the smallest degree, because of those words in the Gospel : Swearnot at all; neither by heaven . . . nor by the earth (Matt. v. 34, 35), etc. O foolish and hard of heart, filled with the spirit of the Pharisees, ye, too, strain out a gnat and swallow a camel (Matt, xxiii. 24). To swear is not permitted, but to swear falsely, that is permissible, as if the allowance to do the latter did not carry with it the former also ! In what passage of the Gospel, of which you do not, as you falsely boast, pass over one iota, do you find that exception? It is clear that you, both by superstition, forbid the taking of an oath, and, at the same time, wickedly presume to authorize a perjury. O strange perversity ! That which is given only as a counsel of perfection — namely, Swear not — that they observe as rigidly and contentiously as if it were a positive command ; while that which is laid down as an unchangeable law — namely, never to be guilty of perjury— they dispense with at their own will as a thing indifferent. No, say they ; but let us not make known our secret. As if it were not to the glory of God to make known teaching [that is to edification] (Dan. ii. 28, 29) ! Do they envy the glory of God ? But I rather believe that they are ashamed to have their secret known, being conscious that it does not redound to their glory; for they are said to practise in secret things obscene and abominable, even as the hinder parts of foxes are offensive. 3. But I do not wish to speak of that which they deny ; let them answer only to those which are known and manifest. Are they careful, according to the Gospel precept, not -to give that which is Digitized by Google 395 holy unto the dogs, or to cast pearls before swine? (Matt. vii. 6).

But do not they who regard all who belong to the Church as dogs and swine, plainly confess that they are not of the Church themselves ? For they consider that their secret, whatever it is, should be kept wholly from the knowledge of all, without exception, who are not of their sect. What their doctrine is they do not avow, and they adopt every means to avoid its becoming known ; but yet they do not succeed. Reply to me, O man, who art wise above that which is meet, and yet more foolish than can be expressed in words. Is the secret which you are concealing of God, or is it not ? If it is, why do you not make it known to His glory ? For it is to the glory of God to reveal that which comes from Him. But if it is not, why do you put faith in that which is not of God, unless because you are a heretic ?

Either, then, let them proclaim the secret as coming from God to the glory of God, or let them confess that the secret is not of God, and thereby allow that they are heretics ; or, at least, let them allow that they are manifestly enemies of the glory of God, since they are unwilling to make manifest a thing wluch would be conducive to that glory. For it is stated with preciseness in Scripture : It is the glory of kings to conceal a matter, but it is the glory of God to reveal discourse.1 Are you not willing to reveal it? Then you do not desire to glorify God. But perhaps you do not receive this Scripture. Doubtless this is the case, for [sectaries] profess that they are followers of the Gospel, and the only ones. Let them, then, reply to the Gospel.

What I tell you in darkness, saith the Lord, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops (Matt, x. 27). Now, it is not permitted to you to be silent. How long is that kept under the veil of secrecy which God declares is to be made known ? How long is your Gospel to be hidden ? I suspect that your Gospel is not that of St. Paul, for he declares that his Gospel is not hidden, or rather he says this : If our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost (2 Cor. iv. 3). Does not this apply to you who have among you a Gospel that is hidden ? What is more plain than that you are in the way of being lost ? Or perhaps you do not receive even the Epistles of St. Paul. I have heard that it is so with certain persons among you. For, although you all agree in differing from us, you do not all agree in all respects among yourselves. 4. But, at all events, you all receive, without exception, if I do not mistake, the words, the writings, and the traditions of those who were personally with the Saviour, as of equal authority with the Gospel. Now, did they keep their Gospel secret ? Did they hide the weakness of the flesh in the Divine Son, the terrible circumEzech.,' Bk. i., n. 6) quotes it in the same sense. But the Hebrew, the Septuagint, the Vulgate, and after them the English A.V. and other versions, have the precisely opposite sense : ' It is the glory of God to conceal a thing,' etc. Perhaps our Saint may have taken the quotation from St. Gregory. It does not seem to occur elsewhere in this form, but see a similar passage in Tobit xii. 7. — Ed.

Digitized by 39^ stances of His Death, or the ignominy of His Cross? Did not their words, indeed, go forth into the whole world ? (Ps. xix. 4). Where, then, is there in you that following of the Apostolic life and conduct of which you boast ? They cry aloud, you whisper in secret ; they teach in public, you in a corner ; they fly as a cloud (Is. be 8), while as for you, you conceal yourselves in the darkness and in the cellars of your houses. What likeness to them do you display? Is it in that you do not indeed take women as travelling companions, but as inmates ? Who could suspect those who raised the dead to life of anything unbecoming? Do you do likewise, and whatever be the circumstances in which you are found, I will be far from suspecting you. Otherwise you are rashly usurping to yourself the privilege of those whose sanctity you do not possess. To expose yourselves always to temptation and never to fall by it, is not that a greater miracle than to raise the dead ? You are not able to do that which is less, and do you wish me to believe that you do that which is greater ? You wish to be thought irreproachable. Let

it be granted that you are so ; yet suspicion is not wanting. You are to me a subject of scandal ; take away the occasion of the scandal, that you may show yourself what it is your boast to be, a true follower of the Gospel. Does not the Gospel condemn that man who offends (scandatizaverif) even one member of the Church ? And you are a scandal to the whole Church. You are a fox that spoils the vines. Help me, my friends, to take him, or rather do ye, O holy Angels, take him for us. He is crafty in the extreme ; he is enveloped in his iniquity and impiety. Evidently he is so small and so subtle that he may easily elude the notice of men. But shall he elude yours also ? It is to you, therefore, as the companions of the Bridegroom, that those words are addressed : Take us the little foxes. Do, then, that which you are commanded :*take for us this little fox so skilled in dissimulation that we have so long been in pursuit of him in vain. Teach us and suggest to us in what manner his guile may be discovered. For this is to take the fox, because as a pretended Catholic he does much more injury

than when made manifest as really a heretic.1 For it is not in the power of man to discover what is in the heart of another man, unless indeed he is either enlightened to this end by the Spirit of God, or instructed by the care of the Angels. What sign will you give to make open and manifest to all this pernicious heresy which knows so well how to disguise itself, not only by words, but also by actions ? 5. And, indeed, the recent spoiling of a vine shows clearly that the fox has been there. But I know not by what art that most crafty animal so conceals his footsteps, that it is by no means easy to be discovered where either his ingress or his egress was made. Though the mischief done is evident, the doer of it is not visible, and he hides his presence by the very destruction he has done. In fact, if you read as above.

Digitized by Google 397 interrogate him as to his faith, nothing is more Christianlike ; or as to his conduct, nothing more unblamable ; and he seems to justify his discourse by his actions. Such a man is seen, in order to give testimony of his faith, to frequent the Church, to honour the clergy {presbyteros\ to offer his gifts, to make confession, to participate in the Sacraments. What can be more orthodox? Then as relates to character and conduct, he deceives no one, he exalts himself over no one, nor does violence to any. Furthermore, his cheeks are pale with fasts ; nor does he eat the bread of idleness, but labours with his hands for his maintenance. Where, then, is the fox ? We held him fast just now. How has he escaped from our hands ? In what manner has he so suddenly disappeared ? Let us pursue him, let us seek him ; we shall recognise him by his fruits. Assuredly the spoiling of the vines is a proof that the fox has been there. Women have quitted their husbands, men have deserted their wives, to join themselves to these people. Clerks and priests, as well young as old (intonsi et barbati\ often abandon their flocks and their churches, and are found in the throng, among weavers male and female. Is not that a terrible spoiling indeed ? Are not these the doings of foxes ? 6. But perhaps they do not all perform actions so unmistakable, and if they do there is no proof of the fact. How, then, shall we take these ? Let us return to the former accusation, for there is no one among them but is involved in that. I ask, then, of some one of those people : 4 My good man, who is that woman with you, and what is her relation to you ? Is she your wife ?' 4 No,' he replies ; 4 1 have taken a vow which does not allow me to marry.' * Is she your daughter?' * No.' * What, then, is she your sister, or your niece, or, at least, a relation or family connection of yours ?' 4 No, she is not related to me in any way.' 4 How, then, can you live safely thus ?

It is not permitted to you to act in this way. If you are not aware of it, let me remind you that the Church forbids it.1 If you do not wish to give scandal to the Church, obey the command. If you do not do so, then, from that one fact, others will be, without doubt, inferred as probable, though they be not open and manifest' 7. 4 But ' (he says to me) 4 in what place of the Gospel do you find any proof that this is forbidden ?' Very well, you have appealed to the Gospel ; to the Gospel you shall go. If, then, you obey the Gospel, you will not give occasion for scandal, for this is a thing which the Gospel plainly forbids. And this scandal is just what you do give, in not conforming to the regulation of the Church. You had been previously under suspicion of despising the Gospel, and being an enemy of the Church, but now you are manifestly convicted of it. What think you of it, my brethren ? If he remains obstinate, and will neither obey the Gospel, nor show any respect unto the Church, what room is there for hesitation ? Does it not seem to you that the fraud is discovered, that the fox is

taken ? If he suffers a scandal to remain which he has it in his power to put an end to, he Digitized by Google 39» is convicted of disobedience to the Gospel. What ought the Church to do but to expel a person who is unwilling to take away scandal, so that she may not share his disobedience ? For she has a commandment in the Gospel as to this, and it bids her not spare her own eye, or hand, or foot, if it be a cause of scandal, but to pluck out the one and cut off the other, and cast it away. If he neglect to hear the Churchy it is said, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican (Matt, xviii. 6-9, 17). 8. Have we reached any result ? I think we have ; we have taken the fox, since we have discovered his deception. Those pretended Catholics who were really destroyers of the Church have been made manifest. Even while you were taking with me sweet [and heavenly] food, I mean the Body and Blood of Christ, while we walked in the House of God as friends, a place for persuasion, or, rather, an opportunity for perversion, was found, according to the saying of Scripture: An hypocrite with his

mouth destroyeth his neighbour (Prov. xi. 9).

But now I easily, according to the wise admonition of S. Paul, avoid a man that is a heretic after the first and second admonition, knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself (Titus iii. 10, n), and that it behoves me to be on my guard, lest he cause my subversion also. It is, then, something gained, according to the word of the Wise, that transgressors should be taken in their own naughtiness (Prov. xi. 6), and especially those transgressors the weapons of whose warfare are deceit and snares. Open attack and defence they do not venture upon, for they are a despicable and rustic race, devoid of education, and wholly destitute of generous courage.

In short, they are foxes, and little foxes. Even their errors are not defensible, not clever and able, nor even plausible, except only to country women and ignorant persons, such as are all those of their sect whom I have as yet seen. For 1 do not recall, among all their assertions which I have heard (and they are many), anything novel or extraordinary, but only commonplaces long since broached among the heretics of old, and by our divines confuted and crushed. Yet it ought to be shown, and I will endeavour to show, what absurdities1 these are, being partly such as they have fallen into through incautiously taking one side or the other in questions disputed between Catholics, partly such as they have exposed themselves to by their dissensions with each other, and partly such as some of them who have returned to the Church have discovered to us, and this I will do, not that I may reply to them all (for that is unnecessary), but in order that they may be known. But that will be a task for another sermon, to the praise and glory of the Name of Him who is the Bridegroom of the Church, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is above all, God blessed for ever. Amen. ing sermon, n, 4 ; and see his Letter 19a Digitized by Google

CONCERNING THE ERRORS OF HERETICS WITH RESPECT TO MARRIAGE, TO THE BAPTISM OF INFANTS, TO PURGATORY, TO PRAYERS FOR ' Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the irines.' — Cant. ii. 15.

WITH these foxes I am still busied. They are those who wander out of the path and lay waste the vineyard. They are not content with quitting the road [of right], but turn the vineyard into a desert by their wicked falsehoods. It is not enough for them to be heretics ; they must, as if to fill up the measure of their wrongdoing, be hypocrites also. These are they who come in sheep's clothing to strip the sheep and despoil the rams. Does it not seem to you that this is what they have done when, on the one hand, they rob the people of their faith, and, on the other, deprive the priests of their people ? Who are these robbers ? They are sheep in appearance, but foxes in cunning, and in their actions have the cruelty of wolves. They are men who desire to seem good, but are not ; who desire not to seem evil, but are so. Evil they are, yet they wish to be thought good, lest they should be left alone in their evil ; and they fear to appear evil, lest they should not thus have sufficient power for evil. For open malice has always been less dangerous ; nor is a person who is good ever deceived, except by a

pretence of goodness. They study, then, to appear good in order to do injury to the good, and shrink from appearing evil that they may thus give their evil designs fuller scope. For they do not care to cultivate virtues, but only to colour their vices with a delusive tinge of virtues. Under the veil of religion they conceal an impious superstition ; they regard the mere refraining from doing wrong openly as innocence, and thus take for themselves an outward appearance of goodness only. For a cloak to their infamy they make a vow of continence. They think that infamy consists only in having wives, whereas it is marriage alone that is pure. Coarse they are, and stupid, and altogether contemptible ; but, I assure you, not on that account tp be disregarded ; for they succeed in doing much evil, and their word eateth as doth a cancer (2 Tim. ii. 16, 17). 2. Nor has the Holy Spirit overlooked such as these, since He has plainly prophesied of them long since by the mouth of the Apostle : Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils ; speaking lies in hypocrisy ; having their conscience seared with a hot iron

; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving (1 Tim. iv. 1-3).

It was evidently of those people that He spake. They forbid marDigitized by Google 400 riage, they abstain from the food which God created ; of which latter subject I will presently speak. But now see if all these things are not rather an illusion of demons than a mere mistake of men, according to that which had been foretold by the Holy Spirit. Ask of them who is the author of their sect ; they will name no one. Yet what heresy has not had from among men its own leader (haresiarcham) ? The Manicheans had Manes for chief and for master ; the Sabellians, Sabellius ; the Arians, Arius ; the Eunomians, Eunomius ; the Nestorians, Nestorius. So is it with all the other, plagues of this kind ; each of them has some man for its master, from whom it has drawn at once its origin and its name. But what name or what title will you consider should be bestowed upon these people ? Truly, none at all x \ for their heresy is not of man, nor have they received it by man.

God forbid that we should say that they had it by the revelation of Jesus Christ (Gal. L 12), but, rather, and without doubt, as the Holy Spirit foretold, by the suggestions and artifices of seducing spirits, speaking lies in hypocrisy, and forbidding marriage. 3. They talk also with hypocrisy, and with a vulpine cunning pre tend that they speak from mere love of chastity, whereas they have no other purpose than to foment and multiply impurity. It is so evident that this is their intention that I wonder how any Christian man could ever be persuaded that it was otherwise, unless, indeed, he were so wanting in insight as not to perceive that he who condemns marriage loosens the reins to every kind of uncleanness ; or so full of wickedness, and absorbed in diabolical malignity, as to shut his eyes to what he cannot but perceive, and rejoice at the destruction of men. If you take away from the Church marriage, which is honourable and undefiled (Heb. xiii. 4), will you not fill the Church with persons guilty of every kind of uncleanness ? Choose, then, which alternative you prefer ; either that all these monsters of wickedness are saved, or that the number of the saved is reduced to the few who have kept continence unbroken ; in the one case you include too few, in the other case too many. Neither of these alternatives is suited to the Saviour. What ! shall infamy be crowned ? Nothing is less suitable to the source of purity. Or, on the other hand, shall men be universally condemned, with the sole exception of the very few who have preserved their continence ? That is not to be a Saviour.

Continence is rare upon the earth ; and if it were not for a very few persons that fulness of grace would have expired altogether. And how have we all received of that fulness (John i. 16) if a share of it is vouchsafed to those only who are continent ? There is no reply that can be made to that argument, nor yet, I think, to the other Cologne had been Henricians, and the name of their master Henry. It is true that the doctrines of these people and those of the Henricians were similar, as appears from his Letters 240, 241. Among these heretics of Cologne Eberwin distinguishes two classes, which distinction St. Bernard just touches upon at the end of Sermon LXV.

Digitized by Google alternative. If there is for purity only a place in heaven, if there is no companionship between purity and impurity, just as there is no fellowship of light with darkness, then it is certain that no one who is unclean has any place in the land of salvation. If anyone thinks otherwise, an Apostolic voice shall convict him of error, asserting expressly : They which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God (Gal. v. 21). From what cavern shall this artful fox now creep forth ? I think that he is taken in his burrow, in which he has made for himself two holes, one to enter by, the other to give him egress.

This it is his custom to do. See now by what means each of these is closed to him. If he maintains that only the continent have a place in heaven, he denies salvation to the vast majority of people ; if, on the contrary, he holds that those guilty of every kind of defilement have a place there equally with the continent, he causes purity to perish. But it is more accurate to say that he perishes himself, being unable to escape in either direction ; and, thus shut up for ever, remains a prisoner in the pit which he has digged. 4. Certain persons among them, differing from the rest, declare that marriage is permitted, but only to those who are virgins. But I do not perceive on what ground of reason they make this distinction, except it be that they contend with each other to tear and rend asunder, each at his own pleasure, as it were with the teeth of serpents, the Sacraments of the Church, which are, so to speak, the bowels of their mother. For as to what they allege, that our first parents were virgins when their marriage took place : what is there in that fact, I ask, to prejudice the liberty of marriage, so that it may not be entered into between those who are not virgin ? But I know not what declaration they whisper that they have found in the Gospel, which they wrongly imagine favours their absurd folly. I believe that it is the word which Our Lord spake after He had recalled that testimony in the book of Genesis : God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him: male and female created He them ; He then added : What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder (Gen. i. 27; Matt. xix. 6). These, they say, were both virgins whom God joined together, and it was then not lawful to separate them ; but no union of those who are otherwise [than virgin] shall be presumed to be from God. But who has told you that God joined those two together, because they were virgins ?

This the Scripture does not assert. But were they not virgins ? replies the objector. They were ; but it is not the same thing to unite those who were virgins, and to unite them because they were virgins. Again, although they were virgins, you will not find the fact even expressly stated [much less given as the reason for their union].

Their diversity of sex is expressly stated, not their virginity, since it is declared : Male and female created He them. And rightly so, for the marriage relation requires, not necessarily virginity of body, but difference of sex in the two persons who enter into it. With entire iitness, then, did the Holy Spirit, in the record of the institution of 26 Digitized by Google marriage, make mention of sex, but preserve silence as to virginity, so as not to give occasion to those guileful foxes to misapply the text, which unquestionably they would have done with great willingness, but in vain. For what if the Holy Spirit had said that * God created them virgins ?' Would you not have forthwith inferred that it was permitted to virgins alone to be joined in marriage ? How you would have assumed airs of triumph upon the strength of this single statement ! How scornfully you would have rejected second and third marriages ! How you would have insulted the Church Catholic, inasmuch as she willingly joins together even persons who have fallen and become infamous, because she regards this as assuredly the means for enabling them to pass from a state of shame to a state of honour ! Perhaps you would even blame God for having commanded one of His prophets to take to wife a woman of that class (Hosea i. 2) ; but now the entire ground is wanting for your doing all this, and it pleases you to be a heretic of your own accord. For the statement that you have unjustly adduced to support your error is found, on the contrary, to destroy it; it does nothing in your favour, but much against you. 5. But now listen to another Scripture which ought to confound you entirely, or correct you, and which, at all events, crushes and pulverizes your heresy. The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband Irveth ; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will: only in the Lord (1 Cor. vii. 39). It is St. Paul who allows to a widow to marry whom she will, and you, on the contrary, prescribe that none but a virgin shall marry ; nor may she marry whom she will, but only a man who is likewise virgin.

Why do you restrain the Hand of God ? Why do you restrict the abundant benediction bestowed on marriage, and narrow to the virgin alone that which is vouchsafed to all her sex ? St Paul would not permit this unless it were lawful. But it is too little to say that he permits it ; he also desires it to be done. / will therefore, he says, that the younger women marry (1 Tim. v. 14), and there is no doubt that he speaks of widows. What can be plainerthan this? That therefore which he permits, because it is lawful, he also desires, because it is expedient. That, then, which is permitted, and is expedient, shall a heretic presume to forbid? He will convince men of nothing by this prohibition, except that he is a heretic. 6. It remains that we should correct those people a little on the other points included in the Apostolic prophecy. For they abstain, as is there predicted, from various kinds of food which God has created to be received with thanksgiving, and thus prove themselves to be heretics, not simply because they abstain, but because they abstain in an heretical spirit. For I, too, sometimes abstain from food ; but my abstinence is a satisfaction for sins, and not due to superstition and

impiety. Shall we blame St Paul when he kept under his body, and brought it into subjection (1 Cor. ix. 27)? I will abstain from wine, because in it is excess (Eph. v. 18); or, if I Digitized by Google am weak, will use a little, according to the counsel of St. Paul (1 Tim. v. 23). I will abstain from eating flesh, lest it should too much pamper my flesh, and with it the lusts of the flesh. I will study to take even bread by measure that I may not, through fulness of stomach, stand wearily and reluctantly to pray to God, and that I may not be open to the reproach of the Prophet that I have eaten my bread in fulness (Ezek. xvi. 49). I will not accustom myself to drink immoderately even of pure water, lest it may excite in me feelings corrupt. It is quite otherwise with the heretic. He turns from milk, and all that is made of it ; in fact, from everything which is the result of that function. That would be acting rightly and Christianly, if it were done, not because it was the result of that function, but from a motive of prudence. 7. But how does it come about that everything thus resulting is avoided in this manner

? That minute scrutiny of kinds of food, so significantly expressed, is to me a cause for suspicion. If you bring forward this as a medical rule, I do not blame this care for the physical health, provided it be not excessive ; for no one ever hated his own flesh. If as a part of the discipline of abstinence, that is, of the school of spiritual medicine, I even approve it as a virtue, by which you bring the flesh under due rule, and restrain its desires.