Chapter 20 — The enemies of religious seek in every way to defame them

We have hitherto spoken of the false judgments passed by the enemies of religious about things. We will next consider the falsehoods uttered by them about persons.

It may perhaps appear that detraction uttered against persons ought to be borne by them without refutation. St. Gregory says, the blame of wicked men is a testimony to the innocence of our life. For if we are offensive to those who displease God, it is a proof that our life must be upright (Homily 9, part 1 on Ezekiel). (Gregory the Great, Homilies on Ezekiel 1.9.14 (CCSL 142; PL 76:876A).) Again, we read, if the world hates you, know that it has hated me first (John 15:18). St. Paul likewise teaches us that the judgments of men are to be lightly esteemed, saying: but with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court (1 Cor 4:3). We can especially afford to despise human opinion when we have the testimony of a good conscience, and when we can say with Job 16:20: my witness is in heaven.

On further consideration, we shall, however, see that it is more prudent for religious to silence the tongues of their detractors. This is evident for three reasons:

First, when religious are defamed, it is not the reputation of one man, or even of two or three that suffers. The calumny affects the whole body of religious. Hence their defamers ought to be manfully resisted, or else the whole flock of Christ may be torn by the teeth of wolves. Our Lord says: he who is a hireling . . . sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees (John 10:12). The Gloss remarks that by the wolf, is meant either, they who ravage the Church by violence, or the devil who, spiritually, scatters the faithful. (Glossa ordinaria 5, 1187 at John 10:12 (PL 114:397, at the verse labelled verse 11).) The cowardly pastors whom Christ calls hirelings, are thus reproved by Ezekiel: you have not gone up into the breaches, or built up a wall for the house of Israel (Ezek 13:5).

Second, religious ought to resist their detractors, because they not only require a good conscience for their own sake, they likewise need fair reputation in order to carry weight with those to whom they preach. The Gloss, speaking of detraction, says on the words of St. Paul, cast out the slave and her son (Gal 4:30), all who seek for earthly happiness in the Church, belong still to Ishmael. These are they who wage war against spiritual men and defame them, and whose lips utter evil things, and whose tongues are full of guile. (Peter Lombard, Commentaries on the Psalms and St. Paul, at Gal 4:30 (PL 192:151C).) Therefore, religious ought to resist those who thus detract them. St. Gregory likewise observes, in the homily already quoted: they who occupy a position in which they are looked up to as an example, ought, if possible, to silence the voice of their detractors, lest the faithful, believing these calumnies, refuse to listen to preaching and become hardened in a sinful life. (Gregory the Great, Homilies on Ezekiel 1.9.18 (CCSL 142; PL 76:877D).) St. John, writing to Gaius, says of Diotrephes: if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, prating against me with evil words (3 John 1:10). And St. Paul writes in like manner, his letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account (2 Cor 10:10).

Third, religious ought to resist their detractors because they strive not only to defame religious life, but to abolish it entirely. They strive to induce bishops to cause all men to avoid religious, and to refuse to assist them in their needs. This policy is represented by the following words from Isaiah 7:5: Syria . . . has devised evil against you, saying, "let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it," thus says the Lord God: "it shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass." The same description of plot is mentioned in Jeremiah 2:19: I did not know it was against me they devised schemes, saying, "let us . . . cut him off from the land of the living, that his name be remembered no more." But, as Jacob said, O my soul, come not into their council (Gen 49:6). The cruelty of such detraction ought not to be tolerated; for religious may say with Esther 7:4: for we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have held my peace. In Sirach 4:26 we find this exhortation: accept no person against your own person, nor against your soul a lie.

In order that religious may effectually resist their detractors, we will note the four forms which detraction generally takes.

If any evil exists among good men, that evil will be exaggerated (ch. 20).

Doubtful facts will be given to the world as certainties (ch. 21).

Falsehoods will be invented (ch. 22-25).

Good deeds will be travestied to wear a bad appearance (ch. 26).

Now any evil which may exist among religious can be exaggerated in three ways.

Firstly, in order of time. Thus, a crime committed by a religious before his conversion may be recalled to the public mind, in order to put him to shame. The words, men will be lovers of self (2 Tim 3:2) are applied to religious. They are accused of coming from a life of crime into a religious order, which their enemies call creeping into houses. (William of Saint-Amoure, De periculis, 2; Collectiones, 1.) St. Gregory exposes the falsity of this accusation. Commenting on the words, iron is taken out of the earth (Job 28:2), he says (Moral., 18): iron shall be taken out of the earth when the champion of the Church is delivered from the earthly bonds that have held him captive. (Gregory the Great, Morals 18.27.44 (CCSL 143A; PL 76:61A).) A man ought not to be despised for what he formerly was, after he has begun to lead a new life. St. Paul, after enumerating the vices of the Corinthians, concludes by saying: but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified (1 Cor 6:11). Hence the interpretation given by the opponents of religious to the text is contrary to the meaning of St. Paul. For the Apostle did not intend to say that those to whom he wrote had led sinful lives, and afterwards begun to creep into houses. Creeping into houses is one of the vices for which he rebukes them.

Second, if any evil prevails among religious, their enemies exaggerate it with regard to persons. Thus the faults committed by two or three individuals are attributed to all religious. Thus it may be said that in certain cases some men are not content with the food set before them, but seek better living elsewhere. Even should this accusation is occasionally true of certain individuals, that is no reason why it should be levelled at all religious in general. Hence St. Augustine, writing to Vincent the Donatist, says (Decretals, XXIII, q. 6, Quicumque): if any man, not justly, but avariciously, retains the goods of the poor which you held in the name of the Church, the fact is displeasing to us. You, however, will have some difficulty in proving it. We bear with some men whom we are not able to correct or to punish. We cannot forsake the granary of the Lord on account of the chaff contained therein; nor can we break his nets, because of the worthless fish that they have caught. (Augustine, Epistle 93, ch. 12, para. 50 (CCSL 31A; CSEL 34.2:494; PL 33:345-346); cf. Gratian, Decretum, P. 2, C. 23, q. 7, ch. 1 (Friedberg, 1:950).) For the fact that certain men among religious commit crimes is no reason for defaming the whole religious body. Otherwise, the treachery of Judas ought to have been attributed to the whole college of the apostles on account of the words, have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? (John 6:71). St. Gregory, commenting on the words of Song of Songs 2:2: as a lily among brambles, so is my love among maidens, says: there cannot be bad men without good, nor good without bad. (Glossa ordinaria 3, 1829 at Song 2:2 (PL 113:1136), from Gregory the Great, Homiliae in Evangelia 2.38.7 (CCSL 141; PL 76:1285D).) Of the bad we may use the words of 1 John 2:19: they went out from us, but they were not of us.

Third, the enemies of religious exaggerate the degree of any evil that may prevail among them. Thus, the venial offences of religious are represented to the world as heinous crimes. St. John tells us that no one can live in the world without sin: if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves (1 John 1:8). But the men of whom we have been speaking magnify the slight faults observable even in the perfect, and speak of them as though they were serious crimes. Thereby they disobey the exhortation of Proverbs 24:15: lie not in wait as a wicked man against the dwelling of the righteous. They call religious false apostles, because they say that they seek hospitality the houses of the wealthy, where they will be best fed; because they assist others in their affairs in order to be entertained by them; because they accept material assistance from those to whom they preach; and on other grounds of the like nature. Now though such actions be faulty, they cannot be called grave crimes, nor ought those guilty of them to be on that account named sinners or false apostles. The Gloss, commenting on the verse in Galatians 2:15: we ourselves, who are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners, says: this epithet, that is, "sinner," is not used in the Scriptures of those who, although they live upright and praiseworthy lives, are not wholly free from sin. (Peter Lombard, Commentaries on the Psalms and St. Paul, at Gal 2:15 (PL 192:114C).) This observation applies to those who see the mote in their brother’s eye, but not the beam in their own (Matt 7:3). The Gloss further remarks that many, laden with grave sins, are so filled with envy, hatred and malice that they would rather blame and condemn their neighbour for his lesser offences, than strive to correct him. (Glossa ordinaria 5, 145 at Matt 7:3 (PL 114:108).) In short, those who venomously attack religious for small faults, and remain unconscious of their own serious defects, are precisely those of whom our Lord said that they strain out a gnat and swallow a camel (Matt 23:24).