Chapter VII. The Pontiff is urged to recognise and to acknowledge his shortcomings

I suppose I shall be criticised for passing on to discuss my third point before I had fully developed the second. But somehow my pen seems to have hurried forward to tell thee what manner of man thou oughtest to be, leaving incomplete its account of who thou art : as if it were ashamed to have exposed thee naked on so lofty an eminence, and made haste to cover thy poverty with the garments of virtue that befit thy rank. For without this spiritual vesture, the more elevated thou art, the more repulsive shall thy deformity appear. How canst thou conceal the desolation of a city that is built upon a high mountain ?

Or how canst thou hide the smoke from an extinguished candle that is set upon a tall candlestick ? As a monkey on a house-top so is a fool upon a throne. Listen now to my canticle, which although it may not sound so sweetly, is nevertheless very wholesome. It is a monstrous inconsistency to be the highest in rank and the lowest in character, to be first in dignity and last in virtue, to have a boastful tongue and a pair of idle hands, to abound with words and to be wanting in action, to begrave in looks and frivolous in conduct, to be supreme in power and lacking in constancy. Take the mirror now in hand and hold it before thine eyes. What I have just been describing is the reflection of an ugly face. Beglad if thine own is not found to resemble it. Nevertheless, examine thine image with care, because even though it be pleasing in some respects, in some others perhaps it ought to cause thee displeasure. I wish thee to glory in the testimony of thy conscience (2 Cor. i. 12), but I also desire that the same should humble thee. It is rare to find a man who can say with the Apostle, " I am not conscious to myself of anything " (1 Cor. iv. 4). The knowledge of the evil that is in thee shall make thee more careful of the good. Wherefore, as I have said, know thyself, not only that amidst the reverses and disappointments which shall not be wanting, thou mayest have the testimony of a good conscience for thy consolation ; but also and more especially that thou mayest understand what is yet wanting to thee

(Ps. xxxviii. 5). For where is the man to whom something is not always wanting ? Indeed, he who considers that he is wanting in nothing proves himself thereby to be wanting in everything. What if thou art the Sovereign Pontiff ? Dost thou think that, because thou / art supreme in authority, thou art likewise supreme in every respect ? If such be thy belief, if thou deemest thyself supreme even in this absolute sense, thou art become the lowest and the least. Who is supreme absolutely ? Only he to whom nothing more can be added. J Thou errest grievously if thou judgest this to be thy case. God forbid ! For thou art not of the number of those who confound dignities with virtues. Thou hadst experience of virtue before ever dignities fell to thy lot. As to the philosophy which would identify the two, leave that to the Caesars and the rest who have not feared to usurp the honours due to God : leave that, I say, to the Nabuchodonosors, to the Alexanders, to the Antiochuses, and to the Herods. For thy part, consider thyself supreme, not in an absolute sense, but relatively and in comparison with other mortals. Understand also that the comparison whereof I now speak is one not of merits but only of ministries. " Let a man so account of (thee) as of a minister of Christ " (1 Cor. iv. 1), and in truth as of the first of His ministers, for such unquestionably thou art — which, however, must not be taken as implying any pre-eminence in holiness. But for the rest, I would have thee to strive after this pre-eminence, not to fancy thou hast already attained it, or to wish to bethought perfect before thou art really so. For how canst thou advance if thou deemest thyself already perfect ? Consequently be neither too slothful to ascertain nor too proud to acknowledge how much is still wanting to thee. Rather confess with one of thy predecessors, " Not as though I had already attained, or were already perfect" (Philipp. iii. 12) ; and again, " I do not count myself to have apprehended" (ibid. 13). This is the science of the saints, a very different science from that which puffeth up (1 Cor. vii. 1). "He that addeth (this) knowledge, addeth also sorrow " (Eccli. i. 18), f yet such sorrow as no wise man has ever wished to avoid. For it is a medicinal sorrow, which expels the deadly stupor of impenitence and hardness of heart. Wise therefore was he who could say, " My sorrow is continually before me" (Ps. xxvii. 18). But I must now return to the point from which I have made this digression, and see what more (if anything) remains to be said thereon.