Chapter IX. The Pontiff is further reminded of what he is by Nature

Now thou knowest who thou art. But remember also what thou art. I have not forgotten my promise to resume the discussion of this latter point when a favourable opportunity should offer. Such an opportunity presents itself here. Where could we better examine what thou wert formerly than in connection with the question who thou art now ? But why do I say " what thou wert formerly," since what thou wert then that thou art now ? And wherefore shouldst thou cease to consider what thou hast not ceased to be ? Hence it is evident that what thou wert and what thou art still belong to the same consideration, whilst the question who thou art or what thou hast become, appertains to another. This latter, however, must not be allowed to exclude the former from thy attention. For, as I have said, thou art still what thou wert formerly, and art not less that, but perhaps more, than what thou hast become : that thou wert born, and it has not been superseded, but only overlaid by this : the one has not been discarded, but the other superinduced. Consequently, let us discuss the two together, because, as I remember to have remarked before, either can be more profitably studied in connection with the other. I have already pointed out that the question what art thou ? is answered by giving the nature which makes thee to be a man, because thou wert born a man. But when I inquire who thou art ? I expect to be told thy personal title, for example, that thou art a bishop.

Now thou hast become or hast been made, but wert not born a bishop. Therefore, which of these two seems to belong to thee the more essentially or to be the more properly thine : that which thou wert born, or what thou hast been made ? Can there beany doubt that thou art more a man than a bishop ? Consequently, I would recommend thee to consider most especially what thou art most essentially, I mean thy human nature, wherein thou hast been born.

But unless thou desirest to be defrauded of the profit and fruit of thy consideration, thou must consider not alone in what nature thou wert born, but also in what misery. Remove, therefore, those hereditary aprons . which have been cursed by God from the beginning. Take off that garment of sewed fig-leaves (Gen. iii. 8) which hides thy shame without curing thy wounds. Put away from thee this smoke of temporal honour, this delusive sheen of vain, earthly glory, and contemplate thyself simply in thy original nakedness, because " naked earnest thou out of thy mother's womb" (Job. i. 21). Thinkest thou that thou didst enter this world wearing the tiara ? or glittering with jewels ? or clothed in silk ? or adorned with plumes ? or bespangled with gold ? No. If, then, from before the face of thy consideration thou wilt with a breath, so to speak, blow away these things, as morning mists that quickly pass and disappear : thou shalt behold a 1 man, naked and poor, and wretched and miserable ; a man grieving that he is a man, blushing for his nakedness, lamenting that he is born, complaining of his existence : a man " born to labour " rather than to honour ; a " man born of a woman " and therefore born in sin, " living for a short time " and hence living in alarm.

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" filled with many miseries " (Job xiv. i) and so a child of fears. And manifold in truth are the miseries of man, miseries of the soul and miseries of the body. Born in sin, with a corruptible body and a barren mind — what is his inheritance but universal misery ? Justly, then, is he described as " filled with many mise-ries," since to the infirmity of his flesh and the fatuity of his spirit there is added the heritage of guilt and the doom of dissolution. I will now recommend to thee a wholesome combination. Whenever thou rememberest thy dignity as Sovereign Pontiff, reflect also that not only wert thou once, but that thou art still nothing better than the vilest slime of the earth. Let thy consideration imitate nature, let it rather imitate a worthier model, the Author of nature, by uniting what is highest with what is lowest. For does not nature unite in the human person an immortal soul with the slime of the earth ? And has not the Author of nature in His own Person wedded the Word Divine to our common clay ? Do thou, therefore, take to thyself an example as well from the primitive constitution of our nature as from the mystery of our redemption ; so that, although seated on high, thou mayest not be high-minded, but humble in thy conceit of thyself, and " consenting to the humble " (Rom. xii. 16).