Chapter II. On the Character and Disposition of the Roman Clergy and People

I say, then, in the first place, that the Roman clergy ought to be the most irreproachable of all, because it is to them principally that the clergy of every other church look for their models. Moreover, any abuses amongst the clergy over whom thou dost more especially preside, will redound more particularly to thy v no ON CONSIDERATION discredit. It therefore concerns the honour of thy name to see to it that those ecclesiastics who live with thee shall be so well disciplined and so well regulated as to be worthy to serve as mirrors and models of all virtues and good behaviour. They should be found distinguished from the rest by greater devotion to their sacred functions, by greater fitness for the administration of the sacraments, by greater zeal for the instruction of the people, and by greater care and solicitude to keep themselves in all purity. But what shall I say of thy people ? They are the Roman people ! I cannot express what I think of them more briefly and forcibly than by giving them this title. What fact has been so well known to every age as the arrogance and pride of the Romans ? They are a people who are strangers to peace and accustomed to tumult ; a people ferocious and intractable even until now ; a people that know not how to submit whilst resistance is possible. Behold thy cross. The care of this people has been entrusted to thee, and that charge thou mayest not neglect. Perchance thou wilt only laugh at me for speaking thus, as being fully persuaded that the Romans are absolutely incorrigible. Nevertheless, do not lose heart. What is required of thee is not the cure of the patient but the solicitous care of him. " Take care of him," said the Good Samaritan to the innkeeper, not " cure him " or " heal him " (Luke x. 35). And one of the poets has said : —

" The patient oft is found so ill That naught avails the doctor's skill." *

ROMAN CLERGY AND PEOPLE in

But it is better to propose to thee the example of one of thine own predecessors. St. Paul says of himself, " I have laboured more abundantly than all they " (i Cor. xv. 10). Observe how he does not claim to have succeeded better than all the other apostles, or to have achieved greater results, but most scrupulously avoids such arrogant self-preference. Besides, having been taught of God Himself, he well knew that " every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour" (i Cor. iii. 8), and not according to his harvest. And consequently he considered that it is not in our successes we ought to glory, but rather in our labours. Hence in another place also we hear him glorying in his " many more labours" (2 Cor. xi. 23). I beseech thee, therefore, to do what is thy part. As for the rest, God will be able to accomplish what appertains to Him without any need of thy care and solicitude. Plant, water, spare no pains, and thou hast discharged thy duty. It belongs not to thee but to God to give the increase whenever it pleaseth him (1 Cor. iii. 6). But if perchance it is His pleasure to withhold the increase, thou shalt be at no loss because, as the Scripture assures us, the Lord " renders to the just the wages of their labours " (Wisdom x. 17). Secure,, consequently, is that labour which no want of success can deprive of its reward. However, in making these observations, I have intended nothing prejudicial to the divine power and goodness. I know how hardened is the heart of this people. Yet " God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham " (Matt. iii. 9). 'Who knoweth but He will return and forgive" (Joel ii. 14), but He will convert and heal them ? But it is not for me to dictate to God what He ought to do ;

H ON CONSIDERATION my purpose is different and heaven grant I may succeed in accomplishing it : namely, to induce thee to do that whereto thou art obliged, and in the manner in which thou art obliged.

I have now come to a delicate and difficult part of my subject. And I see plainly what will happen the moment I begin to express my sentiments. What I suggest will be denounced as a novelty, because it cannot be condemned as unjust. But that it is even a novelty I refuse to admit. For I know that it was even a common practice in former times. Now what was once a custom may indeed fall into desuetude, but it would be incorrect to speak of its revival as the introduction of a novelty. And will anyone deny that to have been a custom which, as is manifest, was for long not only practised but even practised generally ? I will now explain to thee what it is I am alluding to, although I have but little hope of any good resulting. Why ? Because it will not please the satraps, who are less ready to pay court to truth than to majesty. Well then, amongst thy predecessors there have been those who devoted themselves unreservedly to the care of their flocks, who gloried in the shepherd's name and functions, who thought nothing unworthy of them except what they regarded as prejudicial to the salvation of souls, who, so far from seeking the things that were their own (Philipp. ii. 21), rather sacrificed their personal interests to the good of their people. They were sparing neither of their pains nor of their means, yea, not even did they spare themselves. Hence thou hearest one of them crying out to his sheep, " I most gladly will spend and be spent myself for your souls " (2 Cor. xii. 15). And as if they designed to make it clear that they came " not to be ministered unto but to minister" (Mark xii. 45), they " delivered the Gospel without charge " (1 Cor. \x. 18) as often as it was necessary. The only profit they sought from their subjects, the only glory, the only consolation, was this : if by any means they might of them " prepare unto the Lord a perfect people " (Luke i. 17). For this they strove by all the means in their power, with much tribulation of mind and body, " in labour and painfulness, in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness " (2 Cor. xi. 27).

Where, I ask, is that custom now ? It has given place to another very different in kind. Old habits and pursuits have undergone change, and would to God the change were not for the worse ! I allow, however, that the care and the anxiety and the zeal and the solicitude continue just as before. They have suffered no decrease in themselves, but are directed now to other objects. I bear witness that thou and thy more recent predecessors have been as little sparing of expense as the pontiffs of bygone times. But there is a great difference as regards the purpose of the expenditures. Nowadays — and surely it is an intolerable scandal — very few look to the lawgiver's mouth, but all bend their eyes on his hands. And not without good reason. For of late it is by means of the bribes and gifts of their hand that the Sovereign Pontiffs have been accustomed to transact all their business. Canst thou point to a single person amongst the immense population of Rome who would have acknowledged thee as Pope without either a bribe or the j expectation of a bribe ? The Romans love to dominate and it is then especially they want to make themselves thy masters when they profess to be thy slaves. They will promise to serve thee faithfully, in order to injure thee the more easily when they have gained thy confidence. Moreover, after this pledge of fidelity, they will imagine themselves to have a right to be admitted to the knowledge of all thy designs and to intrude themselves into all thy secrets. And whenever any one of them happens to knock at thy door, should the porter make even the slightest delay before opening — well, I should not care to be that porter. And now I shall recite for thee a few of their characteristics, from which thou may est judge whether I also have some acquaintance with the manners of the people of Rome. Before all things, " they are wise to do evils, but to do good they have no knowledge " (Jer. iv. 22). They are hateful alike to heaven and to earth, because to both they offer violence, in that they treat God with impiety and the things of God with disrespect, whilst they are at war amongst themselves, jealous of their neighbours, and cruel towards strangers : they love no one and are loved of none ; and since they desire to make themselves feared by all, they are under the necessity of fearing all. These are they who cannot endure to be subject, yet know not how to rule, unfaithful to superiors, insupportable to inferiors. They are as shameless in asking for themselves as they are pitiless in refusing others. Importunate beggars, they cannot rest until they obtain what they desire ; but as for gratitude, no benefits can awaken this feeling in their breasts. " They have taught their tongue to speak " (Jer. ix. 5) grandiloquently, although their works are mean enough. They are most generous in making promises, and most miserly in keeping them ; most fulsome in flattery, and most venomous in slander ; the most malicious of traitors, they can nevertheless conceal their treachery under an assumption of the greatest candour. The reason why I have dwelt at such length on this subject is because I think it necessary to admonish thee more fully and particularly with respect to this part of thy entourage.

Let me now resume the thread of my discourse. What is to bethought of the practice of purchasing for thyself the plaudits of the crowd and paying for them with the plunder of the churches ? The poor find their living sown in the streets of the wealthy.

• Gibbon, after quoting this passage, adds the comment, ' The features of this dark portrait, however harsh and ugly, express a lively resemblance of the Romans of the twelfth century " {Decline and Fall, vol. viii., p. 194, Milman's Ed.). But Baronius reminds us (Annates, ad annum 11 52, n. 2) that not all the Roman people, but only the powerful faction of the Arnoldists, deserve the hard character given them here by our Saint. The Arnoldists were the followers of Arnold of Brescia, an apostate monk of keen intellect and commanding eloquence, who, as the twelfth-century Mazzini, conceived he had a mission to strip the Holy See of its temporal power and to re-establish the ancient Republic of Rome. In the pursuit of these objects he troubled the peace of the Church during six pontificates, exciting tumult wherever he appeared, particularly at Rome, whence he twice compelled Eugenius to flee. He was apprehended in 1 155 and expiated his crimes at the stake. Writing in 1 140 to the Bishop of Constance, who, deceived by Arnold's profession of piety and austerity, had allowed him to propagate his doctrines amongst his people, St. Bernard thus speaks of this turbulent spirit : " ' If the good man of the house knew at what hour the thief would come, he would certainly watch and would not suffer his house to be broken into ' (Matt. xxiv. 42). Knowest thou that already the thief has come in the night and entered not thy house, but the Lord's, of which however thou hast been appointed keeper ? . . . I speak of Arnold of Brescia. Would to God his faith were as orthodox as his life is austere ! He is a man who neither eats nor drinks, because, like the devil, he only hungers and thirsts for blood of souls. He belongs to the number of those of whom the Apostle bears witness that ' having the appearance of godliness, they deny the power of the same ' (2 Tim. iii. 5) ; and the Lord, they n ON CONSIDERATION

Silver coins are seen to glitter in the mud. There is a rush from all directions. But it is not the more indigent that secures the prize, but rather he who has the advantage in bodily strength, or who in fleetness of foot is superior to his competitors. I cannot say that this usage, or better, this crying abuse, began with thee : but God grant that it may end with thee. But I must go on to speak of other scandals. In the midst of these depressing scenes I behold thee, the supreme Shepherd of the flock, advancing majestically, " in gilded clothing, surrounded with variety " (Ps. xliv. 10). Tell me, what profit does the flock derive come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves ' (Matt. vii. 15). Wherever this man has sojourned until now, he has left behind such memorials of his wickedness and cruelty that he never dares to show himself in the same place again. He began by exciting tumult in his own country, for which he was denounced to Rome as a schismatic and banished, promising under oath not to return without the Pope's permission. The same offence led to his expulsion from France. Then, repudiated by Peter the Apostle, he fraternised with Peter Abelard, all of whose errors, already exposed and condemned by the Church, he has jealously and obstinately defended.

" ' For all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still ' (Is. v. 25). For even though ' a vagabond and a fugitive on the earth' (Gen. iv. 14), he tries to do amongst strangers what he can no longer do at home, and 'as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour ' (1 Peter v. 8). And now, so I am informed, in thy church he worketh iniquity and devoureth thy people as bread (Ps. xiii. 4). His mouth is full of cursing and bitterness, his feet are swift to shed blood ; destruction and unhappiness are in his ways, and the way of peace he hath not known * (ibid. 3). For he is an enemy of the cross of Christ (Philipp. iii. 18), a sower of discord amongst brethren, an architect of schism, a disturber of peace, a destroyer of unity, whose ' words are sweeter than oil, and the same are darts.' Hence he is accustomed to ingratiate himself with the rich and powerful by the blandness of his speech and his simulation of virtue, according to what is written, ' He sitteth in ambush with the rich in private places, that he may kill the innocent.' " See Letter to the Roman people in Appendix to this volume. — (Translator.)

from such magnificent pageants ? If I may venture / to say it : they are better calculated to provide food for the wolves than pasture for the sheep. Thinkest 4 thou that St. Peter loved to surround himself with this pomp and display, or St. Paul ? Alas ! the only', object for which ecclesiastics show any zeal nowadays is the maintenance of their dignity. All their solicitude is for external honour and decorum, whilst for interior sanctity they care little, if anything at all. If, when occasion requires, thou attemptest to stoop even a little from the loftiness of thy state, and to make thyself more approachable to thy people, a storm of protest at once assails thee : " God forbid," they say, " that thou should so degrade thyself ! Such conduct ill becomes thee ; it does not suit the times ; it does not befit thy majesty. Remember who thou art and the position thou dost occupy." As for the divine good pleasure, that is about the very last thing they care to speak of. They have no hesitation about risking their soul's eternal interests, except that they affect to call holy whatever flatters their pride, and everything is pronounced to be good which seems capable of enhancing their glory. On the contrary, all that is lowly appears contemptible to the eyes of thy courtiers, so that thou mayest more easily find a man who desires to be humble than one who desires to seem so. The fear of the Lord they look upon as simplicity, not to say foolishness. They condemn as a hypocrite whomsoever they perceive to be walking with circumspection and to be taking care of his conscience ; whilst he is declared useless who loves retirement, and sets apart some of his time for prayerful repose.

n ON CONSIDERATION