§ 1. Most of the things that have been said concerning the preservation of truth and religion also avail for bringing those who wander back into the way. Yet they must be handled in one way and another by political men. Truth is discovered with difficulty, but it is persuaded to one who wanders with much greater difficulty. Nevertheless, it is the prince’s duty to apply himself also to this: that depraved opinions be removed from the midst, that his own honor be restored to God, and that provision be made for the salvation of souls that are perishing.
§ 2. The first method is that what musicians do with strings, so as to bring them back little by little into harmony, and physicians in diseases, who draw off harmful humors piecemeal and at intervals, must likewise be done in a commonwealth which labors under the sickness of errors and superstitions. I do not approve the slow and ineffectual advances of the languid, when the undertaking is often abandoned; I counsel that all things which can be applied be attempted, but with a slow and firm step, lest the work be precipitated. Gentle commands and admonitions are of the greatest advantage here.
§ 3. Second: it would be difficult for no prince of Europe, if only he wished it, to recall the minds of human beings to the ancient rites of our forefathers—a thing which formerly was thought never to be possible. For many now begin to love the ancient religion, and they cannot be induced by any calumnies of the ministers to prevent many from returning every year to Catholic unity:
So greatly can long-lived age change things.
What they most ardently desired, they now disdain or even hate. That levity of the common people which marvels at new things and despises old ones is fatal. Therefore, when heresy was in its course, it could be stopped or checked by no force; afterward it proceeded more languidly, and, divided and dashed against itself, lost its impetus; finally it turned backward. Many provinces of Germany, after undergoing several religions, now retain none, their attention fixed upon the will of their lords. The cause of this matter, as I have said, is levity and ignorance of the truth. Another reason is that they cannot long remain ignorant of the wickedness of heresies and heretics, and that they experience everything being changed in almost every single year. Of their own accord they depart in different directions, so that they cannot stand for long. Just as, if you release a crowd of blind persons from a prison, it is easier for none than for all to reach the goal, so, if the magistrate prudently uses this argument, they will permit themselves to be led spontaneously into the way, weary of so many pathless places and having experienced so many deceits of criminal apostates.
§ 4. Therefore one must act with this gentleness, unless perhaps those heresies are of a kind which admit no delay, such as those of the Müntzerites and Anabaptists, and of those who rise up against the magistracy. For, like acute diseases, these deny place and time to a slow medicine; therefore they must be suppressed by a swift and perilous remedy.
§ 5. Third, heresiarchs and teachers of errors must be driven from the commonwealth—on one occasion, indeed, if it can conveniently be done; but if not, gradually and little by little. There is no need of proof in this matter. For, once the turbulent and dizzy Aeoluses have been driven away, the sea which they stirred from its deepest bottom will grow quiet of its own accord. And an error which lacks patronage will fall without a battle. Therefore those emperors who punished Arius, Nestorius, Vigilantius, and others with exile can never be praised enough; but execrable were the Vandals who trampled assembled priests and bishops in Africa beneath horses, or transported them to desert places. There are many reasons for expelling violators of religion, although they scatter their poisons with the people’s favor; but the magistrate will do this lawfully and justly, and will allow no calumny to be inflicted. Three powerful princes of Germany effected a change from the Lutheran religion to the Calvinist, or, as they themselves call it, the Reformed: the Elector Palatine, the Landgrave of Hesse, and the Margrave of Brandenburg, also an elector. And although almost all their subjects hated Zwinglianism, they accomplished that transfer without any tumult—except that Berlin presumed to grow angry.
§ 6. In these changes I have observed approximately the following things from the history of the religion changed in the Palatinate, from the Marburg proceedings, and from the Brandenburg edict.
First, they concealed the intention of changing religion and extirpating Lutheranism—not, indeed, so that the more prudent would remain ignorant of it, but lest the people be disturbed.
Second, by the artifice of the Zwinglians certain persons were suborned to request the exercise of the Reformed religion,
and to do so with many gentle words, lest the prince appear inclined of his own accord toward a hateful novelty, but rather appear to indulge the consciences of his subjects, and to love and foster liberty. For a prince’s affability is commonly praised when he shows himself able to be entreated even in those matters which it would have been better to deny.
Third, one church, or a second, was requested for them. Not even this appeared harsh to the people, since they would retain several and were not excessively solicitous about those.
Fourth, here nevertheless the jealousy of the Lutherans opposed itself, for they perceived that, together with a church, revenue and sustenance were being taken away. The sagacious foresight of the politicians was not ignorant of this, and therefore they contrived a conference and pacification. They met at court; the matter was argued in the prince’s council; a notary and witnesses were denied. This must by no means be approved; rather, if a conference is to be instituted, liberty and advantages proper to each party must be left to it. For those who have been pressed by another’s power and have occupied the worse position are judged the victors—as were the Arminians in Holland, since, if those whom the prince’s favor protected trusted their cause, they ought to have contended with equal right and arms.
Fifth, a decree was published concerning not calumniating, not contending, not condemning others beforehand, and concerning fostering peace and concord. This edict of the princes was effective for the instituted change of religion. For in this way it was brought about that no one dared contradict the Calvinists, Zwinglians, and Sacramentarians—indeed, dared not even name them. But error made much progress when it obtained this: that it should not be uncovered. Yet not even then did any of the people make a disturbance, since otherwise many of the more moderate detest contentious and insulting sermons. For this reason, therefore, the prince was not reviled as a patron of heresies, but praised as a lover of peace, especially since he permitted thesis and antithesis to be taught.
Sixth, an academic disputation was instituted with a Calvinist presiding, who afterward was also appointed ordinary professor.
Seventh, not even after all these things did it appear that this had been done so that Zwinglianism should succeed Lutheranism, but so that peace should be established. For nothing else was then required than that the Lutherans, retaining both dignities and revenues, should be willing to sit and deliberate together with the Reformed in the consistory concerning ecclesiastical matters. When they refused this, they were accused as proud, obstinate, disobedient to the magistrate, and seemed to have deserved dismissal, because they spurned their colleagues and peace.
All these things had thus far been transacted in such a way that they might test what the people could bear. For if a tumult arose, if the co-guardians who had been appointed with John Casimir for the purpose that he should not change the religion bestirred themselves, there was a plausible excuse for these proceedings.
Eighth, when the people of Heidelberg petitioned for the retention of the Lutheran preachers, the matter was passed over in silence, and meanwhile it was arranged that those preachers should be represented as excessively obstinate and headstrong. The common people therefore easily desisted from their petition; and if those who were present displeased them, they requested at least other men, more moderate and suited to peace. For they believed that the offense was against the men, not hatred of Lutheranism; and therefore they continued to hope, and, while there was hope that liberty of belief could be obtained by entreaties, they abstained from force, until finally they laid aside concern for Lutheranism and hope.
Ninth, when everything now appeared secure, the Lutherans were commanded to depart from the parochial house; all the churches were given to the Calvinists. Those who were being driven into exile did not dare complain, but, turned toward domestic cares, requested posthumous and honorific pay, immunity from taxes, and similar things, while the Calvinists laughed profusely that a matter of so great a mass had come down to such humble and abject entreaties.
Tenth, since the academic auditors were Lutherans, they too were dealt with by various arts. Calvinism was offered to the pensioners, or electoral alumni, or dismissal was placed before them; a Zwinglian catechism was forced upon all in place of the Lutheran one. Thus in a brief moment the greatest conversion occurred, as though without movement; for the rural preachers readily changed opinions with the prince.
Eleventh, in the Hessian change I also noted this: that when the Lutherans, both academic professors and preachers, refused to yield their offices and honors, the prince said that he wondered at this, since he had not yet received them into those positions and put them in possession; for at the death of the deceased prince their places too had become vacant, and the rights were in his own power.
Twelfth, in Hesse too they proceeded slowly and piecemeal. Calvinism was not presented whole, but only a certain part which seemed small—namely, the restoration of the precepts of the Decalogue and the breaking of bread. And so, although at the beginning the people of Marburg anxiously ran to the sermons of the Lutherans whom they had heard were about to depart, and took the Supper, they nevertheless afterward made no disturbance, but gradually migrate to Calvinism, being destined to obey much more readily if they are summoned elsewhere—namely, into Arminianism or another sect.
Thirteenth, writings followed from both sides, but those whose favor came from the court prevailed. Moreover, it helped very greatly that the wickedness in morals of the Lutheran ministers became known; on this account they dishonorably dismissed certain of them beneath the gallows.
§ 7. The fourth method is one which I see was employed of old and is now also in vigor—namely, that those who are opposed to true religion be barred from honors, dignities, and public offices. Nor is it unjust that one who obstructs the safety of the commonwealth should not obtain honors and resources from the commonwealth. Those accused of great crimes are barred from honors; why should blasphemers and despisers of truth be admitted?
Theodosius thus decreed; and before him the three sons of Constantine the Great took away from heretics all privileges which had been granted out of regard for religion, On Heretics, law Privileges. Frederick condemns not only heretics but also those who receive and favor them, and commands that, unless they make satisfaction within a year, they be infamous. He also commands that they not be employed for public offices or councils, or for electing anyone, and adds other penalties which were noted above in the constitution. There are many advantages to this policy. For if adversaries of religion are in dignity, they will have many means by which they may oppose themselves to the prince and harass his subjects without the prince’s knowledge. For no one who maintains a religion different from that of his prince is as faithful to him as he is to others with whom he agrees. Then subjects come more slowly to truth when they see their own perfidy honored in the associates of their errors. Third, only the true and Catholic faith grows by persecution, because it alone rests upon hope of future goods; superstitions, unless perhaps in the first impetus, are diminished and vanish when advantages are taken away. Certain princes of Germany understood how important this matter was at the last diet held at Regensburg. For they requested that the Emperor choose court counselors in equal number from the different religions, although they themselves do not employ Catholics—indeed, neither do the Lutherans employ Calvinists, nor the Calvinists Lutherans.
§ 8. The fifth method is that, when some entire heresy is to be extirpated, and this must be done moderately and by reason, not by sheer command, those things should first be seized upon which are ill-reputed among the common people and which at first sight display their absurdity even to the unlearned. The Calvinists furnish an example. In order that they might easily wear down the authority of the Lutherans, they often employed the name of Luther with veneration, but called all those Lutherans against whom they acted Flacians; the Flacians, however, were especially a sect of stupidity and madness among the Lutherans. Thus Pareus, who wishes that all Lutherans had one neck, professes that he acts against Ubiquitarians, violent enemies of truth. When the people of Utrecht endeavored at their synod to extirpate rigid Calvinism, they prohibited by edict that which was the chief point of its impiety: all should beware of teaching those things from which God could be held the author of sin. Therefore, when an orthodox magistrate wishes to restore ancient piety by right of return, he will take care that the manifest enormities of the opinions—in which there is greater shame even among the shameless—are seized upon first. For they conceal many things and shadow many things with words, for which, if you look upon the matter itself, there is no pardon. These must be drawn into the light, so that they may be routed with deserved hatred. For thus authority will be taken away from false teachers caught in manifest crime. To have displayed such superstitions is to have refuted them.
§ 9. The sixth method of restoring piety and abolishing error is to turn the quarrels of those who wander to one’s own advantage. For who would not readily reduce the Puritans in England to order if he extorted from them approval of the bishops, or those same Puritans from Belgium if, while the controversy raged, he adhered to the milder party? For variety of belief makes doubtful those who seemed certain to themselves. Thus, when the prince’s assent is added to one party of those disputing, it easily overthrows the other and renders the whole liable. The Apostle is a great example: in a council which consisted of different sects, by approving the true opinion of one he earned the vote of acquittal, and brought it about that, hindered by their own dissension, they could not conspire against truth. I would especially recommend this to an orthodox prince, for he will use the dissensions of those who wander no less conveniently than the concord of those believing rightly in order to extirpate errors. For even in battles, not only skill and strength in military affairs, but often also the enemies’ carelessness or lapse have offered to a commander the most desirable opportunities for accomplishing the business. Let him only remain on watch, so that he may see the critical moments and make a remedy for diseases which is not only suitable but also opportune. A regimen cures many. Formerly, when rigid Calvinism was assailed by the Lutherans in the very heat of its paroxysm, the evil was exacerbated and sudden coercion brought much damage; now, of their own accord, the Arminians have remitted the harshest part of the rigor, judge the Calvinists impious, persecute them in the Academy itself, and compel them to be exiles in other towns; they would dare more and more atrocious things did they not fear the forces of the opposing party. Certainly, if the generous force of Maurice alone stood on behalf of the mild party, the rigor of the Counter-Remonstrants would soften or be broken.
§ 10. The seventh method is that clandestine and public assemblies be prohibited. Thus Arcadius denied Gainas a church for Arian perfidy; thus the emperors Leo and Anthemius forbade the pagans to assemble for impious rites, Code, Title 11: “Let no one dare to attempt those things which have rather frequently been forbidden to persons of pagan superstition, knowing that he commits a public crime who shall dare to perpetrate these things. Moreover, we will offenses of this kind to be cut away to such an extent that, even if any such thing be perpetrated on another’s estate or in another’s house—the owners manifestly knowing it—the estate or house shall be adjudged to the most sacred rights of the treasury. But the owners, for this alone, that they knowingly consented for their places to be contaminated with such crimes, if indeed they are adorned with any dignity or military office, shall be punished by loss of the military office or dignity, and also by confiscation of their property; but those established in a private or plebeian condition shall, after bodily tortures, be assigned either to work in the mines or to perpetual exile.” And before him Valentinian and Marcian decreed: “Let no one reopen, with the intention of venerating and adoring, the shrines which were formerly already closed. Far be it from our age that the ancient honor be restored to unspeakable and execrable images, that the impious doorposts of temples be wreathed with garlands, profane fires be kindled upon altars, incense be burned upon them, victims be slain, wine be poured in libation from bowls, and sacrilege be regarded in place of religion.”
§ 11. The eighth method is to bring the obstinate to their duty by severity of laws and punishments. The penalty for violated religions differs in one place and another, but everywhere there is some penalty—deservedly and by right. For what is committed against divine religion is directed to the injury of all; what harms all harms to the peril of the commonwealth, and therefore ought to be repelled by the commonwealth. But since these things are taught with danger among those whom conscience does not permit to be at rest, I prefer, concerning that whole class of evil, to cite and set forth a great doctor of the Church.
First he teaches, Epistle 50, that many were corrected in this way: “For that which befell the accusers of Saint Daniel befell the Donatists. For just as the lions were turned against the former, so the laws by which they wished to oppress the innocent have been turned against the latter—except that, because of the mercy of Christ, those laws which appear adverse to them are rather for them, since many have been corrected through them and are corrected daily; and, being corrected and delivered from that furious destruction, they give thanks. And those who hated now love; and, once health has been received, they rejoice over the most wholesome laws that had been troublesome to them, as greatly as in their madness they detested them; and now, with a like love together with us, they are stirred up against those who remain, with whom they would have perished, that together we may press on lest those persons perish. For a physician is troublesome to a raging madman, and a father to an undisciplined son—the former by binding, the latter by beating—but both by loving. But if they neglect them and permit them to perish, this false gentleness is rather cruel. For if a horse and mule, in which there is no understanding, resist with bites and kicks the human beings by whom their wounds, which must be cared for, are handled; and although human beings are often endangered and sometimes injured amid their teeth and kicks, they nevertheless do not abandon them until, through medicinal pains and troubles, they restore them to health: how much more must a human being not be abandoned by a human being, and a brother by a brother, lest he perish eternally, when, once corrected, he can understand how great a benefit was being furnished him when he complained that he was suffering persecution?”
But here let that law prevail: that it restrain by loving, not by raging; that it chastise in order to correct, not take vengeance in order to overthrow.
Then he continues: “Why, therefore, should the Church not compel her lost sons to return, if lost sons compelled others to perish? Although even those whom they did not compel, but only seduced, if they are called back through terrible but wholesome laws into her bosom, their pious mother embraces more tenderly and rejoices over them much more than over those whom she had never lost. Does it not pertain to pastoral diligence that even those sheep which were not violently snatched away but gently and softly seduced, and which wandered from the flock and began to be possessed by strangers, once found, should be called back to the Lord’s fold, if they should wish to resist, by terrors or even pains of scourges?”
§ 12. These are Augustine’s words. Yet at another time he held this opinion: that it should not be sought from the emperors that they command the Donatist heresy altogether not to exist. But afterward he changed, for he judged medicinal trouble necessary for depraved, cold, and hard minds. “Hence,” he says, “it came about that, when causes of this kind had been brought to his knowledge, the religious and pious emperor preferred by most pious laws altogether to correct the error of that impiety, and, by terrifying and coercing, to bring back to Catholic unity those who bore the signs of Christ against Christ, rather than merely to take away their license to rage and leave them license to wander and perish. But when the laws themselves had now come into Africa, those especially who were seeking an opportunity, or feared the savagery of the raging, or were ashamed to offend their own people, immediately passed over to the Church. Many also, who were held there solely by a custom handed down from their parents, and who had never before considered what sort of cause the heresy itself possessed, and had never wished to seek and consider it, soon, when they began to attend to it and found nothing in it worthy of the losses they were suffering, became Catholics without any difficulty. For solicitude taught those whom security had rendered negligent. Many who were less capable of understanding by themselves what difference there was between the error of the Donatists and Catholic truth followed the authority and persuasion of all those who preceded them. Thus, when the true mother joyfully received great hosts of peoples into her bosom, there remained hard crowds, standing in that pestilence with an unhappy obstinacy. Of these also, very many communicated by dissimulation; others lay concealed by reason of their small number. But those who dissembled, by gradually becoming accustomed and by hearing the preaching of truth—especially after the conference and disputation which took place at Carthage between us and their bishops—were in great part corrected. Yet in certain places where a more obstinate and implacable multitude prevailed, which the smaller number whose opinion concerning communion was better could not resist, or where crowds subject to the authority of a few more powerful persons obeyed toward the evil side, labor was required for a somewhat longer time.”
The same author, Against the Letters of Petilian. Petilian said: “But if it had been permissible for anyone to be compelled by law even to good things, you wretched men ought yourselves to have been compelled by us to the purest faith. But far be it, far be it from our conscience that we compel anyone to our faith.” Augustine answered: “No one indeed is to be compelled to faith unwillingly; but through severity—indeed, through the mercy of God—perfidy is accustomed to be chastised by the scourges of tribulations. Is it the case that, because the best morals are chosen by freedom of the will, therefore the worst morals are not punished by the integrity of the law? Nevertheless, discipline which avenges evil living is inverted unless it is preceded by doctrine concerning living well. If, therefore, any laws have been established against you, by them you are not compelled to do well, but are prohibited from doing evil; for no one can do well unless he has chosen, unless he has loved, which lies in free will. But the fear of penalties, even if it does not yet possess the delight of a good conscience, at least restrains evil cupidity within the barriers of thought. Yet those who established the adverse laws by which your audacity is repressed—are they not those concerning whom the Apostle says: ‘For not without cause do they bear the sword; for they are ministers of God, avengers unto wrath against him who does evil’?”
§ 13. What, therefore? Will the prince act against all by right and law, and compel them to faith? Not against all, but nevertheless he will act on behalf of all. If they are few, if it can be done without disturbance, let him command that heresies, magicians, and idolaters not exist; but let the vigor of the laws be exerted gradually, except where there is danger of contagion. Let those who are pernicious be removed; the prince’s authority will lead the remaining crowd. Shame restrains many, fear many, but most are held by empty security, as though nothing better appears for them to follow. Within a few years more than one hundred thousand were converted to the truth in France, more in Germany. No prince of Germany who attempted to bring his people to the Catholics experienced force contrary to his laws. Only the Belgians rebelled; but religion was neither the sole cause nor the pretext. Privileges and liberty were held forth, together with dominion by a foreign nation, always hateful to cultivated peoples; and the exaction of tithes incited the people to sedition.
§ 14. Nevertheless, the decree of politicians who think otherwise remains: they are not to be compelled, for thus they both remain impious and add dissimulation to impiety, and the crime is doubled. Thus you will make worshipers of the purple, not of God. But they err, and oppose the peace of the commonwealth, not religion alone. For first, it is commanded by a wholesome law that they not do evil, not worship a demon by idolatrous sacrifices, not lay waste churches, mock sacred things, inscribe God upon their crimes, and assail truth. For although they obey unwillingly, it is nevertheless better that, when compelled, they be borne into crimes in mind alone than in both mind and deed together. In the same way, the dread of secular laws also deters many who are already guilty in mind and will from daring and obtaining their object.
§ 15. Nor is law accustomed merely to lead persons away from evils, but also to introduce them into the school and sanctuary of virtue. For it commands honorable and pious things and prohibits their contraries. It commands pious things, I say, and commands them to act piously, not by simulation; let each person impute hypocrisy to his own wickedness. Even the obstinate are commanded to honor the magistrate, because the command is right; nor ought the law for that reason not to command honorable things because a dissembling mind vitiates honorable deeds, but it ought to admonish them to accomplish of their own accord what duty requires. Yet, for the most part, when they are impelled toward honorable things, gradually they also perform them honorably and apply their minds to virtue, since it is necessary for the hands to be applied to the work. But if the hardness of some resists, it is nevertheless softened by custom; and tender age, not yet imbued with evils, is imbued fresh with piety and will carry the sweetness of its good odor into old age. I certainly remember that children were the authors to many parents of laying aside error; and when they grow up, lay aside the bordered toga, and enter a tribe or senate, they show themselves the best citizens of the commonwealth. We now see many thousands doing this in Germany, especially in Bavaria, Styria, Carinthia, and Belgium. And so even a reformation which does not help the advanced nevertheless presents childhood as Catholic.
§ 16. The ninth method, and almost the most efficacious of all, is that the governors of the commonwealth cultivate integrity of life and purity of morals. At the beginning I spoke concerning the morals of all; now I advise particularly that reformation will be slow and difficult unless prelates and teachers shine before the whole commonwealth not only by distinguished innocence but also by a reputation for innocence. For since superstition is a thing so malicious and calumnious that it detracts from the virtue and reputation of the most holy, exposes even the most blameless Athanasiuses to the speech of human beings by fabricated crimes, and drags them to tribunals by the purchased perjuries of witnesses, as though in another’s crime there were sufficient cause why heresies should not be abandoned, who can doubt that, when the crimes of priests are public, they are tolerated to the great loss of religion? The shameful life of clerics—of clerics, I say, of clerics, but evil ones—made, increased, and preserves heresies. Frequently I enter into disputation with heretics or with those who believe heretics. After arguments which are solved and turned back with the least labor,
they turn to the accusation of clerics and bring forth things which can neither be denied nor defended.
What, therefore, will the commonwealth do in this matter? First, it will labor that bishops and prelates be chosen who are chaste, liberal, sober, courageous, and zealous for divine law, who will reform morals; the princes themselves should add whatever power they can. Nor is the remedy difficult: is a canon or parish priest a drunkard or keeper of a concubine? Let an accuser be opposed to him; let another candidate for his dignity and prebend come forward; once convicted, let him be deposed and another receive his bishopric. If the prelates connive with one another and do not correct the vices of their own people, let the Vicar of Christ grant free power of reforming to kings and princes, as he recently entrusted it, to the great benefit of the province, to a certain most serene prince. But since I have dealt sufficiently with this matter in Book II, chapter 9, On the Peace of Germany, and this place requires the same things, I prefer to transfer those things here rather than rehearse them here in other words.
§ 17. In the first place, as a thing supremely necessary, without which no peace will ever be established, and once established will not endure, I place the restoration of ecclesiastical discipline where it has grown feeble, and its preservation where it flourishes. The cause of old and recent heresies and persecutions was, for the most part, the dissolution of the Christian clergy and people. It is an ancient wound of the Church, but one which is renewed excessively, so that it may never grow old throughout the whole world and may never be perfectly healed. “The Lord,” says Saint Cyprian, “wished his household to be tested,” when, namely, he permitted persecution. He speaks, however, of that which occurred under Decius and which was preceded by thirty-eight years of peace in Africa. “And because long peace had corrupted the discipline handed down to us by God, heavenly censure raised up faith which lay prostrate and, I might almost say, sleeping; and although we deserved to suffer more for our sins, the most clement Lord so moderated all things that everything which was done appeared to be a trial rather than a persecution. Each person devoted himself to increasing his patrimony and, forgetful of what believers had either done before under the Apostles or always ought to do, they gaped after the increase of their possessions with the insatiable ardor of cupidity. There was no devoted religion in priests, no entire faith in ministers, no mercy in works, no discipline in morals. The beard was corrupted in men, the appearance painted in women; eyes were adulterated after God’s hands had made them; hair was falsified by falsehood. There were cunning frauds for deceiving the hearts of the simple, treacherous wills for circumventing brethren; to join the bond of marriage with unbelievers, to prostitute the members of Christ to Gentiles; not only to swear rashly but even to perjure oneself; to despise superiors with a proud swelling, to curse one another with a poisoned mouth, and to be divided from one another by obstinate hatreds. Very many bishops, who ought to be an exhortation and example to the rest, despised divine administration and became administrators of secular affairs; abandoning their chair, deserting the people, wandering through foreign provinces, they hunted the markets of profitable commerce; while brethren in the Church hungered, they did not come to their aid; they wished to possess silver abundantly, to seize estates by insidious frauds, and to increase capital by multiplying usury.”
These are the words of the holy martyr in his treatise On the Lapsed, in the age of the martyrs. Our evils have had more grievous causes, a greater loss of discipline, and a greater dominion of vices, which at length ended in rebellion and heresy. Nor is it wonderful. Without care for discipline, not only can the peace of religion not be maintained, but not even religion itself. “Discipline is the guardian of hope, the bond of faith, the guide of the saving journey, the kindling and nourishment of a good disposition, the teacher of virtue; it causes one always to remain in Christ and continually to live for God, and to attain to heavenly promises and divine rewards.” Cyprian, On the Discipline and Dress of Virgins.
At this time nothing prevents most people more from returning to the ancient religion than the examples of certain persons who live badly in it. For the common people estimate doctrine from life. When they behold a man enslaved to riches, burning with lusts, swollen with arrogance, they do not believe that they can rightly learn from him the doctrine of liberality, chastity, and modesty. Do you marvel that those who wander are not converted? Do you marvel that you labor without fruit? They doubt your faith because it lies hidden in the mind; your vices are in the open. They avail more toward hatred than uncertain faith toward love. You promise the food of the word of God to the hungry. But while you offer it with an impure and festering hand, you render it suspect and cause enemies to blaspheme the name of the Lord. Your sin is indeed exceedingly great before the Lord, because you draw human beings back from the Lord’s sacrifice—not from a sacrifice of rams and calves, but from the sacrifice of prayers, faith, and piety. They are turned away from God whose minister they see stained by so many vices. By nothing do heresies grow more than by the vices of clerics and by the sins of laymen, who so infect their offspring with their vices that it never becomes accustomed to piety. The heretics themselves testify to this: when convicted by Scriptures and reasons, they turn to the accusation of the Roman Curia and of the whole ecclesiastical estate. I shall answer them in another place, for they are no more excusable than the children of Israel, who, drawn back from the sacrifice of the Lord by the crimes of Hophni and Phinehas, worshiped the Baals and Ashtaroth.
Now I admonish those who live from the Church, have grown fat from Christ’s patrimony, and receive large donatives from the pay of our commander, but by their sloth, ignorance, drunkenness, and baseness betray their own camp to the enemies, in no way solicitous about the destruction of perishing souls and locating the peace of the Church in the opulence and quiet of prebends. O good God, if it is expedient for him who shall have scandalized one of these little ones who believe in you that a millstone turned by an ass be suspended from his neck and he be drowned in the depth of the sea, what mountains or rocks will be able to suffice to bind to so many necks? How often must those be drowned who scandalize not merely the little ones but the whole world: great and small—the little ones who believe in you, the great so that they cease to believe, and unbelievers so that they do not come to faith?
It has been said to all Christians: “Be without complaint and simple children of God, without reproach in the midst of a depraved and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life, unto my glory on the day of Christ,” Philippians 2:15. But to bishops and prelates it is said: “Be an example of the faithful in word and conduct, in charity, in faith, in chastity,” 1 Timothy 4:2. And: “In all things present yourself as an example of good works, in doctrine, in integrity, in gravity; a sound, irreproachable word,” Titus 2:7. And why? He adds the reason: “So that he who is opposed may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say concerning us.” Not by word alone, but above all by example, did the Apostles convert the world; by examples men travel again to unbelief, for while they deny conscience, they make shipwreck concerning the faith. For because they live badly in the sight of the people, so far as lies in them they kill those by whom they are known. Everyone who lives badly in the sight of those over whom he is placed, so far as lies in him, kills.
What, therefore? Do you foretell perpetual war in those regions where ecclesiastical discipline is neglected? Either war, or servitude, or destruction. For if morals are amended, abuses taken away, and scandals removed, a very brief war will be followed by solid victory. If God is further provoked by sins, those who wander will be confirmed in heresy; those who hesitate and are doubtful will be plainly turned away; and God will strike away license and wantonness, as he has now done in many places.
If bishops and prelates are unequal to the vices of certain persons, God the Zealot will send a stronger avenger, by whom he will at once take away the impious man and his impiety. Thus the Turks occupied Asia, Egypt, and Greece, while neither the clergy obeyed the bishops nor the bishops the supreme shepherd, and while their morals surpassed the wickedness of barbarians. We see that it is generally so arranged that, when vices have climbed to their summit, all things fall together. But they must be believed to have climbed to their summit if they are committed by public law, or by custom and approval; if they break all the force and vigor of the laws and the authority of the magistrate. What cannot be healed dies away. Religion will perish in Europe unless an integrity of morals corresponds to the sanctity of religion. “What, then, do you think must be reformed?” someone who both fears and needs reformation will say to me. In general, whatever has been deformed; whatever, even if it is not deformed, nevertheless, through the circumstances, is the cause of some deformity in the Church.