§ 1. The calamities of the times now show that my exhortation is indeed superfluous, for they are so grave and frequent that, if anyone has grown hard at their blows, he seems likely to shut out every discourse also. For whom will words move if he remains unmoved by lashes? But if anyone understands that the evils which we suffer occur deservedly, and that disasters are the companions of sins, there is no need of words to make him endeavor to escape them; the destructions themselves have strength enough to strike fear of themselves. Nor is the greatness and dignity of Bishops such that it should be judged unbecoming for them to be admonished by a private man. All who fail in their office must be entreated, admonished, taught, and rebuked, lest they sleep securely amid their evils; those who perform their office must be admonished to continue. No height is beyond a fall; no one is beyond danger. Therefore circumspection must be inculcated in all. From the first See, which is judged by no one, down to the last chaplaincy, which judges no one, there is no security of health; and in all men the assaults of vices display themselves every day like fevers. Indeed, the highest summits of dignities have frequently been besieged by the highest vices; hence come graver falls from on high, made with the crushing of the whole body, and powerful torments for the powerful.
What, then, shall I do? I shall entreat my superiors as fathers and lords, my equals as brothers. Yet all of us are equal when the peril of the soul is at issue, since we all remain ignorant of what evil concerning oneself, and what good concerning others, eternal Wisdom has decreed in the depth of His judgments. Indeed, those who are judged are in less danger, while those who judge are in greater, because they possess more causes of perishing—namely, as many as the souls which can perish through their negligence. Let all, therefore, stand and contemplate their offices and the lives of the martyrs and confessors. They fought and, lest they sin, stood against the force and bitterness of torments. But how shall we be called their sons and successors if admonitions and penalties do not deter us from sin, when neither promises could entice them nor punishments drive them to sin?
Bishops, Priests, Deacons, and others will come to the eternal tribunal of God; we too will come. Their scars and wounds will accuse our wickedness with the greatest power. The Lord will say to them:
The stronger your confession was in suffering, the more illustrious and greater in honor it is. The battle increased; the glory of the combatants increased. You were not held back from the battle line by fear of torments, but were provoked still more to battle by the torments themselves. Brave and steadfast, you came forth with ready devotion to the combat of the greatest contest. Among you I have already found some crowned, but some near to the crown of victory; and all whom the prison enclosed in a glorious company animated by an equal and similar ardor of virtue for waging the contest, as the soldiers of Christ ought to be in the divine camp, so that flatteries do not deceive, threats do not terrify, and tortures and torments do not overcome the incorrupt firmness of faith, because He who is in us is greater than he who is in this world. Nor can earthly punishment do more to cast down than divine protection can do to raise up.
The matter has been proved by the glorious combat of the brethren, who, having been made leaders for the rest in overcoming torments, furnished an example of virtue and faith, engaging in the battle line until the defeated battle line gave way. With what praises, therefore, shall I proclaim you, most valiant brethren? With what proclamation of the voice shall I adorn the strength of your breast and the perseverance of your faith? You endured the harshest examination until the consummation of glory. You did not yield to the punishments; rather, the punishments yielded to you. The crowns gave an end to pains which the torments did not give. The graver butchery continued for a long time for this purpose: not to cast down the faith which stood, but to send the men of God more swiftly to the Lord.
The multitude of those present beheld with wonder God’s heavenly contest, the spiritual contest, the battle of Christ: His servants stood with a free voice, an incorrupt mind, and divine virtue; naked indeed of secular weapons, but armed with the weapons of believing faith. The tortured stood stronger than the torturers, and their beaten and lacerated limbs conquered the claws which beat and lacerated them. The long-raging and repeated wound could not overcome their unconquerable faith, although, when the frame of their entrails had been ruptured, it was now not limbs but wounds that were tortured in the servants of God. Blood flowed which would extinguish the conflagration of persecution and quench the flames and fires of Gehenna with glorious gore.
What excuse will remain for us if that day which shall behold the requital of all actions sees us defeated and broken by desires, contaminated by vices? Our ancestors will marvel that we are so degenerate, because they will understand that we were prostrated without violence and without an enemy. They will be astonished that the laws enacted by themselves—the divine laws, the laws of the Church sanctioned by their own blood—were burdensome to us. So many thousands of virgins who endured the most exquisite torments lest they violate chastity will regard it as monstrous that chastity and sobriety are burdensome to priests.
The chief point of salvation in the Church is to refer everything to the ancient canons and to imitate the ancients. Saint Charles Borromeo admonishes his Bishops concerning this matter in his discourse to the First Synod of Milan:
We shall readily restore moral discipline if, in restoring it, we employ the same method and the same deeds by which it was first established and long preserved, following the footsteps of those who, with God as author, acquired for us this greatness of goods by their virtue. I ask, Fathers, that we set before ourselves the sanctity of their lives and their wisdom in the admirable fulfillment of their office. They were upright, chaste, simple, modest, humble, well-mannered, assiduous in prayer and reading, despisers of themselves, and wholly fixed upon the care and thought of another’s salvation. They were kind in counsel and work, hospitable, sparing in domestic furnishing and food, beneficent and liberal toward others. They were vigilant over their flocks, cultivating and guarding the Vineyard of the Lord with the greatest diligence and labor.
They continually fed the sheep entrusted to them with the threefold food of salvation—the word, example, and Sacraments. It was also their custom, as imitators of Christ, the Supreme Pastor, who poured out His blood and life for His entire flock, not to hesitate, for the safety of their own sheep, to undertake any labor, encounter every danger, endure every force and injury, and finally, like that good Pastor of the Gospel, to lay down their lives for the sheep. They expected no fruit of this life from it, so that they might obtain the greatest fruits of heavenly recompense.
If, Fathers, we keep these things before our eyes as we ought, we shall readily understand what must be done by us at this time in restoring ecclesiastical discipline. In this matter we must also notice that, just as in forming and establishing the ecclesiastical order Christ the Lord began with the Apostles themselves, whom He willed to be teachers of the Christian life, so we in forming and restoring moral discipline should begin with ourselves, the pastors, who ought to hand down to others examples and precepts of living.
If we perform these duties with the zeal we ought, it will assuredly be a small task to settle the controversies, which the Synod of Trent set before us to be done. For when greed, which is the root and seed of all dissensions, has been removed, we shall readily settle the discords of the present time and leave no place in our province for anyone to dissent hereafter. Therefore, Fathers, let us devote ourselves with our whole breast to this pious and necessary care and diligence of our office. In this acceptable time, on this day of salvation which the Lord has made, let us strive to contribute as much as we can by counsel, labor, and actions, with the Holy Spirit as leader and governor, toward establishing the common safety of the province.
The whole world demands this from priests, for it has not only entrusted souls to them, but has willed them besides to be honored and wealthy. God, the Planter of the Church and Redeemer of souls, demands this, lest through your negligence those for whom Christ died should perish. The heretics demand this, who, offended by the vices of clerics, made a divorce from religion and truth and even now put forward the same cause as a pretext for their perfidy.