Gratian (causa 23, question 1, chapter 2) answers that [they] signify spiritual [wars], by which we must fight against spiritual enemies. But he wrongly puts forth Gregory as the author of this most true response, since he cites not Gregory’s words, but Origen’s, from homily 15 on this book: “Unless,” he says, “these carnal wars bore a figure of spiritual wars, never, I think, would the books of the Jewish histories have been handed down by the Apostles to be read in the Churches by the disciples of Christ — who came to teach peace. For to what profit would that description of wars be, to those to whom it is said by Jesus, ‘My peace I give to you, my peace I leave with you’? And to those to whom it is commanded and said through the Apostle: ‘not avenging ourselves,’ and ‘rather receive [ye] the injury,’ and ‘rather suffer [ye] the fraud’? Whence, finally, the Apostle, knowing that no wars are any longer to be waged by us carnally, but that the contests of the soul are to be sweated out against spiritual adversaries, gives — like a drill-master — a precept to the soldiers of Christ, saying: ‘Put on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil.’ And that we might have examples of these spiritual wars from the deeds of the ancients, he willed these narrations of things done to be recited to us in the Church, so that we — if we are spiritual, hearing that the law is spiritual — might, in the [things] which we hear, compare spiritual with spiritual, and contemplate, from those nations which visibly assailed the carnal Israel, how great are the nations of the contrary powers — from among the spiritual [beings] which are called ‘spiritual wickednesses in the heavenly places’ [Eph 6:12] — which stir up wars against the Church of the Lord, which is the true Israel.” In these words it is to be noted, first, that by them every just cause of warring seems to be taken away from Christians, and that it is lawful for them to undertake war only against the enemies of the soul. But this [was treated] above, at question 1.
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[running head: ad caput VI.]
was already exploded [refuted] above [at q. 1], and in that same causa 23 [of Gratian] it is copiously exploded, even from St Gregory’s own mind, at question 8. Whence — that I may briefly point this out — he collects [it] badly, who wishes very much to seem sharp-eyed: the Gentile Calvinist [i.e., Alberico Gentili], On War, book 1, ch. 5, [says] that the Father [Gregory] is not sufficiently consistent with himself. For, having followed the erring Gratian, he attributes to Gregory the words which we have heard [which are really Origen’s]. SECONDLY: it seems, by those same words, that the reason why these wars are read is a single one — namely, the figure of the interior [spiritual] wars. But surely there are several reasons: FIRST: that from this [reading] the supreme benevolence of God toward his people — in leading them — and [his] wisdom in governing, [his] power in protecting and enlarging [them], and other such things, may be seen. SECOND: that the progress of the ancient Church, and its whole state, from the beginning of the world, through the unfoldings of all the ages, may be known. THIRD: that precepts and examples of the military art may also be taken from it — especially those which, even if they are sometimes suggested by the natural light of reason and by profane [pagan] writers, are nevertheless proposed less efficaciously than they ought [to be], and are held of less [account] in war by the common soldiers, and even by some of the [leaders]. Of which kind are these: that all victories and triumphs be seriously believed to be from God, and in God alone; that he be often and ardently besought by prayers [for them]; that something from the spoils be consecrated to his honor and worship; that all impiety be banished from the camp, [that] sacrileges be absent, and whatever sins provoke the divine wrath; [that] obedience and innocence flourish among them; and, if there be any sin, [that there be] penance and expiation. Concerning which [things] let there usefully be read Ferrandus, to Duke Reginus, and St Bernard, in the sermon to the Knights of the Temple. FOURTH: Finally, to these military narrations that [saying] of the Apostle also applies, 2 Timothy 3, verse 16: “All Scripture, divinely inspired, is useful for teaching, for arguing, for correcting, for instructing in justice: that the man of God may be perfect, furnished for every good work” — for every, I say, good work, even a military one, whether the war be undertaken for invasion or for defense. Since indeed each [kind], when it is a work of justice, is necessarily good. It is to be noted, thirdly, that it is an Apostolic tradition [which decides] that these or those books [are] to be read in the Church before the people. FOURTHLY: as to the cause which he [Origen] brings, [note] that Origen speaks modestly, since he does not affirm [it], but only says, “I think” [opinor]. FIFTHLY: that first cause is proposed by him as if [it were] the only one — either because he reckoned [it] the chief [cause], or even the only [cause] — not simply, but in respect of the common crowd of Christians: so that, when the people hear [these things] recited in the Church (for he clearly names such a recitation “Ecclesiastical”), they may straightway have at hand [something] which they may usefully ponder for every state of life, and for every place and time — namely, that they may learn to do battle spiritually against the spiritual [powers of] wickedness. For these battles are to be fought by all, and everywhere, and always, as long as one lives. From diabolical temptation none of us is exempt. No place is so splendid or so holy where the demon and the flesh will not either openly assail or lie in wait; no festal or laborious day, no youth or old age, no hour of health or of sickness, is safe from those dangers. This, therefore, is the greatest, and in a way the sole, reason why, to every kind of men,
[running head: ad caput VI.]
however rude and simple, the history of these wars can be as useful as possible. And therefore these [things] too must now be explained a little.
FOUR [things], therefore, are to be noted in general, which are to be transferred to the likeness of the wars of the soul: namely, WHO the enemies are, with whom one must war; WHAT the cause of the wars [is]; WHO the Leader [is]; and WHAT the manner [is].
FIRST: The enemies are many; universally, however, they are called Canaanites [Chananæi]. Now “Canaan” means, first, a merchant [mercator] — Hosea 12, verse 7; Zechariah 14:21; Proverbs 31:24; Job 40:24; Isaiah 23:8; and, according to the Targum and Rabbi David [Kimhi] in the [Book of] Roots, Genesis 38, verse 2, where our [Vulgate] retains the Hebrew “Canaanite.” SECONDLY, it can mean “afflicting and humbling.” For כנע [kana] is “to humble.” Whence the German word fnien [i.e. to bow down] and the Greek χύνω. THIRDLY, according to some, from ענה [ana] it can mean “thus” — that is, “fittingly responding,” or “afflicting.” The Demon is a merchant, who, for a scrap of one apple, bought for himself the whole human race in paradise; and today, at a price, he buys up [those men] who take delight in a certain flattering [enticement] of pleasures — [those] either coveting the things which [please] the soul with immoderate lust, or shuddering with excessive fear and trembling, or boiling over with a more atrocious wrath. For hence [come] the words of “buying” and “redeeming” so often attributed to Christ the Lord in the Scriptures. He [the Demon] can be said “thus” — that is, to “respond fittingly” — when, at a man’s [mere] wish, he gives all his goods as freely granted. The lust of man says: “Is it lawful, by right and wrong [per fas & nefas], to heap up wealth?” He answers: “It is lawful.” “I should wish, above all, to be made great, to be honored, to be graced with praises, to be made illustrious with glory.” “And this [is] splendid.” “I should wish to eat of the forbidden tree, were it not that one must die.” “Ah, eat! be of good cheer — thou shalt by no means die.” “I should wish to excel in the knowledge of various things, and so to be admirable to all.” “Indeed — if thou hearkenest to me, I will bring [it about] that thou be as God, knowing good and evil.” So [it is] in all the other depraved vices of souls. So also — that is, fittingly and “well” — he “afflicts,” sometimes indeed by the sending of calamities: for example, of poverty, hunger, worthlessness, sickness, and the like, as was done in Job; but sometimes by wearing down souls with sadness and grief, ceaselessly lacerating [them] with anxious thoughts, and soliciting [them] to impatience, murmuring, and utmost despair. What I have said in the singular [of the one Demon] is to be transferred to the whole multitude of the flesh, the world, and all the demons. For these are the “Canaanites,” with whom we have perpetual, truceless [ἄσπονδα, asponda], and more-than-deadly wars. These are the nations which, to us who seek the inheritance provided for us by God, most of all and always resist with the most hostile arms and minds — [the nations] which, in Canaan, were long ago, through the true Noah (that is, the bestower of true rest [Noah = “rest”]), given over to execration and cursed, Genesis 9, verse 25 [“Cursed be Canaan”]. These peoples are also sometimes called “Amorites” [Amorrhæi], as [in] Genesis 15, verse 16 — but more rarely. And what does the name of those “Amorites” signify, but either “talkative” (from אמר [amar, “to say”]), or “rebels and apostates” (from מרה [marah, “to rebel”])? By which name — for that same nation of demons, which so basely fell away from God, ceaselessly works perpetual rebellion and apostasy in men, and everywhere clamors with immense talkativeness — what [could be] more fitting?
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[running head: Iosuæ.]
SECONDLY: The cause of this war [is] threefold, as was indicated before. FIRST: that the sins which those Canaanites and Amorites committed be punished. But no sharper punishment can now be inflicted by us upon the demons than if we never obey their will, [but] perpetually confute, despise, trample, and spit upon them. So also nothing can be more troublesome to this world than if it be held cheap and deserted. Nothing is more hateful and harsh to the flesh than if fetters and bonds be cast upon it by right reason, its lust be bridled, its wantonness be checked, and its wildness be tamed. SECOND: that the ancestral possession of [our] forefathers be recovered. In paradise [our first parents] were in that most fertile, most healthful, most delightful place. Thence the Canaanites, by force and injury, expelled and dislodged them. Let us return thither, and reclaim what has been lost or snatched away. “This figure in us,” says Serapion in Cassian (chapter 24, conference 5), “is known by a most certain reasoning. For the will of the Lord naturally assigned the possession of our heart not to vices but to virtues. Which [heart], after Adam’s transgression — [with] the vices growing insolent, that is, the Canaanite peoples — [was] driven from its own region; and when these [virtues], again through the grace of God, by our diligence and labor, shall have been restored, [we] are to be believed not so much to have occupied alien lands, as to have recovered [our] own.” THIRD, and the greatest, and the chief of all the other causes: because God commands [it]. Run through all the [sacred] writers — they always exhort to that sacred war: Job 7, verse 1; 2 Timothy 2, verse 3; 1 Peter 5, verse 9. That great Trumpeter, St Peter, sounds the battle-call; St Paul opens the armory and hands over the full panoply: 2 Corinthians 10, verse 4; Ephesians 6, verses 11 and 13. “To me,” says Origen in the cited homily, “there seems to be a countless number of contrary powers, inasmuch as through almost every individual man there are some spirits contriving diverse kinds of sins in them. For example, there is a certain spirit of fornication; there is another, of wrath; there is a spirit of avarice, and another of pride. And if it happen that there is some man who is driven by all these evils, or even by more, he is to be thought to have all these, or even more, [as] enemy spirits in himself. Whence also [we] are to believe [there are] several through each individual, because individual men do not have single vices, but commit sins — and several seem to be admitted by each one. And again, it is not to be thought that one spirit of fornication seduces him who (for example) fornicates in Britain, and him who [fornicates] in India and in other places; nor is there one spirit of wrath which drives diverse men in diverse places: but I think rather that there is one chief spirit of fornication, and countless [others] who obey him in this office; and, through each individual man, diverse spirits soldiering under that chief solicit them to sins of this kind. Similarly I judge that there is one chief spirit of wrath, and countless [others] acting under him, who kindle the sins of that vice through each individual man. Similarly, that there is one chief of avarice, so also of pride, and of the other evils. And therefore not one principality is spoken of by the Apostle among the contrary powers, but several, against whom he writes that there is a battle for himself and for all of us. Nevertheless, I think that there is one chief of all — more eminent, as it were, in wickedness, and loftier in crime — who alone, as the Leader of all the chiefs and the master of the whole nefarious militia, harasses the whole world (which those [demons] each solicit to sins, part by part, through the [various] kinds of sins).” The same [Origen] also [says] many [things] on
[running head: Iosuæ.]
this book, homilies 12 and 14; and Cassian, Conference 5, from chapter 16 — concerning which [see] elsewhere.
THIRDLY: A Leader and Commander is most necessary in every war. For [the war is] military — as Curtius (book 10) and Quintilian (book 5) said: “Without a Leader, [what is] a crowd, but a body without a spirit; or oarsmen without any helmsman?” And that [Leader], indeed, ought not to be just anyone, but an outstanding and warlike man — because, as Florus judged (book 2, chapter 18), “an army is worth as much as its Commander”; and, from the mind of a great warrior: “an army of stags is better with a Lion as Leader, than [an army] of Lions with a Stag as leader.” And that he be outstanding and warlike, the masters of the military art require these FIVE [things] in him. FIRST: experience and skill in [the art of] war itself, as to all doubtful and favorable circumstances. SECONDLY: virtue of body and mind — but of this [latter] more — [such] that he can declare of himself, among his own men, that [saying] from Livy, book 7: “My deeds, not my words, [do] I wish you to follow, soldiers; nor to seek from me discipline only, but also example.” “A Leader,” says Ferrandus (rule 2), “is [so called] because he leads” — so that, as in a mirror, the soldiers may see in him what faith, abstinence, continence, probity, innocence, and endurance of labors they may follow. “How great in innocence,” says the Manilian [oration] of Tully [Cicero], “ought Commanders to be? with how great humility?” Utterly false, and unworthy of a Philosopher, [is] that saying of Seneca (book 4 On Benefits, chapter 37): “No one can at the same time play both a good man and a good leader.” THIRDLY: foresight, that he do nothing overhastily or fiercely, [and] rashly cast neither himself nor his own men into any danger. For truly, in Plutarch, someone said: “In war it is not [permitted] to err twice.” FOURTHLY: felicity [good fortune] — which is generally the companion of counsel and reason, but so [understood] that it be firmly held to depend on God, and be sought from him in every assault or defense. For that [felicity], as Tully says in the same place, no one can furnish from himself. FIFTHLY: authority. For, as the same Orator says, it greatly pertains to the waging of wars, what the enemies, and what the allies, think of the Commanders. Now all these [qualities] — in whom were they ever more compactly, more fully, and more perfectly [gathered] than in him whom Joshua signified: our Lord and Savior JESUS CHRIST? Who is more knowing than he of all the things which pertain to his soldiers, to the enemies, and finally to that whole [war]? Was not he too engaged in the camp from boyhood? [did he not] frequently join battle in the line with the enemies? [Is he] not master of the full measures of all the virtues in himself, and — without any hyperbole — most absolutely [master] of the most absolute? [Is he] not so provident of all circumstances, and did he not always hate, condemn, and cut away — in himself and in his own — all rashness, audacity, and the desire of vain glory (which most frequently drives puffed-up and reckless minds into the uncertainties of dangers)? And in his hand — [is] not felicity itself? [Is he] not always victor, never vanquished? And hence, as from a fountain, [comes] his glory and authority — as great as all nations and tongues confess. At his name the enemies dread and tremble; but by it the soldiers are raised up, and inspired with an unknown vigor — as was shown in book 1, chapter 2. This one, therefore, [is] our Leader and Commander against all the nations [that come] from the depth of Acheron [hell]: upon him we must gaze assiduously; him we must always follow, energetically and diligently.
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[running head: caput VI.]
“When, bearing his javelin in his hand, [the Leader] goes panting before [his men]” — bearing [it], I say, and carrying the wood of his own cross, ”— and shows [them] how to endure labors.” He does not [merely] command. So below, chapter 8, verse 10: “Joshua went up with the elders, in the front of the army.” “Arm yourselves also,” says St Peter (1st Epistle, chapter 4, verse 1) — [Christ] having suffered in the flesh — “with the same thought.” And St Paul, Hebrews 12, verse 1: “Laying aside every weight, and the sin that surrounds us, let us run to the contest set before us, looking upon the author and consummator of faith, JESUS, who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame.” Concerning which St Chrysostom, homily 13 on Philippians: “Nothing,” he says, “is so contrary and alien to a Christian as to seek rest and leisure; nothing so alien to our perfection, and to the militia to which we have given our name, as to be fixed upon the present life. Thy Lord was driven to the cross, and dost thou seek rest? Thy Lord was fastened with nails, and dost thou take thy delights? Is this [the mark] of noble soldiers?” And St Augustine, on Psalm 26 and 29, and in the first sermon on Psalm 30. Origen, in [his] twelfth homily on this book — where there is, as it were, a summary of the [things] which I have said concerning our Leader, the causes of the war, and the enemies: “If,” he says, “the [things] which through Moses were shadowed forth concerning the tabernacle, or the sacrifices, and all that worship, are said to be a type and shadow of heavenly [things], without doubt the wars too which are waged through Jesus [Joshua], and the slaughters of Kings and enemies, are to be said to be a shadow and type of heavenly [things] — [namely] of those wars which our Lord Jesus, with his army, and [his] magistrates, and the peoples of believers, and their
[running head: caput VI.]
leaders, wages against the devil and his angels. For it is he [Jesus] who, in Paul and in the Ephesians, fights against the principalities and powers, and the rulers of these darknesses, against the spiritual [powers] of wickedness in the heavenly places. And see, O ungrateful heretic, how entirely the new [things] agree with the old. To the ancients was promised the kingdom of the holy land, a land flowing with milk and honey — which land was then held by sinners, and by most wicked inhabitants and kings. Jesus [Joshua] came into that land with the army of the Lord and the Israelite leaders; he stormed all; he slew; he took possession; and, for the merit of victory, he received the kingdoms of those whom he conquered. To thee, through the Gospels, are promised not the kingdoms of earth, but the kingdoms of heaven. But these kingdoms are not empty or void: they have their own inhabitants — sinners, and wicked spirits, apostate Angels. There dwell those against whom the Apostolic trumpet, sounding through Paul, exhorts thee to battle. And just as there Jesus [Joshua] said, ‘there will be war for you against the Amorites, and Perizzites, and Hivites, and Jebusites,’ so here too Paul announces to thee, saying: ‘Our battle will not be against flesh and blood’ — that is, we will not fight thus, as the Ancients fought; nor are battles to be waged by us on earth against men, but against the principalities, and against the powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world. Now indeed thou understandest in what places such contests are to be waged by thee.”
The fourth manner, in the various wars, is various; and therefore [it is] rather to be observed henceforth in the individual [wars] — to which the pen now hastens.