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CANTERBURY TALES
THE PARSON'S TALE
by Geoffrey Chaucer
Electronically Enhanced Text (c) Copyright 1996, World Library(R)
THE PARSON'S TALE
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Jer. 6. State super vias et videte et interrogate de viis
antiquis, que sit via bona; et ambulate in ea, et inuenietis
refrigerium animabus vestris, &c.
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Our sweet Lord God of Heaven, Who will destroy no man, but would
have all come unto the knowledge of Him and to the blessed life that
is everlasting, admonishes us by the Prophet Jeremiah, who says
thus: "Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths
(that is to say, the old wisdom) where is the good way, and walk
therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls," etc. Many are the
spiritual ways that lead folk unto Our Lord Jesus Christ and to the
Kingdom of Glory. Of which ways there is a right noble way and a
proper one, which will not fail either man or woman who through sin
has gone astray from the right way to the Heavenly Jerusalem; and this
way is called penitence, as to which man should gladly hear and
inquire with all his heart, in order that he may learn what
penitence is, and why it is called penitence, and in how many ways
penitence functions, and how many kinds of penitence there are, and
what things appertain and are necessary to penitence, and what
things hinder it.
Saint Ambrose says that "penitence is the mourning of man for the
sin that he has done, and the resolve to do no more anything for which
he ought to mourn." And another doctor says: "Penitence is the
lamenting of man, who sorrows for his sin and punishes himself because
he has done amiss." Penitence, under certain circumstances, is the
true repentance of a man that goes in sorrow and other pain for his
misdeeds. And that he shall be truly penitent, he shall first regret
the sins that he has done, and steadfastly purpose in his heart to
make oral confession, and to do penance, and nevermore to do
anything for which he ought to feel regret or to mourn, and to
continue on good works; or else his repentance will avail him nothing.
For, as says Saint Isidore: "He is a mocker and a liar and no true
penitent who does again a thing for which he ought to repent."
Weeping, when not accompanied by a refusal to sin, shall not avail.
But, nevertheless, men should hope that every time a man falls, be
it never so often, he may arise through penitence, if he have grace;
but certainly there is great doubt of this. For, as Saint Gregory
says: "With difficulty shall he arise out of sin who is burdened
with the burden of evil habit." And therefore repentant folk, who keep
from sin and abandon sin ere sin abandon them, Holy Church holds
them to be sure of their salvation. And he that sins and verily
repents in his last moments, Holy Church yet hopes for his
salvation, what of the great mercy of Our Lord Jesus Christ, because
of his repentance; but take you the certain way.
And now, since I have declared unto you what penitence is, now shall
you understand that there are three deeds required by penitence. The
first deed is that a man be baptized after he has sinned. Saint
Augustine says: "Save he be repentant for his former sinful life, he
shall not begin to lead the new clean life." For truly, if he be
baptized without repentance for his old offence, he receives the
sign of baptism but not the grace nor the remission of his sins, until
he have true repentance. Another defect is this, that men do deadly
sin after they have received baptism. The third defect is that men
fall into venial sins after their baptism, and from day to day.
Thereof Saint Augustine says that "penitence of good and humble folk
is the penitence of every day."
The kinds of penitence are three. One of them is public, another
is general, and the third is private. That form of penitence which
is public is of two kinds: as to be expelled from Holy Church in Lent,
for the slaughter of children and such-like things. Another is, when a
man has sinned openly, of which sin the shame is openly spoken of in
the community; and then Holy Church, by judgment rendered,
constrains him to do open penance. Common or general penitence is when
priests enjoin men collectively in certain cases, as, peradventure, to
go naked on pilgrimages, or barefoot. Private penitence is that
which men do continually for their sins, whereof we confess
privately and receive a private penance.
Now shall you understand what is necessary to a true and perfect
penitence. And this stands upon three things: contrition of heart,
confession by word of mouth, and restitution. As to which Saint John
Chrysostom says: "Penitence constrains a man to accept cheerfully
every pain that is put upon him, with contrition of heart and oral
confession, with restitution; and in doing of all acts of humility."
And this is a fruitful penitence for three things wherein we anger Our
Lord Jesus Christ; that is to say, by delight in thinking, by
recklessness in speaking, and by wicked sinful works. And over against
these wicked offences is penitence, which may be likened unto a tree.
The root of this tree is contrition, which hides itself away in
the heart of him who is truly repentant, just as the root of another
tree hides within the earth. From the root contrition springs a
trunk that bears branches and leaves of confession and the fruit of
penance, As to which Christ says in His gospel: "Bring forth therefore
fruits meet for repentance." For by this fruit may men know this tree,
and not by the root that is hidden in the heart of man, nor by the
branches, nor by the leaves of confession. And therefore Our Lord
Jesus Christ says thus: "By their fruits ye shall know them." From
this root, too, springs a seed of grace, the which seed is the
mother of security, and this seed is eager and hot. The grace of
this seed springs from God, through remembrance of the day of doom and
the pains of Hell. Of this matter says Solomon: "Fear the Lord, and
depart from evil." The heat of this seed is the love of God and the
desiring of the joy everlasting. This heat draws the heart of man unto
God and causes him to hate his sin. For truly there is nothing that
tastes so well to a child as the milk of its nurse, nor is there
anything more abhorrent to it than this same milk when it is mingled
with other food. just so, to the sinful man who loves his sin, it
seems that it is sweeter than anything else; but from the time that he
begins to love devoutly Our Lord Jesus Christ, and desires the life
everlasting, there is to him nothing more abominable. For truly the
law of God is the love of God; whereof David the prophet says: "Ye
that love the Lord, hate evil." He that loves God keeps His law and
His word. The Prophet Daniel saw this tree in spirit following upon
the vision of King Nebuchadnezzar, when he counselled him to do
penance. Penance is the tree of life to those who receive it, and he
that holds himself in true penitence is blessed, according to the
opinion of Solomon.
In this penitence or contrition man shall understand four things,
that is to say, what contrition is, and what the causes are that
move a man to contrition, and how he should be contrite, and what
contrition avails the soul. Then it is thus: that contrition is the
real sorrow that a man receives within his heart for his sins, with
firm purpose to confess them and to do penance and nevermore to do
sin. And this sorrow shall be in this manner, as says Saint Bernard:
"It shall be heavy and grievous and sharp and poignant in the
heart." First, because man has offended his Lord and his Creator;
and more sharp and poignant because he has offended his Heavenly
Father; and yet more sharp and poignant because he has angered and
offended Him Who redeemed him, Who with His precious blood has
delivered us from the bonds of sin and from the cruelty of the Devil
and from the pains of Hell.
The causes that ought to move a man to contrition are six. First,
a man should remember his sins, yet see to it that this same
remembrance be not to him in any wise a delight, but only great
shame and sorrow for his guilt. For Job says: that sinful men do
things that ought to be confessed. And therefore Hezekiah says: "I
will remember all the years of my life, in bitterness of heart." And
God says in the Apocalypse: "Remember from whence thou art fallen."
For before that time when first you sinned, you were the children of
God and members of the Kingdom of God; but because of your sin you are
become slavish and vile, and the children of the Fiend, hated of the
angels, the slander of Holy Church, and food of the false serpent. You
are perpetual fuel for the fire of Hell. And yet more vile and
abominable, for you offend often and often, like the dog that
returns to his vomit. And you are even yet more vile, for your long
continuation in sin and your sinful habits, for which you are as
filthy in your sin as a beast in its dung. Such thoughts cause a
may, to take shame to himself for his sinning, and not delight, as God
says by the Prophet Ezekiel: "Thou shalt remember thy ways and be
ashamed." Truly, sins are the ways that lead folk unto Hell.
The second reason why a man ought to have contempt for sin is
this: that, as Saint Peter says, "He that sinneth is the slave of
sin." And sin puts a man into deep thraldom. And thereupon the Prophet
Ezekiel says: "I went sorrowfully, in abhorrence of myself." And
truly, well ought a man to abhor sin and to release himself from
that thraldom and degradation. And see what Seneca says about this
matter. He says thus: "Though I knew that neither God nor man should
ever be cognizant of it, yet would I disdain to commit a sin." And the
same Seneca also says: "I am born to greater things than to be
thrall to my body, or than to make of my body a thrall." Nor a viler
thrall may man or woman make of his or her body than by giving that
body over to sin. And were it the lowest churl, or the lowest woman,
that lives, and the least worth, yet is he or she then more vile and
more in servitude. Ever from the higher degree than man falls, the
more is he enthralled, and by so much the more to God and to the world
is he vile and abominable. O good God! Well ought a man to have
disdain of sin; since, because of sin, whereas he was once free, now
is he in bondage. And thereupon Saint Augustine says: "If thou have
disdain for thy servant, if he offend or sin, have thou then disdain
that thou shouldest do any sin." Have regard of your worth, that you
be not foul unto yourself. Alas! Well ought they then to disdain to be
servants and thralls to sin, and to be sorely ashamed of themselves,
when God of His endless goodness has set them in high place, or
given them understanding, bodily strength, health, beauty, prosperity,
and redeemed them with His heart's blood, who now so unnaturally, in
face of His nobleness, requite Him so vilely as to slaughter their own
souls. O good God! You women, who are of so great beauty, remember the
proverb of Solomon, who says: "A fair woman who is the fool of her
body is like a gold ring in the snout of a sow." For just as a sow
roots deep into every ordure, so does she root her beauty into the
stinking filth of sin.
The third cause that ought to move a man to contrition is fear of
the day of doom and of the horrible pains of Hell. For as Saint Jerome
says: "Every time that I remember the day of doom I quake; for when
I eat or drink or do whatever thing, ever it seems to me that the
trump sounds in my ear, bidding the dead arise and come to
judgment." O good God! Greatly ought a man to fear such a judgment,
"Where we shall be all," as Saint Paul says, "before the throne of Our
Lord Jesus Christ." And there we shall compose a general congregation,
whence no man shall absent himself. For truly there shall avail
neither essoin nor excuse. And not only shall our faults be judged,
but all our deeds shall openly be made known. As Saint Bernard says:
"There shall no pleading avail, and no trickery; we shall give
reckoning for every idle word." There shall we have a judge that
cannot be corrupted or deceived. And why? Because, in truth, all our
thoughts are known unto Him; nor for prayer nor for bribing shall He
be corrupted. And therefore says Solomon: "The wrath of God will spare
no one, either for prayer or gifts." Therefore, at the day of doom,
there shall be no hope of escape. Wherefore, as says Saint Anselm:
"Great anguish shall all sinful folk have at that time; there shall
the stern and angry judge sit above, and under Him the horrible pit of
Hell, open to destroy him who must acknowledge his sins, which sins
shall be openly showed before God and before all creatures. And on the
left side more devils than any heart can think, to harry and to draw
the sinful souls to the punishment of Hell. And within the hearts of
folk shall be the tearing of conscience and without shall be the world
all burning. Whither then shall the wretched sinful man flee to hide
himself? Certainly he shall not hide; he must come forth and show
himself." For truly, as says Saint Jerome: "The earth shall cast him
forth and the sea also; aye, and the air, which shall be filled with
thunders and with lightnings." Now, indeed, whoso well thinks of these
things, I suppose that his sin shall not be a delight within him,
but a great sorrow, for fear of the pain of Hell. And therefore said
Job to God: "Let me take comfort a little, before I go whence I
shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of
death; a land of darkness as darkness itself: and of the shadow of
death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness." Lo,
here may it be seen that Job prayed for respite to weep and to
bewail his trespass; for indeed one day of respite is better than
all the treasure of the world. And for as much as man may acquit
himself before God by penitence in this world, and not by treasure,
therefore should he pray to God to grant him respite for a while to
weep and to bewail his sins. For truly, all the sorrow that a man
might feel from the beginning of the world is but a little thing in
comparison with the sorrows of Hell. As to the reason why Job called
Hell the "land of darkness," it is to be understood that he called
it "land" or "earth" because it is stable and never shall fail; "dark"
because he that is in Hell lacks the materials for light. For truly
the dark light that shall come out of the fire that burns for ever
shall turn him all to pain who is in Hell; for it shall show unto
him the horrible devils that torment him. "Covered with the darkness
of death:" that is to say, that he who is in Hell shall lack the sight
of God; for truly, to see God is life everlasting. "The darkness of
death" is the sin which the wretched man has done, which hinders his
seeing the face of God; just as does a cloud that comes between us and
the sun. "Land of ill ease:" because there are three kinds of pains
against three things that folk of the world have in this present life,
that is to say, honours, delights, and riches. Over against honours
they have in Hell shame and confusion. For well you know that men call
"honour" the reverence that man gives to man; but in Hell is no honour
or reverence. For indeed no more reverence shall be done there to a
king than to a knave. As to which God says, by the Prophet Jeremiah:
"They that scorn me shall be scorned." "Honour" is also called great
lordship; but there no man shall serve another, save to his harm and
torment. "Honour," again, subsists in great dignity and rank; but in
Hell all they shall be trodden upon by devils. And God says: "The
horrible devils shall go and come upon the heads of the damned." And
this is because the higher they were in this life, the lower shall
they lie and be defiled in Hell. Against the riches of this world
shall they have the misery of poverty; and this poverty shall be of
four kinds: lack of treasure, whereof David says: "They that trust
in their wealth, boast themselves in the multitude of their riches,
they shall sleep in the darkness of death, and nothing shall they find
in their hands of all their treasure." And, moreover, the misery of
Hell shall consist of lack of food and drink. For God says thus,
through Moses: "They shall be wasted with hunger, and the birds of
Hell shall devour them with bitter death, and the gall of the dragon
shall be their drink, and the venom of the dragon their morsels." And,
furthermore, their misery shall be for lack of clothing, for they
shall be naked of body save for the fire wherein they burn, and for
other filth; and naked shall they be of soul, devoid of all virtues,
which are the clothing of the soul. Where shall be then the gay
robes and the soft sheets and the soft shirts? Behold what God says by
the prophet Isaiah: "Under them shall be strewed moths and their
covering shall be of the worms of Hell." And still further, their
misery shall lie in lack of friends; for he is not poor who has good
friends; but there no friend; for neither God nor any other shall be
friend to them, and each of them shall hate all others with a deadly
hatred. "The sons and the daughters shall rebel against father and
mother, and kindred against kindred, and each of them shall curse
and despise the others," both day and night, as says God through the
Prophet Micah. And the loving people that once loved each other so
passionately, each of them would eat the other if he might. For how
should they love in the torments of Hell who hated each other in the
prosperity of this life? For trust it well, their carnal love was
deadly hate; as says the Prophet David: "Whoso loveth wickedness
hateth his own soul." And whoso hates his own soul, truly he may
love no other, in any wise. And therefore, in Hell is no solace nor
any friendship, but ever the more fleshly relationships there are in
Hell, the more cursings and the more deadly hates there are among
them. And, again, they shall lack every kind of pleasure; for truly,
pleasures are according to the appetites of the five senses, sight,
hearing, smell, taste, and touch. But in Hell their sight shall be
full of darkness and of smoke, and therefore full of tears; and
their hearing full of wailing and the gnashing of teeth, as says Jesus
Christ; their nostrils shall be full of a stinking smell. And, as
the Prophet Isaiah says, "their savouring shall be of bitter gall."
And as for touch, all the body shall be covered with "fire that
never shall be quenched and with worms that never shall die," as God
says by the mouth of Isaiah. And for as much as they shall not think
that they may die of pain, and by death thus flee from pain, then
may they understand the words of Job, who said, "There is the shadow
of death." Certainly a shadow has the likeness of that whereof it is
the shadow, but the shadow is not the substance. Just so it is with
the pain of Hell; it is like unto death because of the horrible
anguish. And why? Because it pains for ever, and as if they should die
at every moment; but indeed they shall not die. For as Saint Gregory
says: "To these wretched captives shall be given death without
death, and end without end, and want without ceasing." And thereupon
says Saint John the Evangelist: "They shall seek for death and they
shall not find it; and they shall desire to die and death shall flee
from them." And Job, also, says: "Death, without any order." And
though it be that God has created all things in right order, and
nothing at all without order, but all things are ordered and numbered;
yet, nevertheless, they that are damned have no order, nor hold to any
order. For the earth shall bear them no fruit. For, as the Prophet
David says: "God shall destroy the fruits of the earth from them."
No water shall give them moisture, nor the air refreshment, nor the
fire a light. For, as Saint Basil says: "The burning of the fire of
this world shall God send into Hell unto the damned souls there, but
the light and the radiance thereof shall be given in Heaven unto His
children"- just as the good man gives flesh to his children and
bones to his dogs. And since they shall have no hope of escape,
Saint Job says at the last that horror and grisly fear shall dwell
there without end. Horror is always the fear of evil that is to
come, and this fear shall dwell for ever in the hearts of the
damned. And therefore have they lost all their hope, and for seven
causes. First, because God their judge shall be without mercy to them;
they may not please Him, nor may they please any of His saints; they
can give nothing for their ransom; they shall have no voice
wherewith to speak to Him; they cannot flee from pain; and they have
no goodness within themselves which they might show to deliver them
out of pain. And therefore says Solomon: "The wicked man dieth; and
when he is dead he shall have no hope of escaping from pain."
Whosoever, then, will well understand these pains, and bethink him
well that he has deserved these very pains for his sins, certainly
he shall have more longing to sigh and weep than ever to sing and
play. For, as Solomon says: "Whoso shall have the wisdom to know the
pains that have been established and ordained for the punishment of
pain, he will feel sorrow." "This same knowledge," says Saint
Augustine, "maketh a man to bewail within his heart."
The fourth point that ought to cause a man to feel contrition is the
unhappy memory of the good that he has left here on earth; also the
good that he has lost. Truly, the good deeds that he has left are
either those that he wrought before he fell into mortal sin, or the
good deeds he did while he lived in sin. Indeed the good deeds he
did before he fell into sin have been all deadened and stultified
and rendered null and void by the repeated sinning. The other good
deeds, which he wrought while he lay in mortal sin, they are utterly
dead as to the effect they might have had on his life everlasting in
Heaven. And then the same good deeds that have been rendered null by
repeated sinning, which good works he wrought while he stood in a
state of grace, shall never quicken again without an utter
penitence. And thereof God says, by the mouth of Ezekiel: "If the
righteous man shall turn again from his righteousness, and do
wickedness, shall he live?" Nay, for all the good works that he has
wrought shall never be held in memory, for he shall die in his sin.
And thereupon, as to that same chapter, Saint Gregory says thus: "That
we shall understand this principally: that when we do mortal sin it is
for naught that we tell of or draw from memory the good works that
we have wrought before." For, certainly, in the doing of mortal sin
there is no trusting to the help of good that we have wrought
before; that is to say, as it affects the everlasting life in
Heaven. But notwithstanding this, the good deeds quicken again and
return again, and help and are of avail in attaining the everlasting
life in Heaven, when we have contrition. But indeed the good deeds
that men do while they are in deadly sin, because they are done in
deadly sin, shall never quicken again. For truly, that thing which
never had life may never quicken; nevertheless, albeit these deeds
avail nothing as to the perdurable life, yet they help to lighten
the pains of Hell, or else to acquire temporal riches, or else,
because of them, God will enlighten and illumine the heart of the
sinful man to be repentant; and also they avail in accustoming a man
to the doing of good deeds, to the end that the Fiend has less power
over his soul. And thus the compassionate Lord Jesus Christ wills that
no good work be utterly lost; for in somewhat it shall avail. But
for as much as the good deeds that men do while they are in a state of
grace are all stultified by sin ensuing; and, also, since all the good
works that men do while they are in mortal sin are utterly dead, in so
far as the life everlasting is concerned, well may that man who does
no good work sing that new French song, J'ai tout perdu mon temps et
mon labeur. For certainly, sin bereaves a man of both goodness of
nature and the goodness of grace. For indeed the grace of the Holy
Ghost is like fire, which cannot be idle; for fire fails anon as it
forgoes its working, and even so does grace fail immediately it
forsakes its work. Then loses the sinful man the goodness of glory,
which is promised only to good men who suffer and toil. Well then
may he sorrow, who owes all his life to God, as long as he has lived
and as long as he shall live, and who yet has no goodness wherewith to
repay his debt to God. For trust well, "he shall give account," as
Saint Bernard says, "of all the good things that have been given him
in this present life, and of how he has used them; in so much that
there shall not perish a hair of his head, nor shall a moment of an
hour perish of all his time, that he shall not be called upon to
give a reckoning for."
The fifth thing that ought to move a man to contrition is
remembrance of the passion that Our Lord Jesus Christ suffered for our
sins. For, as Saint Bernard says: "While I live I will keep in
remembrance the travail that Our Lord Christ suffered in preaching;
His weariness in travail; His temptations when He fasted; His long
watchings when He prayed; His tears when He wept for pity of good
people; the grievous and the shameful and the filthy things that men
said of Him; the foul sputum that men spat into His face; the foul
buffets that men gave Him; the foul grimaces and the chidings that men
said; the nails wherewith He was nailed to the cross; and all the rest
of His passion, which he suffered for my sins and not for his own
guilt." And you shall understand that in man's sin is every order or
ordinance turned upside-down. For it is true that God and reason and
sensuality and the body of man have been so ordained and established
that, of these four things, the next higher shall have lordship over
the lower; as thus: God shall have lordship over reason, and reason
over sensuality, and sensuality over the body of man. But, indeed,
when man sins, all of this order or ordinance is turned upside-down.
Therefore, then, for as much as the reason of man will not be
subject to nor obedient to God, Who is man's Lord by right,
therefore it loses the lordship that it should hold over sensuality
and also over the body of man. And why? Because sensuality rebels then
against reason; and in that way reason loses the lordship over
sensuality and over the body. For just as reason is rebel to God, just
so is sensuality rebel to reason, and the body also. And truly, this
confusion and this rebellion Our Lord Jesus Christ suffered upon His
precious body, and paid full dearly thus, and hear you now in what
wise. For as much, then, as reason is rebel to God, therefore is man
worthy to have sorrow and to die. This Our Lord Jesus Christ
suffered for mankind after He had been betrayed by His disciple, and
secured and bound "so that the blood burst out at every nail of His
hands," as says Saint Augustine. Moreover, for as much as reason of
man will not subdue sensuality when it may, therefore man is worthy of
shame; and this suffered Our Lord Jesus Christ for man when they
spat in His face. Furthermore, for as much, then, as the wretched body
of man is rebel both to reason and to sensuality" therefore is it
worthy of death. And this Our Lord Jesus Christ suffered for man
upon the cross, where there was no part of His body free from great
pain and bitter passion. And all this Jesus Christ suffered, Who never
did any wrong. And therefore it may be reasonably said of Jesus
thus: "Too much am I tortured for things the punishment of which I
do not deserve, and too much disgraced for shame that belongs to man."
And therefore may the sinful man well say, as says Saint Bernard:
"Accursed be the bitterness of my sin, for which there must be
suffered so much bitterness." For truly, according to the diverse
discordances of our wickedness, was the passion of Jesus Christ
ordained in divers ways, as thus. Certainly sinful man's soul is
betrayed unto the Devil by covetousness of temporal prosperity, and
scorned by deceit when he chooses carnal delights; and it is tormented
by impatience under adversity, and spat upon by servitude and
subjection to sin; and at the last it is slain for ever. For this
confusion by sinful man was Jesus Christ first betrayed and afterwards
bound, Who came to loose us from sin and pain. Then was He scorned,
Who should have been only honoured in all things. Then was His face,
which all mankind ought to have desired to look upon, since into
that face angels desire to look, villainously spat upon. Then was He
scourged, Who had done nothing wrong; and finally, then was He
crucified and slain. So was accomplished the word of Isaiah: "He was
wounded for our misdeeds and defiled for our felonies." Now, since
Jesus Christ took upon Himself the punishment for all our
wickedness, much ought sinful man to weep and to bewail that for his
sins the Son of God in Heaven should endure all this pain.
The sixth thing that ought to move a man to contrition is the hope
of three things; that is to say, forgiveness of sin, and the gift of
grace to do well, and the glory of Heaven, wherewith God shall
reward a man for his good deeds. And for as much as Jesus Christ gives
us these gifts of His largess and of His sovereign bounty, therefore
is He called Iesus Nazarenus rex Iudeorum. Jesus means "saviour" or
"salvation," in whom men shall hope to have forgiveness of sins, which
is, properly, salvation from sins. And therefore said the angel to
Joseph: "Thou shalt call His name Jesus, Who shall save His people
from their sins." And thereof says Saint Peter: "There is no other
name under Heaven given to any man, whereby a man may be saved, save
only Jesus." Nazarenus is as much as to say "flourishing," wherein a
man may hope that He Who gives him remission of sins shall give him
also the grace to do well. For in the flower is hope of fruit in
time to come; and in forgiveness of sins is hope of grace to do
well. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock," says Jesus: "if any man
hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will
sup with him, and he with Me." That is to say, by the good works
that he shall do, which good works are the food of God; "and he
shall sup with Me"- by the great joy that I shall give him. Thus may
man hope, for his deeds of penitence, that God shall allow him to
enter His Kingdom, as is promised unto him in the gospel.
Now shall a man understand in what manner shall be his contrition. I
say, that it shall be universal and total; that is to say, a man shall
be truly repentant for all the sins that he has done in delight of his
thought; for delight is very dangerous. For there are two ways of
acquiescence; one is called acquiescence of the affections, when a man
is moved to do sin, and delights in long thinking thereon; and his
reason well perceives that it is sin against the law of God, and yet
his reason restrains not his foul delight or appetite, though he see
well that it is opposed to the reverence that is due to God;
although his reason consent not to do that sin in very deed, yet
some doctors say that dwelling long on such delight is full dangerous,
be it ever so little. And also a man should sorrow for all that he has
ever desired against the law of God with perfect acquiescence of his
reason; for there is no doubt of it, there is mortal sin in
acquiescence. For truly, there is no mortal sin that was not first
in man's thought, and after that in his delight, and so on unto
acquiescence and unto deed. Wherefore I say, that many men never
repent for such thoughts and delights, and never confess them, but
only the actual performance of great sins. Wherefore I say that such
wicked delights and wicked thoughts are subtle beguilers of those that
shall be damned. Moreover, a man ought to sorrow for his wicked
words as well as for his wicked deeds; for truly, the repentance for a
single sin, unaccompanied by repentance for all other sins, or else
repentance for all other sins and not for a single sin, shall not
avail. For certainly God Almighty is all good; and therefore He
forgives all or nothing. And thereupon says Saint Augustine: "I know
certainly that God is the enemy of every sinner." And how then? He
that continues to do one sin, shall he have forgiveness for the rest
of his sins? No. Furthermore, contrition should be wondrous
sorrowful and full of suffering; and for that God gives fully His
mercy; and therefore, when my soul was suffering within me, I had
remembrance of God, that my prayer might come unto Him. Moreover,
contrition must be continual, and a man must keep and hold a steadfast
purpose to shrive himself and to amend his way of life. For truly,
while contrition lasts, man may continue to have hope of
forgiveness; and of this comes hatred of sin, which destroys sin
within himself and also in other folk, according to his ability. For
which David says: "Ye that love God hate wickedness." For trust this
well, to love God is to love what He loves and to hate what He hates.
The last thing that man shall understand about contrition is this:
What does contrition avail him? I say, that at times contrition
delivers a man from sin; as to which David says: "I said I will
confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and Thou forgavest the
iniquity of my sin." And just as contrition nothing avails without
firm purpose of shrift, if man have opportunity, just so shrift itself
is of little worth without contrition. Moreover, contrition destroys
the prison of Hell and makes weak and feeble all the strength of all
the devils, and restores the gifts of the Holy Ghost and of all good
virtues; and it cleanses the soul of sin, and delivers the soul from
the pain of Hell and from the company of the Devil, and from the
servitude of sin, and restores it unto all spiritual good and to the
company and communion of Holy Church. And furthermore, it makes of him
who was formerly the son of anger to be the son of grace; and all
these things are proved by holy writ. And therefore he that would
set his understanding to these things, he were full wise; for truly,
he should not then, in all his life, have desire to sin, but should
give his body and all his heart to the service of Jesus Christ, and do
Him homage. For truly, Our sweet Lord Jesus Christ has spared us so
graciously in our follies that, if He had not pity on man's soul, a
sorry song indeed might all of us sing.
-
Explicit prima pars penitentie;
Et sequitur secunda pars eiusdem
-
The second part of penitence is confession, which is the sign of
contrition. Now shall you understand what confession is, and whether
it ought to be used or not, and which things are necessary to true
confession.
First, you shall understand that confession is the true discovery of
sins to the priest; I say "true," for a man must confess all the
circumstances and conditions of his sin, in so far as he can. All must
be told, and nothing excused or hidden, or covered up, and he must not
vaunt his good deeds. And furthermore, it is necessary to understand
whence his sins come, and how they increase, and what they are.
Of the birth of sins, Saint Paul says thus: that "as by one man
sin entered into the world, and death by sin;... so death passed
upon all men, for that all have sinned." And this man was Adam, by
whom sin entered into the world when he broke the commandment of
God. And therefore, he that at first was so mighty that he should
never have died became such a one as must needs die, whether he
would or no; and all his progeny in this world, since they, in that
man, sinned. Behold, in the state of innocence, when Adam and Eve were
naked in Paradise, and had no shame for their nakedness, how that
the serpent, which was the wiliest of all the beasts that God had
made, said to the woman: "Yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of
every tree of the garden?" And the woman said unto the serpent: "We
may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of
the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, 'Ye shall
not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.'" And the
serpent said unto the woman: "Ye shall not surely die: for God doth
know, that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be
opened; and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." And when
the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was
pleasant to the eyes, and delectable in the sight, she took of the
fruit thereof and did eat; and gave also unto her husband, and he
did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened. And when they knew
that they were naked, they sewed fig-leaves together into a kind of
breeches to hide their members. There may you see that mortal sin
had first suggestion from the Fiend, who is here figured by the
serpent; and afterward the delight of the flesh, as shown here by Eve;
and after that the acquiescence of reason, as is shown by Adam. For
trust this well, though it were that the Fiend tempted Eve, that is to
say, the flesh, and the flesh delighted in the beauty of the forbidden
fruit, certainly until reason, that is, Adam, consented to the
eating of the fruit, yet stood he in the state of innocence. From that
same Adam caught we all that original sin; for we are all descended
from him in the flesh, engendered of vile and corrupt matter. And when
the soul is put into a body, immediately is contracted original sin;
and that which was at first merely the penalty of concupiscence
becomes afterwards both penalty and sin. And therefore are we all born
the sons of wrath and of everlasting damnation, were it not for the
baptism we receive, which washes away the culpability; but,
forsooth, the penalty remains within us, as temptation, and that
penalty is called concupiscence. When it is wrongly disposed or
established in man, it makes him desire, by the lust of the flesh,
fleshly sin; desire, by the sight of his eyes, earthly things; and
desire high place, what of the pride of his heart.
Now, to speak of the first desire, that is, concupiscence, according
to the law for our sexual parts, which were lawfully made and by
rightful word of God; I say, for as much as man is not obedient to
God, Who is his Lord, therefore is the flesh disobedient to Him,
through concupiscence, which is also called the nourishing of and
the reason for sin. Therefore all the while that a man has within
himself the penalty of concupiscence, it is impossible but that he
will be sometimes tempted and moved in his flesh to do sin. And this
shall not fail so long as he lives; it may well grow feeble and remote
by virtue of baptism and by the grace of God through penitence; but it
shall never be fully quenched so that he shall never be moved within
himself, unless he be cooled by sickness or my maleficence of
sorcery or by opiates. For behold what Saint Paul says: "The flesh
lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh: and
these are contrary, the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the
things, that ye would." The same Saint Paul, after his great penance
on water and on land (on water by night and by day, in great peril and
in great pain; on land in famine, in thirst, in cold, and naked, and
once stoned almost unto death), yet said he: "O wretched man that I
am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" And Saint
Jerome, when he had long lived in the desert, where he had no
company but that of wild beasts, where he had no food but herbs,
with only water to drink, and no bed but the naked earth, for which
his flesh was black as an Ethiopian's with heat and well-nigh
destroyed with cold, yet said he that the heat of lechery boiled
through all his body. Wherefore I know well and surely that they are
deceived who say that they are never tempted in the flesh. Witness
Saint James the apostle, who says that everyone is tempted in his
own concupiscence. That is to say, each of us has cause and occasion
to be tempted by the sin that is nourished in the body. And
thereupon says Saint John the Evangelist: "If we say that we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."
Now shall you understand in what manner sin waxes or increases in
man. The first thing to be considered is this same nurturing of sin,
whereof I spoke before, this same fleshly concupiscence. And after
that comes the subjection to the Devil, that is to say, the Devil's
bellows, wherewith he blows into man the fire of concupiscence. And
after that a man bethinks himself whether he will do, or not, the
thing to which he is tempted. And then, if a man withstand and put
aside the first enticement of his flesh and the Fiend, then it is no
sin; and if it be that he do not, he feels anon a flame of delight.
And then it is well to be wary, and to guard himself, else he will
fall anon into acquiescence to sin; and then he will do it, if he have
time and place. And of this matter Moses says that the Devil says
thus: "I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my
lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall
destroy them." For certainly, just as a sword may part a thing in
two pieces, just so acquiescence separates God from man. "And then
will I slay him in his sinful deed." Thus says the Fiend. For truly,
then is a man dead in soul. And thus is sin accomplished by temptation
and by acquiescence; and then is the sin called actual.
Forsooth, sin is of two kinds; it is either venial or mortal sin.
Verily, when man loves any creature more than he loves Jesus Christ
our Creator, then is it mortal sin. And venial sin it is if a man love
Jesus Christ less than he ought. Forsooth the effect of this venial
sin is very dangerous; for it diminishes more and more the love that
man should have for God. And therefore, if a man charge himself with
many such venial sins, then certainly, unless he discharge them
occasionally by shriving, they may easily lessen in him all the love
that he has for Jesus Christ; and in this wise venial sin passes
over into mortal sin. Therefore let us not be negligent in ridding
ourselves of venial sins. For the proverb has it: "Mony a mickle mak's
a muckle." And hear this example. A huge wave of the sea comes
sometimes with so great violence that it sinks a ship. And the same
harm is caused sometimes by the small drops of water that enter
through the little opening in the seam into the bilge of the ship,
if men be so negligent that they do not discharge it in time. And
therefore, though there be a difference between these two ways of
sinking, nevertheless the ship is sunk. Just so it is sometimes with
mortal sin, and with vexatious venial sins when they multiply in a man
so greatly that the worldly things he loves, for which he venially
sins, have grown as great in his heart as the love for God, or
greater. And therefore, the love for everything that is not fixed or
rooted in God, or done principally for than he love God's sake, though
a man love it less. God, yet is it venial sin; and it is mortal sin
when the love for anything weighs in the heart of man as much as the
love for God, or more. "Mortal sin," as Saint Augustine says, "is when
a man turns his heart from God, Who, is the truly sovereign goodness
and may not change, and gives his heart unto things that may change
and pass away." And true it is that if a man give his love, the
which he owes all to God, with all his heart, unto a creature, then
certainly so much of his love as he gives unto the said creature he
takes away from God; and thereby does he sin. For he, who is debtor to
God, yields not unto God all of his debt, which is to say, all the
love of his heart.
Now since man understands generally what venial sin is, it is
fitting to tell especially of sins which many a man perhaps holds
not to be sins at all, and for which he shrives not himself; yet,
nevertheless, they are sins. Truly, as clerics write, every time a man
eats or drinks more than suffices for the sustenance of his body, it
is certain that he thereby sins. And, too, when he speaks more than it
is necessary it is sin. Also, when he hears not benignly the complaint
of the poor. Also, when he is in health of body and will not fast when
other folk fast, and that without a reasonable excuse. Also, when he
sleeps more than he needs, or when he comes, for that reason, too late
to church, or to other places where works of charity are done. Also,
when he enjoys his wife without a sovereign desire to procreate
children to the honour of God, or when he does it without intention to
yield to his wife the duty of his body. Also, when he will not visit
the sick and the imprisoned, if he may do so. Also, if he love wife or
child or any other worldly thing more than reason requires. Also, if
he flatter or blandish more than, of necessity, he ought. Also, if
he diminish or withdraw his alms to the poor. Also, if he prepare
his food more delicately than is needful, or eat it too hastily or too
greedily. Also, if he talk about vain and trifling matters in a church
or at God's service, or if he be a user of idle words of folly or of
obscenity; for he shall yield up an accounting of it at the day of
doom. Also, when he promises or assures one that he will do what he
cannot perform. Also, when he, through thoughtlessness or folly,
slanders or scorns his neighbour. Also, when he suspects a thing to be
evil when he has no certain knowledge of it. These things, and more
without number, are sins, as Saint Augustine says.
Now shall men understand that while no earthly man may avoid all
venial sins, yet may he keep them down by the burning love that he has
to Our Lord Jesus Christ, and by prayer and confession, and by other
good deeds. For, as Saint Augustine says: "If a man love God in such
manner that all that he ever does is done in the love of God, and
truly for the love of God, because he burns with the love of God:
behold, then, how much a drop of water falling in a furnace harms or
proves troublesome; and just so much vexes the venial sin a man who is
perfect in the love of Christ." Men may also keep down venial sins
by receiving deservingly the precious body of Jesus Christ; also by
receiving holy water; by almsgiving; by general confession of
confiteor at mass and at compline; and by the blessings of bishops and
of priests, and by other good works.
-
-
Explicit secunda pars penitentie
Sequitur de septem peccatis mortalibus
et eorum dependenciis
Circumstanciis et speciebus
-
Now it is a needful thing to tell which are the mortal sins, that is
to say, the principal sins; they are all leashed together, but are
different in their ways. Now they are called principal sins because
they are the chief sins and the trunk from which branch all others.
And the root of these seven sins is pride, which is the general root
of all evils; for from this root spring certain branches, as anger,
envy, acedia or sloth, avarice (or covetousness, for vulgar
understanding), gluttony, and lechery. And each of these principal
sins has its branches and its twigs, as shall be set forth and
declared in the paragraphs following.
-
DE SUPERBIA
-
And though it be true that no man can absolutely tell the number
of the twigs and of the evil branches that spring from pride, yet will
I show forth a number of them, as you shall understand. There are
disobedience, boasting, hypocrisy, scorn, arrogance, impudence,
swelling of the heart, insolence, elation, impatience, strife,
contumacy, presumption, irreverence, obstinacy, vainglory; and many
another twig that I cannot declare. Disobedient is he that disobeys
for spite the commandments of God, of his rulers, and of his spiritual
father. Braggart is he that boasts of the evil or the good that he has
done. Hypocrite is he that hides his true self and shows himself
such as he is not. Scorner is he who has disdain for his neighbour,
that is to say, for his fellow Christian, or who scorns to do that
which he ought to do. Arrogant is he who thinks he has within
himself those virtues which he has not, or who holds that he should so
have them as his desert; or else he deems that he is that which he
is not. Impudent is he who, for his pride's sake, has no shame for his
sins. Swelling of heart is what a man has when he rejoices in evil
that he has done. Insolent is he that despises in his judgments all
other folk in comparing theirs with his worth, and with his
understanding, and with his conversation, and with his bearing. Elated
is he who will suffer neither a master nor a peer. Impatient is he who
will not be taught nor reproved for his vice, and who, by strife,
knowingly wars on truth and defends his folly. Contumax is he who,
because of his indignation, is against all authority or power or those
that are his rulers. Presumption is when a man undertakes an
enterprise that he ought not to attempt, or one which he cannot
accomplish; and that is called over-confidence. Irreverence is when
men do not show honour where they ought, and themselves wait to be
reverenced. Obstinacy is when man defends his folly and trusts too
much in his own judgment. Vainglory is delight in pomp and temporal
rank, and glorification in this worldly estate. Chattering is when men
speak too much before folk, clattering like a mill and taking no
care of what they say.
And then there is a private species of pride that waits to be
saluted before it will salute, albeit the one who has it is of less
worth than is the other, perchance; also, when he attends services
in church he desires to sit, or else to go, before his neighbour in
the aisle, or to kiss the pax before him, or to be censed before
him, or to make offering before his neighbour, and similar things; all
against his necessity, peradventure, save that in his heart and his
will is such proud desire to be magnified and honoured before the
people.
Now there are two kinds of pride; one of them lies within the
heart of man, and the other lies without. Whereof, truly, these
aforesaid things, and more than I have named, appertain to that
pride which is within the heart of man; for that other species of
pride lies without. But notwithstanding, one of these species of pride
is a sign of the existence of the other, just as the fresh bush at the
tavern door is a sign of the wine that is in the cellar. And this
second kind of pride shows itself in many ways: as in speech and
bearing, and in extravagant array of clothing; for truly, if there had
been no sin in clothing, Christ would not have noted and spoken of the
clothing of that rich man in the gospel. And, as Saint Gregory says,
that same precious clothing is culpable for the glory and beauty of
it, and for its softness. and for its strange new modes, and its
fantastic ornamentation, and for its superfluity, and for the
inordinate scantiness of it. Alas! May not men see, in our days, the
sinfully costly array of clothing, especially in the matter of
superfluity, or else in inordinate scantiness?
As to the first sin, it lies in the superfluity of clothing, which
makes cloth so dear, to the harm of the people; not only the cost of
embroidering, the elaborate notching or barring, the waved lines,
the stripes, the twists, the diagonal bars, and similar waste of cloth
in vanity; but there is also the costly furring of gowns, so much
perforating with scissors to make holes, so much slashing with shears;
and then the superfluity in length of the aforesaid gowns, trailing in
the dung and in the mire, a-horseback and afoot, as well of man's
clothing as of woman's, until all this trailing verily, in its effect,
wastes, consumes, makes threadbare and rotten with dung the
superfluity that rather should be given unto the poor; to the great
harm of the aforesaid poor. And that in sundry wise: this is to say,
the more that cloth is wasted, the more it costs the people because of
its scarcity; and furthermore, if they would give such perforated
and slashed clothing to the poor folk, it would not be suitable for
their wearing, what of their state, nor sufficient to help their
necessity to keep themselves from the fury of the elements. On the
other hand, to speak of the horrible inordinate scantiness of
clothing, let us notice these short-cut smocks or jackets, which,
because of their shortness, cover not the shameful members of man,
to the wicked calling of them to attention. Alas! Some of them show
the very boss of their penis and the horrible pushed-out testicles
that look like the malady of hernia in the wrapping of their hose; and
the buttocks of such persons look like the hinder parts of a she-ape
in the full of the moon. And moreover, the hateful proud members
that they show by the fantastic fashion of making one leg of their
hose white and the other red, make it seem that half their shameful
privy members are flayed. And if it be that they divide their hose
in other colours, as white and black, or white and blue, or black
and red, and so forth, then it seems, by variation of colour, that the
half of their privy members are corrupted by the fire of Saint
Anthony, or by cancer, or by other such misfortune. As to the hinder
parts of their buttocks, the thing is horrible to see. For, indeed, in
that part of their body where they purge their stinking ordure, that
foul part they proudly show to the people in despite of decency, which
decency Jesus Christ and His friends observed in their lives. Now,
as to the extravagant array of women, God knows that though the
faces of them seem chaste and gentle, yet do they advertise, by
their attire, their lickerousness and pride. I say not that a moderate
gaiety in clothing is unseemly, but certainly the superfluity or
inordinate scantiness of clothing is reprehensible. Also, the sin of
adornment or apparel lies in things that appertain to riding, as in
too many fine horses that are kept for delight, that are so fair, fat,
and costly; in many a vicious knave who is kept because of them; in
too curious harness, as saddles, cruppers, poitrels, and bridles
covered with precious caparison and rich, and with bars and plates
of gold and silver. As to which God says by Zechariah the prophet:
"I will confound the riders of such horses." These folk have but
little regard for the riding of God of Heaven's Son and of His
trappings, when He rode upon the ass and had no other caparison than
the poor cloaks of His disciples; nor do we read that ever He rode
upon any other beast. I say this against the sin of superfluity, and
not against reasonable display when the occasion requires it. And
further, certainly pride is greatly shown in keeping up a great
household, when such servants are of little profit, or of no profit.
And this is especially so when such an array of servants is
mischievous and injurious to the people, by the insolence of high rank
or by way of office. For truly, such lords sell then their lordships
to the Devil of Hell when they sustain the wickedness of their
following. And when folk of low degree, as those that keep and run
hostelries, sustain the thievery of their servants, which is done in
many ways. This kind of folk are the flies that seek honey or the dogs
that seek carrion. Such folk strangle spiritually their lordships;
as to which thus says David the prophet: "Wicked death shall come upon
such masters, and God will give that they descend into Hell; for in
their houses are iniquities and evil deeds." And God of Heaven is
not there. And truly, unless they mend their ways, just as God gave
His blessing to Laban for the service of Jacob and to Pharaoh for
the service of Joseph, just so will God give His curse to such
lordships as sustain the wickedness of their servants, unless they
shall make amendment. Pride of the table is often seen; for truly,
rich men are bidden to feasts and poor folk are turned away and
rebuked. The sin of pride lies also in excess of divers meats and
drinks; and especially in certain baked meats and made-dishes, burning
with spirituous liquors and decorated and castellated with paper,
and in similar waste; so that it is scandalous to think upon. And also
in too great preciousness of vessels and in curious instruments of
minstrelsy, whereby a man is stirred the more to the delights of
luxury; if it be that he thereby sets his heart the less upon Jesus
Christ, certainly it is a sin; and certainly the delights might be
so great in this case that a man could easily fall thereby into mortal
sin. The varieties of sin that arise out of pride, truly, when they
arise with malice imagined, advised, and aforethought, or from
habit, are mortal sins, and of that there is no doubt. And when they
arise out of frailty, unadvisedly and suddenly, and are quickly
withdrawn again, albeit they are grievous sins, I think that they
are not mortal. Now might men ask, whence pride arises and takes its
being, and I say: sometimes it springs out of the good things of
nature, and sometimes from the benefits of Fortune, and sometimes from
the good of grace itself. Certainly the good things of nature
consist of either physical wellbeing or riches of the soul.
Certainly physical wellbeing consists of the weal of the body, as
strength, activity, beauty, good blood, and generous candour. The
benefits of nature to the soul are good wit, keen understanding,
clever talent, natural virtue, and good memory. The benefits of
Fortune are riches, high rank. and the people's praise. The good of
grace consists of knowledge, power to suffer spiritual travail,
benignity, virtuous contemplation, ability to withstand temptation,
and similar things. Of which aforesaid things, certainly it is great
folly in a man when he permits himself to be proud of any of them.
As for the benefits of nature, God knows that sometimes we receive
them naturally as much to our detriment as to our profit. As, to
take bodily health, certainly it passes away lightly enough, and
moreover it is often the reason for the wickedness of the soul; for
God knows that the flesh is a great enemy to the soul; and
therefore, the more sound the body is, the more are we in danger of
falling into sin. Also, to feel pride in the strength of one's body is
a great folly; for certainly the flesh lusts for that which is
detrimental to the spirit, and ever the stronger the flesh is, the
sorrier must the soul be: and above all this, strength of body and
worldly boldness bring a man often into danger of mischance. Also,
to be proud of his gentility is a great folly; for often the gentility
of the body debases the gentility of the soul; and furthermore, we are
all of "One father and one mother; and we are of one nature, rotten
and corrupt, both the rich and the poor. Forsooth, but one kind of
gentility is praiseworthy, and that it is which clothes a man's
heart with virtue and morality and makes of him Christ's child. For
trust this well, that over whatsoever man sin has gained the
mastery, that man is a very serf to sin.
Now there are general signs of gentility; as the eschewing of vice
and ribaldry and servitude to sin, in word, in deed, and in conduct;
and as the practising of virtue, courtesy, and purity, and being
generous, which is to say, bounteous within measure; for that which
goes beyond a reasonable measure is folly and sin. Another such sign
is, when a man remembers and bears in mind the good that he has
received from others. Another is, to be benign to his good
inferiors; wherefore, as Seneca says: "There is nothing more
becoming a man of high estate than kindliness, courtesy, and pity. And
therefore the flies that men call bees, when they make their king,
they choose one that has no prick wherewith he may sting." Another is,
for a man to have a good heart and a diligent, to attain to high
virtuous things. Now truly, for a man to pride himself on the gifts of
grace is also an extravagant folly; for these same gifts of grace that
should have turned him to goodness and to alleviation, turn him to
venom and confusion, as says Saint Gregory. Certainly, also, whoso
prides himself on the benefits of Fortune, he is a full great fool;
for sometimes a man is a great lord at morning who is a captive and
a wretch ere it be night; and sometimes the wealth of a man is the
cause of his death; sometimes the pleasures of a man cause the
grievous malady whereof he dies. Certainly the people's commendation
is sometimes false enough and brittle enough to trust; today they
praise, tomorrow they blame. God knows, desire to have commendation of
the people has caused death to many a busy man.
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REMEDIUM CONTRA PECCATUM SUPERBIE
-
Now, since it has come to pass that you have understood what pride
is, and what the species of it are, and whence pride arises and
springs, now you shall understand what is the remedy for the sin of
pride, and that is, humility or meekness. That is a virtue whereby a
man may come to have a true knowledge of himself, and whereby he
will hold himself to be of no price or value in regard to his deserts,
but will be considering ever his frailty. Now there are three kinds of
humility: as humility of heart, and another humility is of the
mouth, and the third is in a man's works. The humility of heart is
of four kinds: one is, when a man holds himself to be of nothing worth
before God in Heaven. Another is, when he despises no other man. The
third is, when he recks not though men hold him as nothing worth.
The fourth is when he is not sorry for his humiliation. Also, the
humility of the mouth is of four kinds: temperate speech, meek speech,
and when a man acknowledges with his own mouth that he is as he thinks
himself to be, in his heart. Another is, when he praises the
goodness of another man and nothing thereof belittles. Humility in
deeds is in four manners: the first is, when a man puts other men
before him. The second is, to choose the lowest place of all for
himself. The third is, gladly to assent to good counsel. The fourth
is, to abide gladly by the decision of his rulers, or of him that is
of higher rank; certainly this is a great work of humility.
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SEQUITUR DE INUIDIA
-
After pride I will speak of the foul sin of envy, which is,
according to the word of the philosopher, sorrow for other men's
prosperity; and according to the word of Saint Augustine, it is sorrow
for other men's weal and joy for other men's harm. This foul sin is
flatly against the Holy Ghost. Be it that every sin is in opposition
to the Holy Ghost, yet, nevertheless, for as much as goodness
appertains properly to the Holy Ghost and envy springs by nature out
of malice, therefore is it especially against the goodness of the Holy
Ghost. Now malice has two species, that is to say, a heart hardened in
wickedness, or else the flesh of man is so blind that he does not
consider himself to be in sin, or he cares not that he is in sin,
which is the hardihood of the Devil. The other kind of malice is, when
a man wars against the truth, knowing that it is truth. Also, when
he wars against the grace that God has given to his neighbour; and all
this is envy. Certainly, then, envy is the worst sin there is. For
truly, all other sins are sometime against only one special virtue;
but truly, envy is against all virtues and against all goodnesses; for
it is sorry for all the virtues of its neighbour; and in this way it
differs from all other sins. For hardly is there any sin that has
not some delight in itself, save only envy, which ever has of itself
but anguish and sorrow. The kinds of envy are these: there is,
first, sorrow for other men's goodness and prosperity; and
prosperity being naturally a thing for joy, then envy is a sin against
nature. The second kind of envy is joy in other men's harm; and this
is naturally like the Devil, who always rejoices in man's harm. From
these two species comes backbiting; and this sin of backbiting, or
detraction, has certain forms, as thus. A man praises his neighbour
with a wicked intention, for he puts always a wicked twist into it
at the end. Always he puts a "but" in at the end, which implies more
blame than all the praise is worth. The second form is, when a man
is good and does or says a thing to good intent, the backbiter turns
all this goodness upside-down to his own evil end. The third is, to
belittle the goodness of a neighbour. The fourth form of backbiting is
this: that if a man say good of a man, then the backbiter says,
"Faith, such or such a man is better than he," in disparagement of him
that men praise. The fifth form is this, to assent gladly and listen
gladly to the evil that folk speak of others. This sin is a great one;
and it grows according to the wicked endeavours of the backbiter.
After backbiting comes grumbling or murmuring; and sometimes it
springs from impatience with God, and sometimes with man. Impatience
with God it is when the man grumbles against the pains of Hell, or
against poverty, or loss of chattels, or against rain or tempest; or
else complains that scoundrels prospers or else that good men have
adversity. And all these things should men suffer patiently, for
they come by the right judgment and ordinance of God. Sometimes
grumbling comes of avarice; as Judas complained of the Magdalen when
she anointed the head of Our Lord Jesus Christ with her precious
ointment. This murmuring is such as when a man grumbles at good that
he himself has done, or that other folk do with their wealth.
Sometimes murmuring comes of pride; as when Simon the Pharisee
murmured against the Magdalen when she approached Jesus Christ and
wept at His feet for her sins. And sometimes grumbling arises out of
envy; as when men discover a man's secret weakness, or swear of him
a thing that is false. Murmuring, too, is often found among
servants, who grumble when their masters bid them to do lawful things;
and for as much as they dare not openly gainsay the commands of
their masters, yet do they speak evilly of them and grumble and murmur
privately, for very spite; which words men call the Devil's
Paternoster, though the Devil never had a Paternoster, save that
vulgar folk give these murmurings that name. Sometimes grumbling comes
of anger or privy hate, that nurtures rancour in its heart, as I shall
hereafter set forth. Then comes bitterness of heart, through which
bitterness every good deed of one's neighbour seems to one to be but
bitter and unsavoury. Then comes discord, which undoes all friendship.
Then comes spite, as when a man seeks occasion to annoy his neighbour,
though he do never so well. Then comes accusation, as when a man seeks
occasion to offend his neighbour, which is like the guile of the
Devil, who watches both night and day to accuse us all. Then comes
malignity, through which a man annoys his neighbour privately, if he
may; and if he may not, then nevertheless his wicked will shall not
want for means to harm him, as by burning his house, or poisoning or
slaying his beasts, and suchlike things.
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REMEDIUM CONTRA PECCATUM INUIDIE
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Now will I speak of the remedy for this foul sin of envy. First,
is the love of God, and the love of one's neighbour as one's self; for
indeed the one cannot be without the other. And trust well, that by
the name of your neighbour you are to understand your brother; for
certainly all of us have one fleshly father and one mother, that is to
say, Adam and Eve; and even one spiritual father, and that is God in
Heaven. Your neighbour you are bound to love and to wish all good
things; and thereunto God says, "Love thy neighbour as thyself."
That is to say, to the salvation both of life and soul. Moreover,
you shall love him in word, and in benign admonition and in
chastening; and comfort him in his vexations, and pray for him with
all your heart. And you shall love him in deed and in such wise that
you shall charitably do unto him as you would that it were done unto
yourself. And therefore you shall do him no damage by wicked words,
nor any harm in his body, nor in his goods, nor in his soul by the
enticement of wicked example. You shall not covet his wife, nor any
of, his things. Understand also that in the word neighbour is included
his enemy. Certainly man shall love his enemy, by the commandment of
God; and truly, your friend shall you love in God. I say, you shall
love your enemy for God's sake, and by His commandment. For if it were
reasonable that a man should hate his enemies, then God would not
receive us into His love, when we are His enemies. For three kinds
of wrong that his enemy may do to a man, he shall do three things in
return, thus: for hate and rancour, he shall love him in heart. For
chiding and wicked words, he shall pray for his enemy. And for the
wicked deed of his enemy, he shall do him kindness. For Christ says:
"Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them and
pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you." Lo,
thus Our Lord Jesus Christ commands that we do to our enemies. For
indeed, nature drives us to love our enemies, and, faith, our
enemies have more need for love than our friends; and they that have
more need, truly to them men ought to do good; and truly, in the
deed thereof have we remembrance of the love of Jesus Christ Who
died for His enemies. And in so much as that same love is the harder
to feel and to show, in that much is the merit the greater; and
therefore the loving of our enemy has confounded the venom of the
Devil. For just as the Devil is discomfited by humility, so is he
wounded to the death by love for our enemy. Certainly, then, love is
the medicine that purges the heart of man of the poison of envy. The
kinds of this degree of sin will be set forth more at large in the
paragraphs following.
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SEQUITUR DE IRA
-
After envy will I describe the sin of anger. For truly, whoso has
envy of his neighbour will generally find himself showing anger, in
word or in deed, against him whom he envies. And anger comes as well
from pride as from envy; for certainly, he that is proud or envious is
easily angered.
This sin of anger, according to Saint Augustine, is a wicked
determination to be avenged by word or by deed. Anger, according to
the philosopher, is the hot blood of man quickened in his heart,
because of which he wishes to harm him whom he hates. For truly, the
heart of man, by the heating and stirring of his blood, grows so
disturbed that he is put out of all ability to judge reasonably. But
you shall understand that anger manifests itself in two manners; one
of them is good, the other bad. The good anger is caused by zeal for
goodness, whereof a man is enraged by wickedness and against
wickedness; and thereupon a wise man says that "Anger is better than
play." This anger is gentle and without bitterness; not felt against
the man, but against the misdeed of the man, as the Prophet David
says: Irascimini et nolite peccare. Now understand, that wicked
anger is manifested in two manners, that is to say, sudden or hasty
anger, without the advice and counsel of reason. The meaning and the
sense of this is, that the reason of man consents not to this sudden
anger, and so it is venial. Another anger is full wicked, which
comes of sullenness of heart, with malice aforethought and with wicked
determination to take vengeance, and to which reason assents; and
this, truly, is mortal sin. This form of anger is so displeasing to
God that it troubles His house and drives the Holy Ghost out of
man's soul, and wastes and destroys the likeness of God, that is to
say, the virtue that is in man's soul; and it puts within him the
likeness of the Devil, and takes the man away from God, his rightful
Lord. This form of anger is a great joy to the Devil; for it is the
Devil's furnace, heated with the fire of Hell. For certainly, just
as fire is the mightiest of earth engines of destruction, just so
ire is mightiest to destroy things spiritual. Observe how a fire of
smouldering coals, almost extinct under the ashes, will quicken
again when touched by brimstone; just so will anger quicken again when
it is touched by the pride that lies hidden in man's heart. For
certainly fire cannot come from nothing, but must first be naturally
dormant within a thing, as it is drawn out of flints with steel. And
just as pride is often the matter of which anger is made, just so is
rancour the nurse and keeper of anger. There is a kind of tree, as
Saint Isidore says, which, when men make a fire of the wood of it, and
then cover over the coals with ashes, truly the embers will live and
last a year or more. And just so fares it with rancour; when it is
once conceived in the hearts of some men, certainly it will last,
perchance, from one Easter-day to another Easter-day, and longer.
But truly, such men are very far from the mercy of God all that while.
In this aforesaid Devil's furnace there are forged three evils:
pride that ever fans and increases the fire by chiding and wicked
words. Then stands up envy and holds the hot iron upon the heart of
man with a pair of long tongs of abiding rancour. And then stands up
the sin of contumely, or strife and wrangling, and strikes and hammers
with villainous reproaches. Certainly, this cursed sin injures both
the man who does it and his neighbour. For truly, almost all the
harm that any man does to his neighbour comes from wrath. For
certainly, outrageous wrath does all that the Devil orders; for it
spares neither Christ nor His Sweet Mother. And in his outrageous
anger and ire, alas! full many a one at that time feels in his heart
right wickedly, both as to Christ and as to His saints. Is not this
a cursed vice? Yes, certainly. Alas! It takes from man his wit and his
reason and all the kindly spiritual life that should guard his soul.
Certainly, it takes away also God's due authority, and that is man's
soul and the love of his neighbour. It strives always against truth,
also. It bereaves him of the peace of his heart and subverts his soul.
From anger come these stinking engenderings: first hate, which is
old wrath; discord, by which a man forsakes his old friend whom he has
long loved. And then come strife and every kind of wrong that man does
to his neighbour, in body or in goods. Of this cursed sin of anger
comes manslaughter also. And understand well that homicide,
manslaughter, that is, is of different kinds. Some kinds of homicide
are spiritual, and some are bodily. Spiritual manslaughter lies in six
things. First, hate; and as Saint John says: "He that hateth his
brother committeth homicide." Homicide is also accomplished by
backbiting; and of backbiters Solomon says that "They have two
swords wherewith they slay their neighbours." For truly, it is as
wicked to take away a man's good name as his life. Homicide consists
also in the giving of wicked counsel deceitfully, as in counselling
one to levy wrongful duties and taxes. And Solomon says that cruel
masters are like roaring lions and hungry bears, in withholding or
diminishing the wages (or the hire) of servants; or else in usury;
or in withholding alms from poor folk. As to which the wise man
says: "Feed him who is dying of hunger." For indeed, unless you feed
him, you slay him; and all these are mortal sins. Bodily homicide is
when you slay a man with your tongue is some manner; as when you
give command to slay a man, or else counsel him to the slaying of
another. Homicide, in deed is in four manners. One is by law; as
when a judge condemns a culpable man to death. But let the judge
take care that he do it rightfully, and that he do it not for
delight in the spilling out of blood, but only for the doing of
justice. Another kind of homicide is that which is done by
necessity, as when one man slays another in his own defence, and
when he may not otherwise escape his own death. But certainly, if he
may escape without killing his adversary, and yet slays him, he
commits sin, and he shall bear the punishment for mortal sin. Also, if
a man by force of circumstances, or by chance, shoot an arrow or
cast a stone with which he kill a man, he commits homicide. Also, if a
woman negligently overlie her child in her sleep, it is homicide and
mortal sin. Also, when a man interferes with the conception of a
child, and makes a woman barren by the drinking of poisonous drugs,
whereby she cannot conceive, or slays an unborn child deliberately, by
drugs or by the introduction of certain substances into her secret
parts with intent to slay the child; or does any unnatural sin whereby
man or woman spill his or her fluid in such manner or in such place as
a child cannot be conceived; or if a woman, having conceived, so
hurt herself that she slays her child, it is homicide. What do we
say of women that murder their children for dread of worldly shame?
Certainly, such a one is called a horrible homicide. Homicide it is,
also, if a man approach a woman by desire of lechery, through the
accomplishing of which her child is killed in the womb, or strike a
woman knowingly in such manner that she is caused to miscarry and lose
her child. All these constitute homicide and are horrible mortal sins.
Besides' there come from anger many more sins, as well of word as of
thought and of deed; as that of accusing God of, or blaming God for, a
thing of which a man is himself guilty; or despising God and all His
saints, as do wicked gamblers in divers countries. They do this cursed
sin when they feel in their heart a great wickedness toward God and
His saints. Also, they do it when they treat irreverently the
sacraments of the altar, and then the sin is so great that scarcely
may it be forgiven, save that the mercy of God passes all His works;
it is so great and He is so benign. Then comes of anger, venomous
anger; when a man is sharply admonished after confession to forgo
his sin, then will he be angry and will answer scornfully and angrily,
and will defend or excuse his sin as the result of the weakness of his
flesh; or else he did it to keep the good will of his fellows, or
else, he'll say, the Fiend enticed him; or else he did it because of
his youth, or else his temperament is so mettled that he could not
forbear; or else it was his destiny, as he says, until a certain
age; or else, he says, it comes to him out of the breeding of his
ancestors; and suchlike things. All this kind of folk so wrap
themselves in their sins that they will not deliver themselves. For
truly, no man that excuses himself for his sin may be shriven of it
until he meekly acknowledges it. After this, then comes swearing,
which is expressly against the commandment of God; and this comes
often of anger and ire. God says: "Thou shalt not take the name of the
Lord thy God in vain." Also, Our Lord Jesus Christ says, through Saint
Matthew: "Nolite iurare omnino: neither by Heaven; for it is God's
throne: nor by the earth; for it is His footstool: neither by
Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou
swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or
black: but let your communication be, yea, yea, nay; for whatsoever is
more than these, cometh of evil." For Christ's sake, swear not so
sinfully, thus dismembering Christ by soul, heart, bones, and body.
For indeed it seems that you think that the cursed Jews did not
dismember enough the precious body of Christ, since you dismember
Him even more. And if it be that the law compel you to swear, then
be governed by the rule of the law in your swearing, as Jeremiah says,
quarto capitulo: "Iurabis, in veritate, in iudicio et in iusticia:
thou shalt swear, the Lord liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in
righteousness." That is to say, you shall swear truth, for every lie
is against Christ. For Christ is utter truth. And think well on
this, that every great swearer, not by law compelled to swear, the
plague will not depart from his house while he continues to indulge in
such forbidden swearing. You shall swear for the sake of justice also,
when you are constrained by your judge to bear witness to the truth.
Also, you shall swear not for envy, nor for favour, nor for reward,
but for righteousness; for the declaring of it to the honour of God
and the helping of your fellow Christian. And therefore, every man
that takes God's name in vain, or falsely swears by word of mouth,
or takes upon him the name of Christ that he may be called a Christian
man, and who lives not in accordance with Christ's example of living
and with His teaching, all they take God's name in vain. Behold,
too, what Saint Peter says, Actuum, quarto capitulo: "Non est aliud
nomen sub celo, etc. There is none other name under Heaven given among
men whereby we must be saved." That is to say, save the name of
Jesus Christ. Take heed also how in the precious name of Christ, as
Saint Paul says ad Philipensess secundo: "In nomine Iesu, etc. In
the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in Heaven, and
things in earth, and things under the earth." For it is so high and so
worshipful that the cursed Fiend in Hell must tremble to hear it
named.
Then it appears that men who swear so horribly by His blessed name
despise Him more boldly than all the cursed Jews, or even than the
Devil, who trembles when he hears His name.
Now, certainly, since swearing, unless it be lawfully done, is so
strictly forbidden, much worse is false swearing, and it is needless.
What shall we say of those that delight in swearing and hold it
for an act of the gentry, or a manly thing, to swear great oaths?
And what of those that, of very habit, cease not to swear great oaths,
though the reason therefor be not worth a straw? Certainly this is a
horrible sin. Swearing suddenly and thoughtlessly is also a sin. But
let us pass now to that horrible swearing of adjuration and
conjuration, as do these false enchanters or necromancers in basins
full of water, or in a bright sword, in a circle, or in a fire, or
in a shoulder-bone of a sheep. I can say nothing, save that they do
wickedly and damnably against Christ and all the faith of Holy Church.
What shall we say of those that believe in divinations, as by the
flying or the crying of birds, or of beasts, or by chance, by
geomancy, by dreams, by creaking of doors, by cracking of houses, by
gnawing of rats; and such kinds of wickedness? Certainly, all these
things are forbidden by God and by all Holy Church. For which they are
accursed, until they repent and mend their ways, who set their beliefs
in such filth. Charms against wounds or maladies in men or in
beasts, if they have any effect, it may be, peradventure, that God
permits it that folk shall have the more faith in Him and the more
reverence unto His name.
Now will I speak of lying, which generally is the using of words
in false signification with intent to deceive one's fellow
Christian. Some lying there is whereof there comes no advantage to
anyone; and some lying is done for the ease and profit of one man, and
to the uneasiness and damage of another man. Another kind of lying
is done to save one's life or chattels. Another kind of lying is
born of mere delight in lying, for which delight they will fabricate a
long tale and adorn it with all circumstances, where all the
groundwork of the tale is false. Some lying is done because one
would maintain his previous word; and some lying is done out of
recklessness, without forethought; and for similar reasons.
Let us now touch upon the vice of flattering, which comes not gladly
from the heart, but for fear or for covetousness. Flattery is
generally unearned praise. Flatterers are the Devil's nurses, who
nurse his children with the milk of adulation. Forsooth, as Solomon
says, "Flattery is worse than detraction." For sometimes detraction
causes a haughty man to be more humble, for he fears detraction; but
certainly flattery- that causes a man to exalt his heart and his
bearing. Flatterers are the Devil's enchanters, for they cause a man
to think of himself that he is like what he is not like. They are like
Judas who betrayed God; for these flatterers betray a man in order
to sell him out to his enemy, that is, to the Devil. Flatterers are
the Devil's chaplains, that continually sing Placebo. I reckon
flattery among the vices of anger; for oftentimes, if one man be
enraged at another, then will he flatter some other to gain an ally in
his quarrel.
Let us speak now of such cursing as comes from an angry heart.
Execration generally may be said to embrace every kind of evil. Such
cursing deprives a man of the Kingdom of God, as says Saint Paul.
And oftentimes such cursing returns again upon the head of him that
curses, like a bird that returns again to its own nest. And above
all things men ought to eschew the cursing of their children, and
the giving to the Devil of their progeny, so far as they may;
certainly it is a great danger and a great sin.
Let us now speak of chiding and reproaching, which are great evils
in man's heart; for they rip up the seams of friendship in man's
heart. For truly, a man can hardly be reconciled with him that has
openly reviled and slandered him. This is a terrible sin, as Christ
says in the gospel. And note now that he who reproaches his neighbour,
either he reproaches him for some painful evil that he has in his
body, as with "leper" or "hunchbacked scoundrel," or by some sin
that he does. Now, if he reproach him for a painful evil, then the
reproach is turned upon Jesus Christ; for pain is sent, as the
righteous giving of God, and by His permission, be it of leprosy or
malady or bodily imperfection. And if he reproach him uncharitably for
sin, as with "you whoremonger," "you drunken scoundrel," and so forth,
then that appertains to the rejoicing of the Devil, who is ever
rejoiced when men sin. And truly, chiding may not come, save out of
a sinful heart. For according to the abundance of what is in the heart
the mouth speaks. And you shall understand that when any man would
correct another, let him beware of chiding or reproaching. For
truly, save he beware, he may easily quicken the fire of anger and
wrath, which he should quench, and perhaps will slay him whom he might
have corrected gently. For, as Solomon says, "the amiable tongue is
the tree of life," which is to say, of the spiritual life; and in
sooth, a foul tongue drains the vital forces of him that reproaches,
and also of him that is reproached. Behold what Saint Augustine
says: "There is nothing so like the Devil's child as he that chideth."
Saint Paul says, too: "The servant of the Lord must not strive." And
though bickering be a sinful thing as between all kinds of folk,
certainly it is most unsuitable between a man and his wife; for
there is never rest there. Thereupon Solomon says: "A continual
dropping in a very rainy day, and a contentious woman, are alike." A
man who is in a house, the roof whereof leaks in many places, though
he avoid the dripping in one place, it finds him in another; and so
fares he who has a chiding wife. If she cannot scold him in one place,
she will scold him in another. And therefore, "Better is a dinner of
herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith," says
Solomon. Saint Paul says: "Wives, submit yourselves unto your
husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and
be not bitter against them." Ad Colossensess, tertio.
After that, let us speak of scorn, which is a wicked sin; especially
when one scorns a man for his good works. For truly, such scorners are
like the foul toad, which cannot bear to smell the sweet odour of
the vine when it blossoms. These scorners are fellowpartakers with the
Devil; for they rejoice when the Devil wins and sorrow when he
loses. They are adversaries of Jesus Christ; for they hate what He
loves, that is to say, the salvation of souls.
Now will we speak of wicked counsel; for he that gives wicked
counsel is a traitor. For he deceives him that trusts in him, ut
Achitofel ad Absolonem. Nevertheless, his wicked counsel first harms
himself. For, as the wise man says, every false person living has
within himself this peculiarity, that he who would harm another
harms first himself. And men should understand that they should take
counsel not of false folk, nor of angry folk, nor of vexatious folk
nor of folk that love too much their own advantage, nor of too worldly
folk, especially in the counselling of souls.
Now comes the sin of those that sow discord amongst folk, which is a
sin that Christ utterly hates; and no wonder. For He died to establish
concord on earth. And more shame do they do to Christ than did those
that crucified Him; for God loves better that friendliness be among
men than He loved His own body, the which He gave for the sake of
unity. Therefore they are like the Devil, who ever goes about to
make discord.
Now comes the sin of the double-tongued; such as speak fairly before
folk, and wickedly behind; or they make a semblance of speaking with
good intention, or in jest and play, and yet they speak with evil
intention.
Now comes betraying of confidence, whereby a man is defamed:
truly, the damage so done may scarcely be repaired.
Now comes menacing, which is an open folly; for he that often
menaces, he often threatens more than he can perform.
Now come idle words, which sin is without profit to him that
speaks and also to him that listens. Or else idle words are those that
are needless, or without an aim toward any profit. And although idle
words are at times but a venial sin, yet men should distrust them; for
we shall have to account for them before God.
Now comes chattering, which cannot occur without sin. And, as
Solomon says, "It is a sin of manifest folly." And therefore a
philosopher said, when men asked him how to please the people: "Do
many good deeds and chatter but little."
After this comes the sin of jesters, who are the Devil's apes. For
they make folk laugh at their buffoonery, as they do at the pranks
of an ape. Such clownings were forbidden by Saint Paul. Behold how
virtuous and holy words give comfort to those that labour in the
service of Christ; just so the sinful words and tricks of jesters
and jokers comfort those that travail in the service of the Devil.
These are the sins that come by way of the tongue, and from anger
and many other sins.
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SEQUITUR REMEDIUM CONTRA PECCATUM IRE
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The remedy for anger is a virtue which men call mansuetude, which is
gentleness; and even another virtue which men call patience or
tolerance.
Gentleness withholds and restrains the stirrings and the urgings
of man's impetuosity in his heart in such manner that it leaps not out
in anger or in ire. Tolerance suffers sweetly all the annoyances and
wrongs that men do to men bodily. Saint Jerome says thus of
gentleness, that "it does harm to no one, nor says harm; nor for any
harm that men do or say does it chafe against reason." This virtue
is sometimes naturally implanted; for, as says the philosopher: "A man
is a living thing, by nature gentle and tractable to goodness; but
when gentleness is informed of grace, then is it worth the more."
Patience, which is another remedy against anger, is a virtue that
suffers sweetly man's goodness, and is not wroth for harm done to
it. The philosopher says that "patience is that virtue which suffers
meekly all the outrages of adversity and every wicked word." This
virtue makes a man god-like and makes him God's own dear child, as
Christ says. This virtue discomfits one's enemy. And thereupon the
wise man says: "If thou wilt vanquish thy enemy, learn to endure." And
you shall understand that man suffers four kinds of grievances from
outward things, against the which he must have four kinds of patience.
The first grievance is of wicked words; this suffered Jesus Christ
without grumbling, and patiently, when the Jews many times
reproached Him and showed how they despised Him. Suffer patiently,
therefore, for the wise man says: "If thou strive with a fool,
though the fool be wroth or though he laugh, nevertheless thou shalt
have no rest." Another outward grievance is to suffer damage in
one's chattels. In that Christ endured patiently when He was despoiled
of all that He had in the world, that being His clothing.
The third grievance is for a man to suffer injury in his body. That,
Christ endured full patiently throughout all His passion. The fourth
grievance is in extravagant labour. Wherefore I say that folk who make
their servants labour too grievously, or out of the proper time, as on
holidays, truly they do great sin. Thereof endured Christ full
patiently, and taught us patience when He bore upon His blessed
shoulder the cross whereon He was to suffer a pitiless death. Hereof
may men learn to be patient; for certainly, not only Christian men
should be patient for love of Jesus Christ, and for the reward of
the blessed life everlasting, but even the old pagans, who never
were Christians, commended and practised the virtue of patience.
Upon a time a philosopher would have beaten a disciple for his great
misdoing, at which the philosopher had been much annoyed; and he
brought a rod wherewith to scourge the youth; and when the youth saw
the rod he said to his master: "What do you intend to do?" "I will
beat you," said the master, "for your correction." "Forsooth," said
the youth, "you ought first to correct yourself who have lost all your
patience at the offence of a child." "Forsooth," said the master,
weeping, "you say truth; take the rod yourself, my dear son, and
correct me for my impatience." From patience comes obedience,
whereby a man becomes obedient to Christ and to all to whom he owes
obedience in Christ. And understand well that obedience is perfect
when a man does gladly and speedily, with entire good heart, all
that he should do. Obedience, generally, is to put into practice the
doctrine of God and of man's masters, to whom he ought to be humble in
all righteousness.
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SEQUITUR DE ACCIDIA
-
After the sins of envy and of anger, now will I speak of the sin
of acedia, or sloth. For envy blinds the heart of a man and anger
troubles a man; and acedia makes him heavy, thoughtful, and peevish.
Envy and anger cause bitterness of heart; which bitterness is the
mother of acedia, and takes from a man the love of all goodness.
Then is acedia the anguish of a troubled heart; and Saint Augustine
says: "It is the sadness of goodness and the joy of evil." Certainly
this is a damnable sin; for it wrongs Jesus Christ in as much as it
lessens the service that men ought to give to Christ with due
diligence, as says Solomon. But sloth has no such diligence; it does
everything sadly and with peevishness, slackness, and false
excusing, and with slovenliness and unwillingness; for which the
Book says: "Accursed be he that serveth God negligently." Then
acedia is the enemy to every state of man; for indeed the state of man
is in three degrees. One is the state of innocence, as was the
condition of Adam before he fell into sin; in which state he was
maintained to praise and adore his God. Another state is the condition
of sinful men wherein they are obliged to labour in praying to God for
the amendment of their sins. Another state is the condition of
grace, in which condition man is bound to acts of penitence; and
truly, to all these things acedia is the enemy and the opposite. For
it loves no busyness at all. Now certainly this foul sin of acedia
is also a great enemy to the livelihood of the body; for it makes no
provision for temporal necessity; for it wastes, and it allows
things to spoil, and it destroys all worldly wealth by its
carelessness.
The fourth thing is that acedia is like those who are in the pain of
Hell, because of their sloth and their sluggardliness; for those
that are damned are so bound that they may neither do well nor think
well. First of all, from the sin of acedia it happens that a man is
too sad and hindered to be able to do anything good, wherefore God
abominates acedia, as says Saint John.
Then comes that kind of sloth that will endure no hardship nor any
penance. For truly, sloth is so tender and so delicate, as Solomon
says, that it will endure no hardship or penance, and therefore it
spoils everything that it attempts to do. To combat this
rotten-hearted sin of acedia or sloth, men should be diligent to do
good works and manfully and virtuously to come by the determination to
do well; remembering that Our Lord Jesus Christ rewards every good
deed, be it ever so little. The habit of labour is a great thing; for,
as Saint Bernard says, it gives the labourer strong arms and hard
thews, whereas sloth makes them feeble and tender. Then arises the
dread of beginning to do any good deeds; for certainly, he that is
inclined toward sin, he thinks it is so great an enterprise to start
any works of goodness, and tells himself in his heart that the
circumstances having to do with goodness are so wearisome and
burdensome to endure, that he dare not undertake any such works, as
says Saint Gregory.
Now enters despair, which is despair of the mercy of God, and
comes sometimes of too extravagant sorrows and sometimes of too
great fear: for the victim imagines that he has done so much sin
that it will avail him not to repent and forgo sin; because of which
fear he abandons his heart to every kind of sin, as Saint Augustine
says. This damnable sin, if it be indulged to the end, is called
sinning in the Holy Ghost. This horrible sin is so dangerous that,
as for him that is so desperate, there is no felony or sin that he
hesitates to do; as was well showed by Judas. Certainly, then, above
all other sins, this sin is most displeasing to Christ, and most
hateful. Truly he that grows so desperate is like the cowardly and
recreant combatant that yields before he is beaten, and when there
is no need. Alas, alas! Needlessly is he recreant and needlessly in
despair. Certainly the mercy of God is always available to every
penitent, and this is the greatest of all God's works. Alas! Cannot
a man bethink him of the gospel of Saint Luke, 15, wherein Christ
says: "Joy shall be in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than
over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance." Behold
further, in the same gospel, the joy of and the feast given by the
good man who had lost his son, when his son, repentant, returned to
his father. Can they not remember, also, that, as Saint Luke says,
XXIII capitulo, the thief who was hanged beside Jesus Christ said:
"Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy Kingdom." "Verily,"
said Christ, "I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in
Paradise." Certainly, there is no such horrible sin of man that it may
not be, in his lifetime, destroyed by penitence, by virtue of the
passion and the death of Jesus Christ. Alas! Why then need a man
despair, since mercy is so ready and so great? Ask, and it shall be
given unto you. Then enters somnolence, that is to say, sluggish
slumbering, which makes a man heavy and dull in body and in soul;
and this sin comes from sloth. And truly, the time that a man should
not sleep, in all reason, is the early morning, unless there be a
reasonable necessity. For verily the morningtide is most suitable
for a man to say his prayers, and to meditate on God and to honour
God, and to give alms to the poor person who first asks in the name of
Christ. Behold what Solomon says: "Whoso would awake in the dawn and
seek me, me shall he find." Then enters negligence, or carelessness,
that recks of nothing. And if ignorance is the mother of all evil,
certainly then negligence is the nurse. Negligence cares not, when
it must do a thing, whether it be well done or badly.
As to the remedies for these two sins, as the wise man says: "He
that fears God spares not to do that which he ought." And he that
loves God, he will be diligent to please God by his works, and will
exert himself, with all his might, to do well. Then enters idleness,
which is the gate to all evils. An idle man is like a house that has
no walls; the devils may enter on every side and shoot at him, he
being thus unprotected, and tempt him on every side. This idleness
is the sink of all wicked and villainous thoughts, and of all idle
chattering, and trifles, and of all filthiness. Certainly Heaven is
for those that labour, and not for idle folk. Also, David says:
"They are not among the harvest of men and they shall not be
threshed with men," which is to say, in Purgatory. Certainly, then, it
appears that they shall be tormented by the Devil in Hell, unless they
soon repent.
Then enters the sin that men call tarditas, which is when a man is
too tardy or too long-tarrying before he turns unto God; and certainly
this is a great folly. He is like one that falls in the ditch and will
not arise. And this vice comes of a false hope whereunder a man
comes to think that he shall live long; but that hope full often fails
him.
Then comes laziness; that is when a man begins any work and anon
forgoes it and holds his hand; as do those who have anyone to govern
and who take no care of him as soon as they find any difficulty or
annoyance. These are the modern shepherds who knowingly allow their
sheep to run to the wolf in the briers, or have no care for their
governing. Of this come poverty and the destruction of both
spiritual and temporal things. Then comes a kind of dull coldness that
freezes the heart of man. Then comes lack of devotion, whereby a man
is so blinded, as Saint Bernard says, and has such languor of soul,
that he may not read or sing in holy church, nor hear or think of
anything devout, nor toil with his hands at any good work, without the
labour being unsavoury and vapid to him. Then he grows slow and
slumbery, and is easily angered and is easily inclined toward hate and
envy. Then comes the sin of worldly sorrow, such as is called
tristicia, which slays men, as Saint Paul says. For, verily, such
sorrow works the death of the soul and of the body also; for thereof
it comes to pass that a man is bored by his own life. Wherefore such
sadness full often shortens a man's life before his time has naturally
come.
-
-
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REMEDIUM CONTRA PECCATUM ACCIDIE
-
Against this horrible sin of acedia, and the branches thereof, there
is a virtue that is called fortitudo or strength; that is, a force
of character whereby a man despises annoying things. This virtue is so
mighty and so vigorous that it dares to withstand sturdily, and wisely
to keep itself from dangers that are wicked, and to wrestle against
the assaults of the Devil. For it enhances and strengthens the soul,
just as acedia reduces it and makes it feeble. For this fortitudo
can endure, by long suffering, the toils that are fitting.
This virtue has many species; and the first is called magnanimity,
which is to say, great-heartedness. For certainly a great heart is
needed against acedia, lest it swallow up the soul by the sin of
sadness, or destroy it by despair. This virtue causes folk to
undertake hard things, or grievous things, of their own initiative,
wisely and reasonably. And for as much as the Devil fights a man
more by craft and by trickery than by strength, therefore men may
withstand him by wit and by reason and by discretion. Then there are
the virtues of faith and of hope in God and in His saints, to
achieve and accomplish the good works in which one firmly purposes
to continue. Then comes security and certainness; and that is when a
man shall not doubt, in time to come. the value of the toil of the
good works that he has begun. Then comes munificence, which is to say,
that virtue whereby a man performs great works of goodness that he has
begun; and that is the goal to reach which men should do good works;
for in the doing of great good works lies the great reward. Then there
is constancy, that is, stability of purpose, and this should be
evidenced in heart by steadfast faith, and in word and in attitude and
in appearance and in deed. Also, there are other special remedies
against acedia or sloth, in divers works, and in consideration of
the pains of Hell and of the joys of Heaven, and in faith in the grace
of the Holy Ghost, that will give to a man the strength wherewith to
perform his good purpose.
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SEQUITUR DE AVARICIA
-
After acedia I will speak of avarice and of covetousness, of which
sin Saint Paul says that "The love of money is the root of all
evil:" ad Timotheum, sexto capitulo. For verily, when the heart of a
man is confounded within itself, and troubled, and when the soul has
lost the comforting of God, then seeks a man a vain solace in
worldly things.
Avarice, according to the description of Saint Augustine, is the
eagerness of the heart to have earthly things. Others say that avarice
is the desire to acquire earthly goods and give nothing to those
that need. And understand that avarice consists not only of greed
for land and chattels, but sometimes for learning and for glory, and
for every kind of immoderate thing. And the difference between avarice
and covetousness is this. Covetousness is to covet such things as
one has not; and avarice is to keep and withhold such things as one
has when there is no need to do so. Truly, this avarice is a sin
that is very damnable; for all holy writ condemns it and inveighs
against that vice; for it does wrong to Jesus Christ. For it takes
away from Him the love that men owe to Him and turns it backward,
and this against all reason; and it causes that an avaricious man
has more hope in his chattels than in Jesus Christ and is more
diligent in the guarding and keeping of his treasure than in the
service of Jesus Christ. And therefore Saint Paul says, ad Ephesios,
quinto, that "this ye know, that no... covetous man, who is an
idolater, hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God."
What difference is there between an idolater and an avaricious
man, save that an idolater, peradventure, has but one idol and the
avaricious man has many? For verily, every florin in his coffer is his
idol. And certainly the sin of idolatry is the first thing that God
forbids in the ten commandments, as witnesses Exodi, capitulo XX:
"Thou shalt have no other gods before me, thou shalt not make unto
thee any graven image." Thus an avaricious man, who loves his treasure
more than God, is an idolater, by reason of this cursed sin of
avarice. Of covetousness come these hard exactions whereunder men
are assessed and made to pay taxes, rents, and payments in lieu of
service, more than duty requires or reason demands. Also, they take
from their serfs amercements that might more reasonably be called
extortions than amercements. As to which amercements and fines of
serfs, some lords' stewards say that it is just, because a churl has
no temporal thing that does not belong to his lord, or so they say.
But certainly these lordships do wrong that take away from their serfs
things that they never gave them, Augustinus de Civitate, libro
nono. The truth is that the condition of serfdom is a sin: Genesis,
quinto.
Thus may you see that man's sin deserves thralldom, but man's origin
does not. Wherefore these lords should not greatly glorify
themselves in their lordships, since by natural condition, or
origin, they are not lords of thralls; but thralldom came into being
first as the desert of sin. And furthermore, whereas the law says that
the temporal effects of bondmen are the property of their lords,
verily, by that is to be understood, the property of the emperor,
who defends them in their rights, but who has no right to rob or to
plunder them. And thereupon says Seneca: "Thy prudence should cause
thee to live benignly with thy slaves." Those whom you call your serfs
are God's people; for humble folk are Christ's friends; they are at
home in the house of the Lord.
Think, also, that such seed as churls come from, from such seed come
the lords. As easily may the churl be saved as the lord. The same
death that takes the churl takes the lord. Wherefore I advise you to
do unto your churl as you would that your lord should do unto you,
if you were in the churl's plight. Every sinful man is a serf to
sin. I advise you, verily, that you, lord, act in such wise with
your serfs that they shall rather love you than fear. I know well that
there is degree above degree, and that this is reasonable; and
reasonable it is that men should pay their duty where it is due;
but, certainly, extortions and contempt for underlings is damnable.
And furthermore, understand well that conquerors or tyrants often
make thralls of those who were born of as royal blood as those who
have conquered. This word of thralldom was unknown until Noah said
that his grandson Canaan should be servant to his brethren for his
sin. What say we then of those that plunder and extort money from Holy
Church? Certainly, the sword which men give to a knight when he is
dubbed, signifies that he should defend Holy Church and not rob or
pillage it; and whoever does so is a traitor to Christ. And, as
Saint Augustine says: "They are the Devil's wolves that pull down
the sheep of Jesus Christ." And they do worse than wolves. For
truly, when the wolf has filled his belly, he ceases to kill sheep.
But truly, the plunderers and destroyers of God's Holy Church do not
so, for they never cease to pillage. Now, as I have said, since it was
because sin was the first cause of thralldom, then it stands thus:
that all the while all the world was in sin, it was in thralldom and
subjection. But certainly, since the time of grace came, God
ordained that some folk should be higher in rank and state and some
folk lower, and that each should be served according to his rank and
his state. And therefore, in some countries, where they buy slaves,
when they have converted them to the faith, they set their slaves free
from slavery. And therefore, certainly, the lord owes to his man
that which the man owes to his lord. The pope calls himself servant of
the servants of God; but in as much as the estate of Holy Church might
not have come into being, nor the common advantage kept, nor any peace
and rest established on earth, unless God had ordained that some men
should have higher rank and some lower: therefore was sovereignty
ordained to guard and maintain and defend its underlings or its
subjects within reason and so far as lies in its power, and not to
destroy or to confound them. Wherefore, I say that those lords that
are like wolves, that devour the wealth or the possessions of poor
folk wrongfully, without mercy or measure, they shall receive, by
the same measure that they have used toward poor folk, the mercy of
Jesus Christ, unless they mend their ways. Now comes deceit between
merchant and merchant. And you shall understand that trade is of two
kinds; the one is material and the other is spiritual. The one is
decent and lawful and the other is indecent and unlawful. Of this
material trade, that which is decent and lawful is this: that where
God has ordained that a kingdom or a country is sufficient unto
itself, then it is decent and lawful that of the abundance of this
country men should help another country that is more needy. And
therefore there are permitted to be merchants to bring from the one
country to the other their merchandise. That other trade, which men
barter with fraud and treachery and deceit, with lies and with false
oaths, is accursed and damnable. Spiritual trade is properly simony,
which is earnest desire to buy spiritual things, that is to say,
things that appertain to the sanctuary of God and to the cure of the
soul. This desire, if it be that man is diligent in accomplishing
it, |
