De arte praedicatoria

Whoever wishes to avoid the ruin of lying should form himself by these sayings; it is read in the Gospel: You shall not bear false witness.¹ And Paul says: Putting away lying, speak the truth each one with his neighbor.²

Solomon also says that he who lies is a fraudulent witness. Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord: but they who deal faithfully please him.³ A mouth that lies kills the soul.⁴ And David says: You will destroy all who speak lies.⁵ Isidore likewise says: Everything that differs from truth is iniquity. O man, how far you differ from the highest truth, while you devote your effort to the fabrications of lies! how do you think you will come to what is true, if you are in your words at odds with the truth? With what conscience does anyone ask God with a tongue that has belched forth a lie? There is no sin by which the conscience is so branded as by the mark of lying. Whereas every mortal sin alienates a man from what is true, no evil more than lying, which does injury to the very nature of truth.

This is the vice which, having contrived false testimonies, fabricates flatteries, invents frauds, and completes detractions. By this vice a man speaks with heart and mouth differently, and becomes divided within himself. He denies with his mouth what he holds in his heart. By this vice, heart contradicts heart, mouth opposes heart. This vice gives birth to heresy; it creates schisms, generates suspicions, concocts unheard-of rumors, colors disgraceful acts, cloaks what should be exposed, exposes what should be veiled. It attends perjuries, sits beside dishonest actions, works against all things by natural law meant for the benefit of neighbors, since it even attacks truth itself. It holds within itself such great rust of malice that it can by no reasoning be excused. Natural affection did not free the midwives from guilt in this;⁶ nor did reasonable fear free the Gibeonites;⁷ nor did error of mind free Peter;⁸ nor did the foresight of necessity free Ananias.⁹

There is no sin that so aspires to deceit, tends to fraud, aims at deception, longs for betrayal, as the vice of lying, the crime of falsehood. O sons of men, how long will you be heavy of heart? why do you love vanity and seek after a lie?¹⁰ You wish too much to pursue the vanity of our nature, you who even change truth in your speech. But if the fault now lies in the lie, in the future the punishment will not be lacking in truth; and he who is now false through lying will in the future be true in hell. Know that through lying you imitate the father of lies, the devil, who did not stand in the truth, but fell through the vanity of pride. His sons are those who depart from what is true. His accomplices are those who indulge in falsehoods. O man, if there is falsehood in your lie, there will be truth in your punishment. O wretched effect of lying, which by a false proposition consequently brings on a true punishment! O what great imprudence, what great folly, to endure the blows of eternal punishment for the sake of a lying word! How far he strays from the duty of the tongue who is stained with the filth of lying! A man sufficiently expresses the wheel of his birth when he falls through the offense of falsehood.

O man, if you wish to guard against words of lying, form your tongue to truth, turn it away from the scurrility of words. Lying is a servitude which turns the whole mass of speech into its own bitterness. Now there is a threefold lie: the lie of vanity, the lie of falsehood, the lie of intention. Of the first it is said: Everyone has spoken vain things to his neighbor, etc.¹¹ Of the second it is said: Every man is a liar.¹² Of the third: You will destroy all who speak lies.¹³ The first is pitiable, the second blameworthy, the third abominable. The first belongs to punishment, the second to guilt, the third to malice. The first is innate, the second devised, the third elaborately worked out.