De arte praedicatoria

By these authorities someone can be instructed toward compunction and contrition of heart; the prophet says: Rend your hearts and not your garments.¹ And John: Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.² And the Psalmist: A troubled spirit is a sacrifice to God.³ Likewise Saint Augustine says: "He who does not have compunction does not have a pure prayer." And Saint Isidore says: "First the sins we have committed must be cleansed by tears, and then, with the eye of the mind cleansed, let us contemplate what we seek." Compunction of heart is humility of mind accompanied by tears, arising from the remembrance of sin, love of the judge, and fear of judgment. The more perfect effect of compunction is that which drives away from itself every affection of carnal desire, and fixes its whole intention, with the entire effort of the mind, upon the contemplation of God.

The soul of the elect is also affected by a twofold compunction, that is, when it considers the evils of its own deeds, or when it sighs with desire for eternal life. There are four qualities of feeling by which the mind of the righteous is wholesomely pierced. The first is the memory of past deeds; the second, the consideration of one's pilgrimage in this life; the third, the recollection of one's punishments; the fourth, the desire for the heavenly homeland, so that one may reach it more quickly. For tears of repentance are reckoned before God as a kind of baptism. Love tears, and be the more inclined to lament the more inclined you were to sin. Great sins require great lamentation; blessed indeed is he who has compunction according to God. Compunction is the health of the soul, compunction is the remission of sins, compunction is a second plank after shipwreck, a second medicine after the remedy for sin.

Compunction is the spiritual washing of inward regeneration, without which baptism does not benefit adults; without which the body of Christ is received unto judgment; without which confession is fruitless, without which satisfaction is empty. This is the water that purifies the mind, fertilizes intention, waters confession, and satisfies the soul. This is the water that drowns the Egyptians, that is, it extinguishes the first movements of sin. This is the spiritual flood that destroys all flesh, that is, it extinguishes every carnal thought. There is a threefold washing: of baptism, of penance, and of martyrdom. The first is for those entering, the second for those returning, the third for those arriving.

Of the first it is said: Wash yourselves, be clean.⁴ Of the second it is said: Wash me yet more from my iniquity.⁵ Of the third: They washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb.⁶ The first washing is prefigured by the sprinkling that was done in the Old Testament with living water; the second by the sprinkling of ashes; the third by the blood of the red heifer.⁷ For what is living water, but baptism? What is the sprinkling of ashes, but the humility of compunction, by which a man shows himself to be ashes, and sits in ashes and sackcloth? What too is the blood of the red heifer, but martyrdom, reddened with blood, which had its efficacy from the passion of Christ? Thus there are three baptisms: the baptism of water, which is done in water; the baptism of the spirit, which is done in penance, by the grace of the Holy Spirit; the baptism of blood, which is done in the struggle of martyrdom. By the first, man is clothed with the first robe; by the second, disfigured man is renewed; by the third, a second robe is prepared. In the first, the old man is destroyed; in the second, the inner man is renewed; in the third, the flesh dies. The first is for everyone, the second for many, the third for few.

O happy washing of penance, which avails to cleanse as many times as the human heart needs cleansing. This is the herb of the heavenly fuller, by which he cleanses the garments of his own, disfigured by filth. This is the heavenly soda which, descending from the dew of divine grace, boiled down by the sun of righteousness, wipes away the stains of sins. This is the lye by which the head of the inner man, that is, the mind, swarming with the worms of vice, is washed, which is made from the ash of humility and the water of compunction. This alone is the consolation against the ruin of men, which, as a substitute for the passion of Christ, brings a remedy against sins, so that Christ is not forced to die again as many times as man falls into the abyss of sin. This is the spiritual circumcision, which is done by the rock, Christ, by which the foreskin of the flesh is cut off, that is, the concupiscence of carnal impurity. If, then, you are shipwrecked in the abyss of sin, cling to the plank of contrition; this excludes shipwreck, this brings you to the harbor.

Enter your conscience, examine it; first consider the state of your prudence; whether your sight has bent you through lust, whether your throat through gluttony, whether your hearing through enervating melody or the willing hearing of slander, and whether your tongue has stumbled in speech, whether your smell has erred in perfume, whether your touch has erred in theft, whether your step has strayed on level ground; if in these or in any of them you find fault, wash it away by the mark of compunction; measure the amount of washing according to the amount of filth; apply the measure of medicines according to the size of the ailments; weigh the extent of retribution according to the excess of guilt. Now penance is named from punishing, because guilt is destroyed which is punished by being crushed; the mother and origin of penance is fear, which conceives penance, and gives birth to contrition. Hence Isaiah says: From fear of you, Lord, we have conceived, and brought forth the spirit of salvation.⁸ Penance, then, is to weep for past sins, and not to commit again what should be wept for; for he who weeps for some sins in such a way that he commits others again, either does not know how to do penance, or is only pretending. For what benefit is it to someone if, for example, he weeps for the sins of lust, and still pants with the heat of avarice? Isidore says: He is a mocker and not a penitent, who still does what he repents of; and he does not seem to be a subject begging God, but a proud man mocking him. A dog returning to its vomit⁹ is a penitent returning to sin. Many weep unceasingly, and do not cease to sin. I observe that some receive tears for penance, and yet I see that they do not have the feeling of penance, because they pour out tears from an upright judgment of mind, not from remembrance of sin, and as soon as the habit revives, they commit again the very things they wept over.

Here our most ancient exemplar ended, with the word: It is finished. In another exemplar, however, all that follows was added.