De arte praedicatoria

Bring forth fruits worthy of penance.¹ And elsewhere it is said: Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.² And Job: I do penance in ashes and sackcloth.³ Outward penance, then, had its beginning from Christ through preaching, its example from Job through satisfaction, and its instruction and teaching from David, who says: Against you only have I sinned, etc.⁴ The fruits of penance are remedies, prayers, fasts, psalm singing, vigils, offerings, readings, almsgiving, harshness of dress. Against the disease of lust, prayers and fasts are medicines; prayers, that God may temper the fire of concupiscence with the dew of heavenly grace; fasts, that they may chasten the beast of our flesh. This kind of demon is not cast out except by prayer and fasting. Psalm singing and readings avail against the sin of sloth, so that the mind is roused from torpor and learns to reject idleness and pursue serious things. Almsgiving becomes a remedy against avarice; sparseness of food against gluttony; because, as Gregory attests: "Opposites are cured by opposites." Against the seven principal vices, then, seven principal virtues must be set. Against pride, humility; against envy, charity; against wrath, the long-suffering of patience; against sloth, cheerfulness of mind; against avarice, generosity; against gluttony, sobriety; against lust, chastity.

Just as we sin in three ways, we ought to repent in three ways. Because we sin in thought, let us apply against this disease the remedy of contrition; because we sin with the mouth, let us apply the antidote of confession; because we sin in deed, let us set against it the medicine of satisfaction. There is a twofold penance: one momentary and passing, the other persevering and permanent. The first is insufficient for the destruction of sin, the second is sufficient for remission. The first is imperfect, the second perfect. Of the first Isidore says: "He is a mocker and not a penitent, who does what he repents of." Of the persevering kind it is said that penance ought not to be finished before death. For the sinner, through penance, ought to offer as many holocausts of satisfaction from himself as he had offered vices of himself to the devil; so that our flesh, which before brought forth the thorns and briars of vices, might be plowed by penance toward the increase of virtues. And just as our sins must always be kept in memory for their destruction, so penance must be kept in memory for remembrance; so that penance may give birth to memory, and memory may draw forth sorrow. One ought to be placed in this purgatorial fire in the present, so that one is not tormented finally in the flame of hell.

There is a threefold fire: purgatorial, probationary, and final; the purgatorial is satisfaction, the probationary is temptation; the final is eternal damnation. Of the first it is said: He will purge us in spirit and in fire.⁵ Of the second it is read: You have tried us by fire.⁶ Of the third: Go into everlasting fire.⁷ There is a twofold purgatorial fire, one in this life, namely penance, the other after this life, namely purgatorial punishment. If we are purified in the first, we are freed from the second and the third; if we do not undergo the first, we will feel the second, or rather (what is more grave!) the final fire. The first purgatorial fire excludes the double fire, namely the second purgatorial and the eternal final fire. For the first purgatorial fire is, as it were, a shadow and a picture of the second; because, just as the shadow and picture of a material fire inflict no pain, while the material fire itself inflicts torment and burning, so the fire of penance has nothing of bitterness in comparison with the second purgatorial fire. For, as Augustine says, the punishment of purgatory is much more severe than any temporal punishment.

O man, the patience of God invites you to penance, his power to fear, his kindness to love. Consider how great is his power to punish, how great his patience in awaiting your repentance! See how merciful he is, who gives you space to repent. He no longer desires the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live.⁸ And all this proceeds from his sweetness and love. For the Father chastises every son whom he receives,⁹ or loves.