De arte praedicatoria

To advocates Scripture says: Judge for the orphan and the lowly.¹ And Isaiah: Help the oppressed, defend the widow.² For the advocate ought to be fortified by truth, ready in discernment, fervent in charity, a despiser of avarice, a follower of justice, lest either his falsehood cloud reason, or lack of discernment weaken the truth of speech, or hatred bring about suspicion. Let not avarice bend his mind, let not injustice lead him astray, let not his tongue hunt for money, let not the charm of words seek popular applause, but let him set a right end for his pleading, let him make the conclusion of his speech honest. Let him not prostitute his tongue, let him not offer his speech for sale, let him not sell the gift of God, let him not rent out the free benefit of God. What he has received from the gift of grace alone, let him not cast down through selling. O how execrable is simony, to sell the inheritance of the poor, to rent out aid to the needy.

Among works of mercy, no small place is held by one who provides aid to a widow in her cause; for he who by the strength of reason preserves her property, not only defends but also provides. Yet the poverty or misery of anyone ought not to bend the advocate to falsehood; nor should anyone's good fortune lead him into injustice.

Let truth always give strength to reason, and bring aid to the needy through speech. He who does not defend what is right when he is able to defend it, is the same as if he gave his assent to injustice. For this is to visit the wretched in prison, to bring patronage to the oppressed in his cause. This is to clothe the naked; to bring the aid of patronage in a cause to one stripped of patronage: this is to feed the hungry, to give drink to the thirsty, to bestow medicine on the sick, to receive the stranger, to take up the patronage of a cause for one destitute of all help. He therefore who offers patronage to one in need in a just cause, fulfills every work of mercy. Advocate, why do you neglect to defend widows in their necessities? In the exposition of your knowledge you lose nothing, you lose nothing in the giving of this treasure. This is a noble possession, which disdains a miserly possessor, and when it is not made public, it slips away. The spiritual advocate too, that is, the just man whose prayer pleads before God, let him allege pious prayers before God on behalf of the accused, so that although condemnation is owed to the accused by the requirement of his deserts, divine mercy, being propitious to him, may grant him space for true repentance, and amendment of life. For the persistent prayer of a just man avails much.³

Let the just man plead for the accused before divine mercy, so that, since human weakness can do nothing without divine mercy, by his grace the guilty may be freed from his offenses, and directed toward salvation. And although the prayer of the just man does not always attain its desired end in another, yet the one praying always attains his end in himself; for even if the sin is not forgiven to him for whom he prays, the prayer returns into the bosom of the one praying; for neither does the physician always heal, nor does the advocate always persuade; but if he has omitted nothing of what depended on him, he has attained his end.