De Consideratione

7. Still I would have you hear what the Apostle thinks about this. ‘Is it so that there is not a wise man among you,’ he says, ‘who may judge between brother and brother?’¹ And he adds, ‘I say this to move you to shame; those who are of less account in the church, set them to judge.’² So, according to the Apostle, apostolic man though you are, you usurp a mean office unworthy of you, and descend to the level of those who are of less account. Hence it is that as bishop, instructing a bishop, the Apostle said, ‘No soldier of God entangleth himself in the affairs of this life.’³ But I spare you. For my aim is not to speak strongly, but to point out what is possible. Do you think the times would endure it, if, when men are wrangling over an earthly inheritance, and are clamouring for your judgement, you were to answer them in the words of your Lord, ‘Men, who made Me a judge over you?’⁴ What sort of a judgement would be pronounced on you? Something like this—‘What says this ignorant boor, disregarding his primacy, dishonouring the sovereign see, disparaging the apostolic dignity?’ And yet, I suppose, the critics could not point to a single instance of an apostle sitting as a judge of men, a fixer of land-marks, or a distributor of lands. In fact I read that the apostles stood to be judged, not that they sat to judge.⁵ The time for judging will come; it is not yet. Does the servant really degrade himself if he does not wish to be greater than his lord, or the disciple if he does not wish to be greater than he who sent him, or a son if he does not overpass the bounds which his fathers set? ‘Who made Me a judge?’⁶ said our great Lord and Master. And shall any wrong be done to the servant and disciple if he does not judge all mankind? In my opinion the man who thinks it unworthy of apostles or apostolic men, to whom judgement over greater matters has been committed, to refrain from judging in these smaller ones, does not understand the relative value of things. Why should they not scorn to give judgement concerning men’s poor earthly possessions, seeing that they shall judge heavenly things, and angels too? Your jurisdiction, therefore, is over criminal cases, not over property; if indeed it is for the former purpose, not for the latter, that you have received the keys of the kingdom of heaven, which will, I presume, shut out men because they are transgressors, not because they are owners of property. ‘That ye may know,’ our Lord says, ‘that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins.’⁷ Which seems to you the greater dignity and power, that of forgiving sins, or that of dividing estates? The truth is that there is no comparison between them. These lower earthly things have their own judges, the kings and princes of the earth. Why trespass on another man’s province? Why put your sickle into another man’s harvest? Not that men in your position are unworthy, but because to devote yourselves to such matters when you have enough to do with better is unworthy of you. Finally, where necessity requires, this is what the Apostle thinks—‘If the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?’⁸