De Consideratione

9. We cannot disguise the fact that we must most carefully observe why it is that you have been set above other men. I certainly do not think it is that you may exercise lordship over them. For even the prophet, when he was in like manner exalted, was told ‘to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow; to build, and to plant’.¹ Which of these has the ring of pride in it? Is it not more correct to say that the labourer’s task typifies spiritual toil? And if we are to think highly of ourselves, we should perceive that a burden of service is laid upon us, not the privilege of lordship bestowed. ‘I am not greater than the prophet; and if haply I am his equal in authority, still there is no comparison between our deserts.’ Speak thus to yourself, and do you who teach others teach yourself. Suppose you are as one of the prophets. Is not that enough for you? Yes, and more than enough. But by the grace of God you are what you are. What is that? Suppose you are a prophet, are you more than a prophet? If you are wise you will be content with the measure wherewith God hath measured to you. For what is more is of evil. Learn by the prophet's example to govern, not so much for the purpose of commanding as of doing what the time requires. Learn the lesson that, if you are to do the work of a prophet, what you want is not a sceptre, but a hoe. The prophet does not rise to reign, but to root out the weeds. Do you not think that you, too, may find something to be done in your Master's field? Yes, and plenty of it. The prophets have surely not been able to clean all the ground; they left something for their sons, the apostles, to do; and your progenitors have left something for you. Nor will you prove equal to the whole task. You will assuredly leave something for your successor, and he for others, and so on to the end. Accordingly, we find that about the eleventh hour the labourers were rebuked for idleness, and sent into the vineyard. Your predecessors, the apostles, were told that 'the harvest was indeed plenteous, but the labourers were few'.² Claim for yourself the inheritance of your fathers. For if you are son, then you are also the heir.³ That you may prove yourself to be the heir, diligently watch, and forgo sluggish ease, lest to you also it be said, Why standest thou here all the day idle?⁴

10. Much less ought you to be found dissolved in luxury, or proudly exhibiting yourself. The will of the testator bequeaths to you nothing like this. Need I say that if you are content with its provisions you will inherit care and toil rather than glory and riches. Does Peter's chair flatter you? It is a watch-tower whence, in a word, you exercise supervision; the very name of 'bishop' reminds you not of lordship, but of duty. How fitting it is that you are set on high where you can view all things, inasmuch as you are appointed watchman over all. In very truth the legitimate issue of that prospect is not ease, but readiness for battle. Where ease is unlawful, what occasion is there for glorying? And ease is out of the question when you are burdened with the constant care of all the churches. It must be so; for what else did the holy apostle transmit to you? ‘Such as I have,’ he says, ‘give I thee.’⁵ What is that? One thing I know—it is not gold, nor silver, for he himself says, ‘Silver and gold I have not.’⁶ If you happen to have them, use them not for your own gratification, but to meet the necessities of the time. You will then be using them as though you used them not. In themselves, as regards man’s spiritual welfare, they are neither good nor bad; yet the use of them is good, the abuse is bad; anxiety about them is worse; the greed of gain still more disgraceful. Suppose that on the strength of some other plea you may claim them, you cannot do so by apostolic right. For the apostle could not give what he did not himself possess. What he had, that he gave—the care, as I have said, of the churches. Did he bequeath to you lordship over them? Hear what he says, ‘Not lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves examples to the flock.’⁷ And do not suppose that the words were prompted by humility only, and are not based on truth. In the Gospel there is the Lord’s warning, ‘The kings of the Gentiles have lordship over them, and they that have authority over them are called Benefactors.’⁸ And then He adds, ‘But ye shall not be so.’⁹ It is quite clear; the apostles are forbidden to exercise lordship.

11. Go then, if you dare, and either, as a lord over God’s heritage, assume the office of an apostle, or as an apostolic man exercise lordship. It is clear that you are debarred both. If you wish to have both together, you will lose both. You must otherwise think yourself excepted from the number of those of whom God thus complains, ‘They have reigned, but not by me; they have been princes, and I knew it not.’¹⁰ Now if you like to reign without God, you have whereof to glory, but not before God. But if we uphold the prohibition, let us give heed to the commandment, ‘He that is the greater among you, let him become as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve.’¹¹ Here is the apostolic pattern; lordship is forbidden, service is enjoined; and this latter is also commended by the example of the Lawgiver Himself, who immediately adds, ‘but I am in the midst of you as he that serveth.’¹² Who, then, would think he has nothing whereof to glory when he bears the title by which the Lord of Glory distinguished Himself? Rightly doth Paul glory therein when he says, ‘Are they servants of Christ? so am I.’¹³ And then he adds, ‘I speak as one beside himself, I more. In labours more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in deaths oft.’ Oh! splendid service. What sovereignty does it not excel in glory? If you must glory, the pattern of the saints is set before you, the glory of the apostles is your model. Does that seem to you insignificant? Oh! that some one would give me the power of becoming like the saints in glory! The prophet cries aloud, ‘Thy friends, O God, are too honourable for me, their sovereignty hath grown too strong.’¹⁴ The apostle exclaims, ‘God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.’¹⁵

12. I would have you always glory in this the best sort of glory, that which apostles and prophets chose for themselves, and handed on to you. In your abundant labours, in the cross of Christ, recognize your inheritance. Happy was the man who could say, 'I laboured more than all.'¹⁶ Here is glorying, but there is in it no vanity, no softness, no pride. If the work alarms, the reward invites. For every man shall receive according to his work. And if he laboured more than all, still he did not do all that was to be done, and there is yet room. Go into your Lord's field, and diligently consider the dense thicket of thorns and thistles which, according to the ancient curse, covers the ground even to this day. Go out, I say, into the world; for the field is the world, and it is given into your charge. Go into it, not as a lordly owner, but as a steward, that you may see and attend to that whereof you must give account. Go, I would say; traverse it with steps of zealous care, and careful zeal. For even they who were bidden go into all the world did not compass it with bodily presence, but with their forethought. And do you lift up as it were the eyes of your consideration, and see the lands, if they are not rather dry for burning than white for harvest. How often will what you took for the fruits of the earth, if you examine them carefully, prove to be briars; nay rather, not even briars; they are old and rotten trees, but certainly not fruit trees; their only fruit is swine's food, acorns and husks. How long are they to cumber the ground? If you go out, and clearly see them, will you not be ashamed that your axe is idle? Will you not be ashamed to have had the apostolic sickle put into your hand for nothing?

13. Once upon a time the patriarch Isaac had gone into this field; it was when Rebecca first met him; and, in the words of Scripture, 'he had gone out to meditate.'¹⁷ He went to meditate, you must go to extirpate. In your case meditation should already have led the way: the time for acting is at hand. If you now begin to hesitate, it will be too late. According to the Saviour's counsel,¹⁸ you should have first sat down, and estimated the work, gauged your strength, weighed your wisdom, ascertained the relative value of things, and calculated the cost of virtue. Come then, reckon that there is still time for casting up the account, although the time for meditation on the plan has gone by. If you have given your heart to the work, you must now give your tongue and hand as well. Gird on your sword, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.¹⁹ Glorify your right hand and arm by taking vengeance upon nations, by rebuking peoples, by binding their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron. If you do these things, you honour both your ministry and yourself the minister. That is no ordinary sovereignty. In virtue of it you drive out evil beasts from your borders, so that your flocks may be safely led into their pastures. You will vanquish the wolves, but not lord it over the sheep, the care of which you of course undertook that you might feed them, not oppress them. If you have well considered who you are, you are not ignorant that this is your duty. Moreover, if you know and do not, it is sin to you.²⁰ You have not forgotten the passage, 'the servant who knew his master's will, and did unworthy things, shall be beaten with many stripes.'²¹ The prophets and apostles were wont to do as I suggest. They were brave in war, not voluptuaries robed in silk. If you are a son of apostles and prophets, do as they did. Prove the nobility of your descent by conduct such as theirs; the only source of their nobility was the ingenuousness of their character, and the fortitude of their faith. Through this they conquered kingdoms, wrought righteousness, gained promises in return.²² Here is the conveyance of the inheritance of your fathers : I have put it before you, and in it you may see the portion which falls to you. Be clad with fortitude, and the inheritance is yours. Have faith, have wisdom, but the wisdom of the saints, which is the fear of the Lord, and you have what belongs to you. The whole ancestral estate is yours by clear right. Virtue is the richest estate. Humility is a good estate ; founded thereon the whole spiritual edifice grows into a holy temple in the Lord. Through humility some have even possessed the gates of their enemies. For which of the virtues is so mighty to subdue the pride of demons and the tyranny of men ? But though it be to every person alike a tower of strength from the face of the enemy, somehow or other, the greater the man the greater its acknowledged influence ; the more distinguished its possessor, the more distinction it confers. It is eminently so in the case of the chief pontiff. No gem in all his gorgeous attire shines with a clearer and a purer light. For the higher he is above his fellows, the more through his humility he conspicuously surpasses not only other men, but himself also.