De Consideratione

2. Now, in the first place, your clergy, who set the pattern for the clergy throughout the Church, ought to be in the best of order. Secondly, whatever is amiss in your presence reflects the more discredit upon you. It concerns the glory of your Holiness that the men you have before your eyes be so ordered, so fashioned, that they may be the mirror and the very pink of a virtuous and well-regulated life. Above all other men they should be found ready for their duties, fit for the sacraments, eager to instruct the people, circumspect in keeping themselves free from all pollution. What am I to say about the people? It is the people of Rome. I could not more briefly, or more definitely, describe them. Yet I ought to let you know what I think of your parishioners. Is there anything in history more notorious than the wantonness and pride of the Romans? A race unaccustomed to peace, familiar with tumult; a race to this very day fierce and intractable; who will never submit except when they have no power to resist. Here is the mischief; this is the care that lies heavy upon you, and you must not disguise the fact. You perhaps smile as you read this, for you are convinced that they will never be cured. Do not despair: what is required of you is the care, not the cure. You have surely heard the words, 'Take care of him'; our Lord did not say 'cure' or 'heal' him. It was a true saying, 'The doctor cannot always cure his patient.' But set a better ideal before you in your work. Paul says, 'I laboured more than they all.'¹ He does not say, 'I did more good than all,' or 'I bore more fruit than all,' for he most scrupulously avoided any word of pride. The man whom God taught that every one shall receive according to his work, not according to the results of the work,² knew better than that. Hence it was that he thought he ought to glory more in labours than in successes, as you have him saying elsewhere, 'In labours more abundant.'³ So, pray, do your own work; for God will take good care of His without your solicitude and anxiety. Plant, water, bestow care: you have done your part. God, when He so wills, will certainly give the increase; it will not be you. If perchance He does not will to give it, you lose nothing, for the scripture says, 'God will render to the righteous the reward of their labours.'⁴ That labour is safe which no failure can render void. And I would say this without prejudice to the divine power and goodness. I know the heart of this people is hardened; but God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. Who knows if He will return and pardon, convert and heal them? But I do not propose to dictate to God what He ought to do; would that I could persuade you to do what you ought, and as you ought.

3. I know I am treading on dangerous ground, and have to deal with some very nice points. How shall I approach the perilous task of saying what I think? I see clearly what is hanging over my head. The cry of 'innovation' will be raised; for no one can deny the justice of my complaint. But I would not allow even the plea of novelty. For I am quite sure that what I urge was once the custom, and, like all other customs, it might fall into disuse; but nothing can disturb the fact that the custom once prevailed. Can any one with truth deny that to be a custom which was not only done once upon a time, but beyond a doubt was the practice for a considerable time? I will tell you what I refer to, though it will do no good. Why? Because it will not please the rulers⁵ of the Church, who have more regard for the splendour of their office than for the claims of truth. Before your day there were men who would devote themselves entirely to feeding the sheep; they gloried in the shepherd's work and name; they counted nothing humiliating except what they thought hindered the welfare of the sheep, for they did not seek their own interests, but spent upon the sheep. They spent care, they spent their substance, they spent even themselves. Wherefore one of them says, 'I will be spent out for your souls.'⁶ It is as though they said, 'We came not to be ministered unto, but to minister';⁷ and so, as often as it became them, they made the Gospel free of cost. The only gain they sought from those in their keeping, the only pomp, the only pleasure, was, if possible, to make them a perfect people for the Lord. That was their constant concern, even in much sorrow of heart, and pain of body, in labour and care, in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness.

4. Let me now ask what has become of this practice? A very different one has crept in: men's ambitions have undergone a great change, and I would that the change were not for the worse! We have still among us, I admit, anxious care, wholesome emulation, and a sense of responsibility. These have been passed on to you without diminution. In support of what I say, there is the fact that you do not spare your substance any more than your predecessors did. But it is the change in the investment that makes the difference. It is a great abuse. Few look to the mouth of the lawgiver : all have regard to his hands. And not without good reason. The hands do all the Pope's business. Show me a man in the whole city of Rome who welcomed you as Pope without having his price, or hoping to get it. Even when they profess to be your very humble servants, they aim at being your masters. They pledge their fidelity only that they may more conveniently injure the confiding. Hence it is that there can be no deliberation from which they think they ought to be excluded; there will be no secret into which they do not worm their way. If the doorkeeper keeps one of them waiting a minute or two, I should not like to be in his shoes. Now for a few illustrations, so that you may know whether I understand this people's ways, and how far. First of all, they are wise to do evil, but they know not how to do good. Hateful to heaven and earth, they have laid hands on both ; they are impious towards God, heedless in holy things ; turbulent among themselves, jealous of their neighbours, barbarous to foreigners, they love no man and are loved of none ; and when they aim at being feared by all, all must fear. These are they who cannot bear to be beneath, though they are not qualified to be at the head, faithless to superiors, insufferable to inferiors. They have no modesty in asking, and no shame in refusing. They worry you to get what they want ; they cannot rest till they get it ; they have no gratitude once they have got it. They have taught their tongue to speak great things, when there is but little doing. They are lavish promisers, niggardly performers ; the smoothest of flatterers, and the worst of backbiters ; artless dissemblers, and malignant traitors. I allow myself to digress thus far because I think you ought to be fully and precisely admonished of these things which are around you.

5. Let us now return to our subject. How is it that churches are robbed to provide the purchase-money of the flatterers who cry 'Well done! Well done!'? The sustenance of the poor is scattered broadcast in the streets of the rich. The money glitters in the mud; men rush from all sides to get it; the poor man does not pick it up, but the stronger, or, it may be, the swiftest runner. Still, I must in fairness say this custom, or rather this deadly disease, did not begin with you; would that it might end with you. But let us proceed. Amid these surroundings you, the shepherd, parade in cloth of gold, with every luxury at your command. The sheep, what do they receive? If I might speak the truth, these are the pastures of demons rather than of sheep. Did Peter, forsooth, do such things, or Paul thus sport himself? You see that the one object of the Church's zeal is the preservation of your dignity. Honour claims all, holiness nothing, or but little. If for good reason you attempt to waive ceremony, and show a little friendliness, 'No,' say they: 'it is not becoming': 'it does not suit the time': 'it is not accordant with your rank': 'bear in mind the important part you play.' The last thing mentioned is the will of God; there is no hesitation because men's salvation is at stake; let us call nothing salutary but what is high and mighty; and whatever gives the scent of glory, let that be righteousness. Thus all humility is reckoned a disgrace among the inmates of the palace, so that you may more easily find a man who really is humble than you will one who is willing to appear so. The fear of the Lord is counted simplicity, not to say folly. They revile a prudent man, who is on good terms with his own conscience, as a hypocrite. A lover of quiet, moreover, who sometimes finds leisure to think about himself, they call a useless drone.