Ad Julianum tributorum exaequatorem

Oration 19. On the discourses, and on the assessor Julian. 1. What is this tyranny which we always exercise out of love? What is this wisdom and knowledge of mine, on account of which we are warred against at every assembly? For I myself find none, as I examine and direct myself from every side. Except that I am conscious of this one thing in myself, and perhaps it is not a bad thing, even if some call it simplicity. I wished at all times to be dead to life, and to live the life hidden in Christ, and to become some great merchant, having purchased the precious pearl with all that I have, and given in exchange the things that flow and are dragged along for those that are stable and heavenly—which is indeed the greatest and most secure of transactions for those who have sense. But if not, at least to endure this: to yield the thrones to those who wish them, and myself to be a child and a disciple throughout life, until I wash away the salty things with the drinkable words. Let this, then, be one thing of my philosophy, or simplicity, and first; and second, which is also greatest.

2. Since I was unable to restrain the speech of the many by speech, and the present impulse and eagerness that possesses all to teach and speak the things of the Spirit without the Spirit, I came by another way—as I persuade myself, a better and less painful one—to educate all to quietness by the archetype of silence: if they think something great of us, by revering our superiority; if they think little and as much as is worthy, by moderating ourselves to equality with them. This is the reason for my silence; this is the mystery of my endurance. 3. But what am I to suffer? Some drag and tear us from one side, others from the other, and they litigate over my labors, exacting speech as if it were some other debt inexorably, and they love me more than I love myself; and all are wiser than I, knowing better than I the time for speech or silence; and they say they will not desist, as if striking a flint with iron, beating us with reproaches until from a small spark they kindle the torch of speeches. Already some of them promise kinder things, and set great prizes before the speeches: first, that they will benefit themselves, offering to God and to us to bear fruit in speech; then also all these here, through the census, my flock—if indeed the paternal is mine—my own congregation, whom I would greatly wrong if I were not eager to benefit in every way. And the finest thing is that what it would take much labor to achieve by speeches, they bring forward on behalf of the speeches themselves. O what a noble ambition, with which they strive that I be victorious! O what a praiseworthy offering! Do you see how great is the work of my silence?

made the words themselves more desirable to you. You see the fruit of my lack of renown. Would that the benefit of my words were as great as that of my silence. 4. Since, then, this is your decision, and you have conquered the unconquerable, and set up a trophy against my philosophy, let me utter something to you better than silence. I will speak, then, not something soft and leisurely, nor in the harmony most pleasing to the many (for I would not properly repay my lovers by discoursing in that way), but in a manner very manly and intense, by which you might perhaps become better, being carried from the flesh to the spirit, and having your mind sufficiently elevated. Sons of men, how long will you be heavy-hearted? (For I will begin my proem to you from the most loud-voiced David.) Why do you love vanity and seek falsehood, supposing this life, and luxury, and petty reputation, and lowly power, and deceptive prosperity to be something great? Things that belong no more to those who have them than to those who have hoped for them, nor to these more than to those who have not even expected them; things that are blown and tossed about from one to another like dust in a storm, or that flow away like smoke, and play like a dream, and are not held fast like a shadow; things that are neither hopeless for those who do not possess them when absent, nor trustworthy for those who have them when present.

5. Shall we not look up to the heaven above? Shall we not come to our senses? Shall we not wipe the rheum from our eyes? Shall we not learn what true wealth is, what genuine splendor is, and where the dignity that does not collapse resides? What is the boundless happiness, and where is the unshakable good, neither shifting nor plotted against? Shall we not acquire these things with many sweats and labors, if that is how it happens? Shall we not, if we must take delight here, take delight in hopes? Shall we not know the holy martyrs, both all the others who have taken hold of the whole world like common bonds, and those whose present festival this is? For what did they endure wounds, bonds, tortures, the threat of fire, the edge of swords, the savagery of beasts, darkness, hunger, pits, the seizure of property, the loss of limbs, and finally deaths, and all willingly, as if contending in bodies not their own? To what end did they become, and what did they inherit, which are clear to all, even if we do not speak of them? Shall we not, with the same hope, under the same judge and contest-master, array ourselves against the same tyrant, the bitter persecutor of souls both then and now, the invisible enemy and foe? Shall we not act with courage in like manner, as if in a common theater, this world, even if not at the height of danger which brings a swift release, but in the daily contests and struggles, so that we may be deemed worthy of the same crowns, or as close as possible? 6.

I for my part exhort everyone—man and woman, old and young, city dweller and country dweller, private citizen and ruler, rich and poor (for the same contest summons all)—to strip eagerly for this, and not to be soft, nor to delay, nor to let slip the opportunity, which it is impossible to obtain again. For the present is the time of labor, the future of recompense. Arise, let us go from here; you have heard the Savior saying, not only leading the disciples of that time away from the place of Judea, but also raising up all later ones from here and drawing them upward to himself, as the promise is. Let us follow a good Master; let us flee worldly desires, let us flee the deceitful world and world-ruler, let us become purely of the one who made us, let us honor the image, let us revere the calling, let us change our life. Why do we humble ourselves, having become exalted? Why do we remain among visible things? 7. Let each one, whatever he is able, bear fruit for God at every time and in every form of life and circumstance, according to the measure of the power present in him, according to the gift given to him; so that with all measures of virtue we may fill all the abodes there, reaping as much as we sowed, or rather storing as much in the divine winepresses as we cultivated. Let one bring money, another the possession of nothing; one eagerness, another acceptance of the eager one; one praiseworthy action, another accurate contemplation; one timely speech, another reasonable silence.

One offers faultless teaching and a life that does not resist; another, a ready and well-disposed ear. One offers pure virginity, which wholly cuts itself off from the world; another, a holy marriage, which does not entirely separate from God. One offers fasting without vainglory; another, enjoyment that is not licentious. Another offers undistracted attention in prayers and spiritual hymns; another, care for those in need. All offer tears, all offer purification, all offer ascent and the stretching out toward what lies ahead. 8. Good and simple fruitfulness is also offered, and laughter that is disciplined, and anger that is restrained, and an eye that is trained, and a mind that is not allowed to wander. Nothing brought to God is so small, even if it is very little, even if it falls far short of what is worthy, that He does not altogether accept and welcome it, though He knows how to weigh mercy with just judgment. He accepts Paul’s planting, as Paul’s, and Apollo’s watering, and the widow’s two mites, and the tax collector’s humility, and Manasseh’s confession. Moses set up the tabernacle below, the antitype of the heavenly things, and all brought what was proclaimed to them. Some even came unsummoned, some bringing gold, some silver, some precious stones for the ephod; some brought fine-spun linen, some spun scarlet, some purple, some rams’ skins dyed red; some even brought goats’ hair for the lesser works of the tabernacle, the meanest offering; each brought whatever they happened to have, man or woman; all brought, and no one was without contribution, not even the poorest.

Thus also we, for the honorable tabernacle of God, this Church, which the Lord pitched and not man, which is built together with diverse beauties of virtue—one contributing a little, another more, but all alike—let us bring in for a perfect work, for a dwelling-place of Christ, for a holy temple, being composed and fitted together by the architecture of the Spirit. Certainly we shall bring in nothing so great as what we have received, even if we bring in everything. For both our being is from God, and our knowing God, and even the having of what we bring in. But the finest and most philanthropic thing is that God measures the gift not by the worth of what is given, but by the power and disposition of the one who bears fruit. IX. Do not, then, wait to become good, but become so now; nor, because you fall short of worth, fail entirely in the whole. But bring in one thing, be eager for another, and for the rest, pray that pardon be granted to your weakness. "You shall not appear empty before me," it says. Let no one be empty, nor unfruitful, nor any soul barren and sterile. Let each one bear fruit for God from what is present and from what is his own: the one who sins, his change; the one who runs well, his vigor; the young man, his continence; old age, its prudence; the rich man, his sharing; the poor man, his gratitude; the one in authority, his humility; the one who exacts, his gentleness. Priests, clothe yourselves in righteousness, or, to speak more truly, let us clothe ourselves.

Let us not scatter the sheep from the pasture and destroy them, for whom the good shepherd laid down his life—the shepherd who knows his own and is known by his own, who calls them by name, and leads them in and out, from unbelief to faith, and from this life to the rest beyond. Let us fear lest the judgment begin from us, according to the threat; lest we receive from the Lord’s hand double sins, ourselves not entering and hindering those who could enter. 10. Sheep, do not shepherd the shepherds, nor rise above your own bounds; it is enough for you if you are well shepherded. Do not judge the judges, nor legislate for the legislators; for God is not a god of disorder and confusion, but of peace and order. Therefore let no one be a head who is barely a hand, or a foot, or some other of the more insignificant members of the body; but let each one, brothers, remain in the rank to which he was called, even if he is worthy of a better one; in that he is content with his present station, he is more approved than in seeking that which he did not receive. Let no one, when it is possible to follow without danger,

Let him who desires to rule do so at his own peril; and let the law of subordination, which holds together both earthly and heavenly things, not be dissolved; and let us not make anarchy out of polyarchy. You who are concerned with words, do not put too much trust in words, nor philosophize excessively and beyond reason, nor desire to conquer everything wrongly, but there are things in which it is well to suffer defeat. Yield to the Word; make education a weapon of justice, not of death. 11. Be content with your own rations, soldiers, and demand nothing beyond what has been assigned. These things John enjoins upon you along with us—John, the great herald of truth, the forerunner of the Word. What does he mean by ration? Clearly the imperial grain allowance and the gifts legally belonging to offices. And the excess—of what? I hesitate to speak the blasphemous word; but you, I know, understand, even if I refrain. Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and unto God what is God’s: to the one the tribute, to the other the fear—you who bear the name of the state; and when I say fear, I forbid greed. What then shall we gain, you might perhaps ask? Something great: the greatest of all; and if you wish, through me as mediator, the good hopes and the primacy of the city above, not of this small and least of cities, whose rule—to speak moderately, honoring it as having nurtured me—is not at all so august and splendid. Let us wish to be first there; let us aspire to the brilliance from that place; let us rest in the bosoms of Abraham, instead of the compassion here; let us judge a just judgment; let us rescue the poor and needy; let us pity the widow and orphan.

Let us ransom those being put to death, or, to say the very least, let us not ourselves kill; let us not overlook the one in need of us, even for the crumbs from the table; and let us not pass by the one who is ulcerated and cast down at our gates; let us not live luxuriously while others suffer; let us not abhor our fellow slave; let us not, friends and brothers, become of the rich man's party, nor be pained in the flame, nor be separated from the holy by the chasm, nor beg Lazarus the poor man to cool our burning tongue with the tip of his finger, and not obtain even so much. Let us become good, compassionate, sympathetic; let us imitate the goodness of the Master, who makes the sun rise for good and evil alike, and nourishes all alike with the rain. Let us not accept to grow rich through the poverty of others; let us not come so far from divine equality; nor mix our wealth with the tears of others, by which it will be consumed as by rust and moth, or, to use the Scriptural phrase, be vomited out. But are we more insatiable than we ought to be? There is also a good way to be greedy. Let us give something small here, so that we may be rich there. XII. These instructions, then, are already common to all, not only to those in public office; for the remedies are common to a common infirmity. But you, the registrar of our taxes, enroll us justly; enroll, not my words carefully, from which there is no profit, or little, or only for the pleasure and delight of hearing, but enroll my people piously and philanthropically; reverencing, if nothing else, at least the season itself, that the Savior is born during a census.

A decree went out, it is said, from Caesar Augustus, that the whole world be registered; and it was registered. And Joseph also went up to Bethlehem with Mary, his betrothed wife, to be registered, because he was of the house and lineage of David. And then the Savior is born, the wonder, the creator and master of all, in a mean and small lodging. Let us fear the mystery; let us revere the economy, and let us ourselves contribute something to the occasion. Now angels rejoice, now shepherds are illuminated, now a star from the East runs toward the greatest and unapproachable light; now Magi prostrate themselves and offer gifts, and recognize the king of all, and rightly infer the heavenly from the star; and now Herod rages and murders children, and because of the liberator, destroys those who ought to attain freedom. But let us be with those who worship, and let us offer to the one who became poor for our sake even to the body, not frankincense, nor gold, nor myrrh—the one as to God, the other as to king, the third as to one who tasted death for us—but mystical gifts, beyond what is visible: at least to take nothing, to concede nothing to wealth against poverty, and not to wrong the creature through the creature. 13. You write with Christ, you weigh with Christ, you test with the head, you reckon with the Word. Christ is just now born for you, and he is God, and becomes man, and associates with men. What does the Word reveal?

It seems to me, for the admonition of those who are entrusted with such matters, that God always enters together with the greatest of the administrations. And in order to shame the registrars, at that time He consorts with flesh and with men; and in order to console us in our servitude, and to legislate good will (for this too must not be overlooked), He Himself also pays the didrachm, and not for Himself alone, but also for Peter, the most honored of the disciples; since He became man for our sake, and assumed the form of a slave, and was led to death for our transgressions. These things the Savior does, who is able to save by will alone, as God, since He also established all things by command; but He brought to us something greater and more compelling, compassion and equality of honor. But what of us, the disciples of Christ, who is gentle and philanthropic, and who has served us so much? Shall we not imitate the compassion of the Master? Shall we not be kind to our fellow slaves, so that we ourselves may meet with such a Lord, who measures as we measure? Shall we not gain our own souls through gentleness? It is enough that the free rule, and that the difference is so great that from the same clay, one part rules and the other is ruled; and one part imposes taxes, the other is registered; and for some it is permitted to do wrong and to treat badly, while for others it is necessary to beg and struggle in order not to suffer; and that these things concern the one image and the one dignity, the heirs of the same life, for whom Christ died alike. It is enough for the free; let the yoke not be burdened, nor the penalty for our first sin.

May wickedness perish, and its first foundation, and the Evil One who sowed the tares among us while we slept, so that neglect of the good might become the beginning of evil, just as darkness is the withdrawal of light. These things are the tree, and the bitter taste, and the envious serpent, and the disobedience that condemned us to live by the sweat of our brow. From this I am naked and unseemly, and I recognized my nakedness, and I put on the tunic of skins, and I fell from paradise, and I was turned back to the earth from which I was taken, having this one thing instead of luxury: to know my own evils. And I was condemned to unceasing grief instead of the brief pleasure, and to war against the one I wickedly loved and who through the taste ensnared me. These are the wages of wickedness for me; from this comes being born with toil, and living, and being dissolved. This is the mother of need, and that of greed, and that of wars; and the fathers of taxes are a war to me, and the heaviest part of the condemnation. But let us not increase the penalty, being under the same condemnation, nor become evil to others. God demands of us philanthropy toward one another, even if we are punished by him. 15. There will be another registration and another registrar, if you hear of a book of the living and a book of those not saved. There we shall all be enrolled, or rather we are already written, each according to the worth of what has been lived here. There wealth has no advantage, nor poverty disadvantage, nor favor, nor enmity, nor anything else by which justice is stolen here. We are all written by the finger of God, and

A book will be opened for us on the day of revelation. There, the small and the great are together, and the servant is with the master—I will speak the words of Solomon—and the king with the subject, and the tax assessor with the one assessed, and the splendor is near. I will be silent about the ill-sounding part; yet as we write, so shall we be written. Make this enrollment more favorable for yourself by appearing to us as kind and philanthropic. 16. What do you say to this? What do you write, O best of friends, and sharer with us in peers and teachers and learning, even if now God has placed us in the better portion, to teach you these things who are in authority (I hesitate to say in a harsher one)? O of a pious fatherland and lineage, O sacred scion of sacred parents, O root of more sacred children, how do you ever receive my words? Do we persuade at all, or will it be necessary to chant longer incantations? This must not be guessed, but well known, that my words have a hold on you from more than one side. For even if we had no other ground for confidence, yet we have confidence in the words themselves, which always easily lead you to what is good, whether you are beginning or following; for this is how the wise differ from the many. I will add a little more to what has been said: you have given a reward to my words, whatever you have given; but they give to you and bring before you the poor, the whole chorus of priests, the chorus of philosophers, held down by no bond, possessing only their bodies, and not even those completely; having nothing for Caesar, everything for God: hymns, prayers, vigils, tears, possession not held, to die to the world, to live for Christ, to empty the flesh, to draw the soul away from the body.

Sparing these, or rather, rendering purely to God the servants of God and initiates, and the beholders of heavenly things, the firstfruits of our race, the support, the crowns of faith, the precious pearls, the stones of the temple whose foundation and cornerstone is Christ—I speak of the beautiful fullness of the Church. And you would counsel excellently both for these, and for yourself, and for all of us. And I pray that this wealth from us may be yours, rather than treasures of much gold and silver, now existing, and after a little while no longer existing. 17. This is the fruit-bearing of my words to you, even if less than the hope, yet according to our power. But you would give me in return the greater part of my contribution: obedience, so that, among other things, you may have less need of my words, observing one another for the incitement of love and good works; so that, having obtained a kind and philanthropic writing from there, and dancing around the king of all—which is the only work for those written there—we may minister praise to God, the one of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, both beholding and exalting the glory and splendor of the divinity, because to him is the glory, and the honor, and the adoration unto the ages of ages. Amen.