Liber De Vitiorum Virtutumque Conflictu [Incertus]

The Book of the Conflict of Vices and Virtues, to Simplicianus. Chapter One. The apostolic voice cries out throughout the world, dearest friend, and to those who are stationed on the battle-line of faith, lest they grow sluggish in security, it says: All who wish to live piously in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. But because at this time Christianity is already religious even in its rulers, and already for the faithful who live piously in Christ Jesus there are lacking chains, scourges, whips, prisons, racks, crosses, and whatever other diverse kinds of torments there may be: how will it be true (someone will say) what resounded through the Apostle, that all who live piously suffer persecution? Or perhaps in a time of peace no one wishes to live piously in Christ Jesus, and therefore these things are lacking? Who would say this, even in deception? In this saying of the Apostle, therefore, not a special persecution of some, but a general persecution of all must be understood. And since there are many established within the bosom of Mother Church who, living piously in Christ, are afflicted with insults and bitter reproaches, injuries, and mockeries: is that, one will say, the general persecution which the Apostle described all who live piously in Christ as suffering? Truly, I would not readily say that this is it: since there are some in the Church so devout that none of the wicked dares to disparage them to their face. Therefore, from the Apostle's words another persecution is to be understood, more savage and more harmful, which not the severity of a mortal inflicts, but the adversity of vices generates.

faint-hearted. For while against humility, pride; against the fear of the Lord, vainglory; against true religion, hypocrisy; against submission, haughtiness; against brotherly love, envy; against charity, hatred; against the freedom of just correction, slander; against patience, anger; against gentleness, harshness; against humble affection, swelling; against spiritual joy, worldly sadness; against the exercise of virtue, sloth or idleness; against firm stability, restless wandering; against the confidence of hope, despair; against contempt for the world, covetousness; against the love of God, self-love; against simplicity, theft and fraud; against truth, deceit and falsehood; against pure frugality and thrift, gluttony; against moderate grief, ill-timed merriment; against discreet silence, talkativeness; against unsullied chastity, fleshly uncleanness and lust; against purity of heart, spiritual fornication; against love of the heavenly fatherland, appetite for this world, opposing itself, emerges; these (I say), when they strive to oppose the virtues, what else do they suggest to us than that a cruel persecution rages against the massed battle-lines of the virtues of those living piously? How harsh, O how bitter is the encounter of pride, which cast the angels out of heaven, expelled man from paradise (Gen. III), whose army and whose weapons of conflict are the vices which we have briefly touched upon and summarized.

But let us see how the camps of heaven and hell do battle, how the arms of Christ and the devil contend. CHAPTER II. First, Pride says to you: Certainly to many, indeed to almost all: You are better in word, knowledge, honors, and riches, and all carnal and spiritual charismata are at your disposal; therefore despise everyone, show yourself superior to all. Humility answers from the opposite side: Remember that you are earth (Genesis 3), that you are rot and a worm (Job 25), that even if you are something, unless you humble yourself as much as you are great, you utterly lose what you are (Sirach 3). Are you higher than the first angel (Ezekiel 28)? Are you more splendid on earth than Lucifer in heaven (Isaiah 14)? For if he fell from such great height through pride, how will you, by being proud, ascend from the depths to heavenly heights? As long as you live here, you are held by the condition of which it is said through the Wise Man: For the corruptible body weighs down the soul, and the earthly dwelling burdens the mind that thinks many things (Wisdom 9). How very dense do we think the shadows of pride on earth envelop our clay (Isaiah 64), if in heaven a star that rose in the morning could lose its globes of light (Isaiah 14)? Therefore listen rather to the light of truth saying: He who follows me does not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life (John 8).

In which way, moreover, she herself was to be followed, he forewarned elsewhere, saying: Learn from me, because I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matt. 11). Hear, O swelling of pride: hear yet again the teacher of humility speaking: Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted (Luke 14); and again: Upon whom does my spirit rest, if not upon the humble and quiet and those who tremble at my words (Isa. 66)? Hear also what the Apostle says about that light of truth, who invites you to imitate it. For he says: He who saw him in the form of God did not consider it a usurpation to be equal to God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men, and found in appearance as a man. He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, and death on the cross (Phil. 2). If, therefore, such great humility abases divine majesty, human frailty ought not to be proud in anything.

CHAPTER III. Vainglory says: Do whatever good you can: show everyone the good you do, so that you may be called good by all, so that you may be proclaimed holy and venerable by everyone, so that you may be known as one chosen by God: so that no one may scorn you, no one may despise you, but all may pay you the honor that is your due. Fear of the Lord responds: If you do something good, do it not for transient honors, but for eternal ones. Conceal what you do, as much as you are able; but if you are not wholly able to do so, let the will to conceal it be in your mind, and then no iniquity of ostentation will be imputed to you. For it cannot be a crime if something is sometimes manifested which you always wish to be kept hidden. Thus, finally, you will seem to have fulfilled the two sayings of the Redeemer, which appear almost contrary to each other, whereby it is said: "When you give alms, let not your left hand know what your right hand does: but let your alms be in secret: and your Father, who sees in secret, will repay you" (Matt. 6); and: "Let your good works be seen, and glorify your Father who is in heaven" (Matt. 5). Beware, above all, lest that saying apply to you, which is said of hypocrites: "They do all their works so that they may be blessed by men. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward" (Matt. 23): that is, only the praises from men which they have loved.

Therefore, be mindful of yourself in all that you do, lest, driven by vainglory and pride, you hear, along with those who even boasted of signs of miracles: "I saw Satan falling like lightning from heaven" (Luke 10:18). But fear, for it is written: "The fear of the Lord is glory, and glorification, joy, and the crown of exultation. The fear of the Lord will delight the heart, and will give joy and gladness, and length of days. To him who fears the Lord, it will be well in the end, and on the day of his death he will be blessed" (Ecclesiasticus 1). And further: "The rays of wisdom are to fear the Lord, and its branches are length of days" (Ibid.). CHAPTER IV. Dissimulation suggests: If you do nothing good in secret, lest you be despised by all who know you, pretend outwardly to be what you do not seek to be within. Religion responds from the opposite side: By no means do this at all, but rather strive to become good, which you are not. For to show yourself to men as upright, when you are not, what else is that but damnation? Remember, indeed, what is said: "Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, who clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but within you are full of plunder and filth. Blind Pharisee, first clean what is inside the cup and the dish, so that what is outside may also be clean" (Matthew 23).

Likewise, that which is repeatedly insisted upon: "Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you are like whitewashed sepulchers, which outwardly indeed appear beautiful to men, but within are full of the bones of the dead and every filth: so you also outwardly appear just to men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity" (Ibid.). And also that which is written concerning such persons: "They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves" (Matt. 7). CHAPTER V. Pride objects: What sort of person are you, that you obey your superiors and render service to your inferiors? You ought to command rather than they; for they cannot equal you in talent, industry, or strength. Therefore, obey the command of God, and do not be concerned about any other. But blessed submission responds: If the command of God is to be rightly obeyed, it is necessary to submit to human authority. For Christ the Lord says: "He who hears you, hears me; and he who scorns you, scorns me; and he who scorns me, scorns him who sent me" (Luke 10). Indeed, you will say, "It is right, but only if the one who commands were such as he ought to be, through whom God commands; but since he is not such, therefore obedience is not due to him." However, the Apostle says on the contrary: "There is no power except from God; and those that exist are ordained by God. Therefore, he who resists power, resists the ordinance of God" (Homily 13).

Because this ordinance has been established by divine law, it ought not to be obscured by human contrivances. Therefore, what those who command ought to be like is not for subjects to question. For the same Apostle continues: "But those who resist, they acquire condemnation for themselves" (Ibid.). And indeed, to the first pastors of the Church (Matt. 20) the Lord Himself says: "You know that the kings of the Gentiles rule over them, and those who exercise power among them are called benefactors; but you are not so, but rather he who is greater among you will be the servant of all: just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life for many in redemption" (Luke 22). Finally, because He did not indicate that all would be such, He therefore, assuming the persons of all subjects in the disciples, forewarned them, saying: "Scribes and Pharisees have sat upon the chair of Moses: everything whatsoever they say to you, observe and do; but what they do, do not do. For they impose heavy and unbearable burdens upon the shoulders of men, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with their own finger" (Matt. 23).

CHAPTER VI. Again, Envy says: In what are you lesser than that one or this one? Why, then, are you not either equal or superior? How much are you worth, which they themselves are not worth? Therefore, they ought not to be either superior or even equal to you. But Fraternal Love responds: If you think you surpass others, O man, in virtues, you will keep yourself safer in the lowest place than in the highest. For the fall is always worse from a height. But if, as you claim, some are superior to you and others equal, what harm does it do you? What injury does it cause you? Beware, lest while you envy others their high place, you imitate the one of whom it is written: "The envy of the devil was the entrance of death into the world" (Wisdom of Solomon 2:24). Moreover, those who are of his party imitate him. CHAPTER VII. Hatred says: Far be it that you should love him whom you find contrary in all things, who disparages you, who insults you, who provokes you with injuries, who reproaches you with your sins, who hastens to outstrip you always in words, deeds, and honors. For unless he envied you, he would by no means so exalt himself above you.

But sincere charity responds: Is it because these things which you recount are to be hated in a man, that therefore the image of God in a man is not to be loved? Nay rather, Christ, who placed on the cross loved his enemies, and prayed for them, before the torment of the cross admonished his disciples, saying: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who persecute and slander you: that you may be sons of your Father, who is in heaven (Luke XXIII; Matt. V). Which had been said before also through Solomon, for thus it is read: If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink, for in doing this, you will heap coals of fire upon his head, and the Lord will repay you with good things (Prov. XXV). To this sentence the Apostle, from the spirit of Christ, whose sense he had, adds saying: Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good (I Cor. J). Which, against those who are known to hate their brothers, is said through John (Rom. XII): He who hates his brother is a homicide (I John III). And you know that every homicide does not have eternal life remaining in him. And again: He who hates his brother is in darkness, and walks in darkness, and knows not where he goes, because darkness has blinded his eyes (I John II). But you say: It suffices for me that I love those who love me. But the Lord says against this: If you love only those who love you, what reward will you have? Do not even publicans do this (Matt. V)? What, O man, are you able to object to this?

Certainly, whoever hates his brother remains in death, and whoever loves remains in God, and God in him (1 John 4). Therefore, vomit forth all the bitterness of gall, and in whatever way you are able, take up the sweetness of charity. For nothing is sweeter than it, nothing more blessed in life, as it is written: Hatred will stir up contention, but friendship will cover all who do not contend (Proverbs 10). Indeed, God Himself strives to conform us to it; hence the evangelist John affirms this, saying: God is charity (1 John 4). And the eminent preacher Paul: The charity of God is diffused in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who is given to us (Romans 5). Whence not undeservedly is charity said to cover the crimes of sins, as it is written: Charity covers all sins (1 Peter 4). CHAPTER VIII. Detraction says: For who can bear to conceal in silence how many wicked deeds this one or that one commits, unless perhaps he who consents?

But just correction responds: The faults of a neighbor are neither to be kept silent nor consented to; rather, with brotherly charity, a neighbor is to be rebuked to his face, not secretly slandered. But if someone objects that he is unwilling to rebuke a brother before his eyes, lest the brother, becoming exasperated, not only fail to improve but take scandal from the correction instead, divine Scripture intervenes and, conversely, declares that slander is more scandalous, saying: "Sitting, you slandered your brother, and you placed a scandal against the son of your mother" (Psalm 49). For one who perceives himself being slandered takes more scandal than one who sees himself being corrected. And because sometimes the errors of those who transgress are to be covered by silence so that they may be corrected at a more opportune time, it is added: "You did this, and he was silent" (Ibid). Finally, lest detractors applaud themselves for this discreet silence—they who, always preferring to disparage secretly, never leap into open correction—it is further subjoined: "You thought it iniquity that I would be like you" (Ibid). As if to say: It is iniquity to think that I would appear like a detractor, but I wait, keeping silent for a time, for a suitable occasion for correction.

Hence it immediately adds: "I will rebuke you, and set your sins before your face" (Ibid.), as if to say: Not in secret, as is your custom, but openly, as is my concern, awaiting a suitable time for correction, I will rebuke the sinner and set his faults before his face. But you say: I do not hate, but love, the one I thus judge and reproach in secret. Yet it responds: Rather, you hate him and do not love, since you slander and do not correct. How detestable slander of a neighbor is, divine scriptures testify in many places. Hence that saying: "The one who secretly slanders his neighbor, I pursued" (Ps. 100); and that: "Whoever slanders a brother, slanders the law" (James 4); and also that of the Apostle Paul: "But if you bite and devour one another, see that you are not consumed by one another" (Galatians). CHAPTER IX. Anger says: The things that are done against you are such that they certainly cannot be borne with equanimity; indeed, to endure them patiently is a sin. And if they are not resisted with great indignation, they will pile up against you without measure thereafter.

Patience responds: If the Passion of the Redeemer is called to mind, nothing is so harsh that it cannot be borne with equanimity. For Christ (as Peter says) suffered for us, leaving us an example that we might follow in his footsteps (1 Pet. 2). The Lord Himself also said to us: If they called the father of the family Beelzebub, how much more his household (Matt. 10)? And in another place: If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you (John 15). But how great are the things we suffer in comparison with His passions? For He endured insults, mockeries, reproaches, slaps, spittle, scourges, a crown of thorns, and the cross (John 18, 19); and we wretches (to our own shame, I say) are wearied by a single word, cast down by a single utterance: nor do we consider what is said: If we have died together, we shall also live together; if we endure, we shall also reign together (2 Tim. 2). Therefore the goads of anger must be blunted, and its condemnation is to be feared. Whence we read it written: Because everyone who is angry with his brother will be guilty before the judgment; but he who says to his brother "raca" will be guilty before the council; but he who says "fool" will be guilty of the fire of Gehenna (Matt. 5). Yet a remedy is hinted at there, when it is subjoined: If you offer your gift at the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to your brother, so that then coming back you may offer your gift (Ibid.).

As if it were said openly: Do not pour forth a silent prayer in your heart unless you first lead the offended neighbor to the gentleness of meekness by making amends. For our gift is our prayer; our altar, however, is the heart. But he who strives to do this (whenever anger has been stirred up between two without cause) will by no means incur the condemnation previously mentioned. But there are many who do not forgive offenses to those who ask them for pardon. Against them comes that saying of the Lord, which says: If you do not forgive each one his brother from your hearts, neither will your heavenly Father forgive you your sins (Matt. XVIII). There are many things, you say, which he has committed against me; he has offended me more often; and because without cause he has assailed me with many injuries from his youth, it is not fitting for me to forgive him so many faults. To this, not I, but the Lord responds. For when Peter said to him: How many times shall my brother sin against me, and shall I forgive him? Up to seven times? And the Lord said to him: I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven (Ibid.). But how many are there who are slow to relax their own injuries, yet more quickly forgive God’s? And it sometimes happens that, under the pretext of avenging the Lord’s injuries, they avenge their own in anger. Finally, what is to be said of those who are so blinded by the heat of wrath that they break forth into words of cursing, except what the Apostle says: Neither the abusive nor the rapacious will possess the kingdom of God (1 Cor. VI)?

The Apostle James also vehemently denounces this, saying: "No man can tame the tongue: a restless evil, full of deadly poison." In it we bless God and the Father, and in it we curse men, who are made in the image and likeness of God. From the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. It ought not to be so, my brothers. Does a spring pour forth sweet and bitter from the same opening (James 3)? For this reason it is also said elsewhere: "Death and life are in the hand of the tongue" (Proverbs 18). CHAPTER X. Harshness says: Are not harsh words, rather than gentle ones, to be thrown at these foolish and senseless men, like brute animals, when they transgress, so that they may learn to revere your dignity? But Meekness replies: Not your persuasion in such matters, but the precept of the Apostle Paul is to be followed, who admonished his beloved disciple concerning this, saying: "Do not rebuke an elder, but exhort him as a father; juniors as brothers; old women as mothers; young girls as sisters in all chastity" (1 Timothy 5). And again: "A servant of the Lord," he says, "ought not to quarrel, but to be gentle to all, apt for teaching, patient, modestly correcting those who think differently" (2 Timothy 2). And again: "Reprove, exhort, rebuke with all forbearance and teaching" (2 Timothy 4).

That is, the evil of harshness is pernicious, harms those subject to it, and accomplishes little; indeed, it often happens that even those who are rebuked out of charity, when provoked, spurn the correction and hurl darts of contempt against the salutary words. This is cautioned against by the Wise Man when he says: "He who argues with a mocker does himself an injury" (Prov. 9). On the other hand, concerning one who profits from reproof, he says: "Reprove a wise man, and he will love you" (Ibid.). Therefore it is written: "Son, in your meekness honor your soul" (Eccl. 10); and the Apostle says: "If a man has been overtaken in some fault, you who are spiritual, instruct such a one in a spirit of gentleness" (Gal. 6); and the same apostle, teaching bishops, says: "That they show themselves gentle to all" (2 Tim. 2). CHAPTER XI. Humility says: You have God as your witness in heaven; do not be concerned about what men on earth may suspect of you.

But humble dejection responds: No occasion for detraction is to be given, no suspicion of whispering is to be allowed; but if detractors are present, your deeds are to be disclosed so that they may be corrected; or certainly, if they are absent, they are to be concealed by a humble protestation. For the Apostle warns us to give no occasion to an adversary for the sake of cursing (1 Tim. 5). This he also condemned in those who, bearing the Christian name, reclined in an idol’s temple, and although they themselves regarded the idol as nothing and consumed the sacrificial food as if it were harmless, yet through this act they drew the weak consciences of the brethren to the nefarious rites of idols (1 Cor. 8). Therefore he says: “Be without offense to Jews and Gentiles, and to the Church of God” (Ibid.). CHAPTER XII. Sadness says: What have you to rejoice about, when you endure such great evils from your neighbor? Consider with what grief of mind all are to be looked upon who are turned against you in such a gall of bitterness.

But spiritual joy responds: I know that sadness is twofold—indeed, I have experienced two kinds of heart-sorrow: one, namely, which works salvation (2 Cor. 7), and the other, however, which contrives ruin: one which draws to penance, the other which leads to despair. You indeed seem to distinguish one of them, but that one which altogether works death. Therefore, one ought not to be saddened in those things which you urge, but on the contrary, one ought rather to rejoice in those things which you do not yet understand. Whence also the Lord, the eternal giver of joy, said: "When men have persecuted you, and have spoken every evil against you, lying on my account, rejoice on that day, and exult: for behold, your reward is great in the heavens" (Matt. 5). Remember that the apostles, the pinnacles of our region, went rejoicing from the sight of the council, because they were deemed worthy to suffer contumely for the name of Jesus (Acts 5). Therefore, there ought to be no place for grief in afflictions, when such an abundance of joy succeeds them.

CHAPTER XIII. Sloth and idleness says: Do you always persist in continuous reading and prolonged study of the Scriptures? You will incur ophthalmia or blepharitis of the eyes. If you pour forth tears without ceasing, you will lose even the light of the eyes themselves. If, by protracted vigils, you discharge the appointed measure of psalms, you will fall into insanity of the head. If you exhaust yourself with daily labor, when will you rise up for spiritual work? But industry and indefatigable virtue responds: What long spans of time do you propose to yourself, O man, for accomplishing good works? Do you know whether you will live even tomorrow? Or indeed whether you will complete even a single hour in this life (James 4)? Or has it perhaps slipped your mind what the Savior says in the Gospel: Watch, for you know neither the day nor the hour (Matt. 25)? Therefore, shake off the sluggishness of torpor, and always remember that the kingdom of heaven is seized not by the tepid, not by the soft, not by the slothful, but by the violent, by those who use force, as the Savior says, who snatch it away (Matt. 11).

CHAPTER XIV. Restless Wandering says: If you believe God is everywhere, why do you guard one singular place where so many evils are perpetrated, and not rather move on to others? Stability replies: If it is as you claim, because you admit God is everywhere, then neither is this place to be abandoned, which you seek to flee, because God is also in it. You will say, "But I seek a better place, I find a better place." But I answer: Will you find a place better, or at least such as the devil or his angel and the man he ruined have lost? Remember, therefore, that the first angel fell from heaven (for thus it is written: I saw Satan falling like lightning from heaven), and the first man was expelled from paradise to the misery of this world. Note that Lot, tested by the exercise of evils, was holy among the Sodomites; but on the mountain, sluggish in security, he sinned while drunk with his daughters. This weariness of wandering adds yet another species, when it draws back even some who persevere in their exercise from spiritual things, or entangles them in worldly affairs, or busies them with the basest matters, acting against the saying of the Apostle, who says: No one serving God entangles himself in worldly affairs, so as to please the one to whom he has proved himself, and again: Pray without ceasing, give thanks in all things.

CHAPTER XV. Despair says: What and how great things have you committed against God and your own soul, how grave the crimes, how countless the offenses, and you have not yet changed your life for the better, nor have you usefully corrected your conduct thus far. For behold, as you see, you are held bound by evil habit always. You try to rise, but weighed down by the burden of your sins, you fall back. What then must you do, when certain damnation for the past threatens, and no correction for the present avails, except not to forgo the pleasures of temporal things, since you are delayed from attaining the promises of the future age? But the confidence of Hope replies: If it is a matter of capital offenses: behold David, guilty of both adultery and homicide, is described as freed from the jaws of hell by the mercy of the Lord (2 Samuel 12). Behold the most shameless Manasseh, the most impure and foulest of all sinners, returned from death to life through penance (2 Chronicles 33). Behold the woman in the city, a sinner stained with countless filths of sins, running anxiously to the fountain of piety, and watering the Lord's footsteps with tears, wiping them with her hair, kissing them, and anointing them with ointment, merited to be wholly cleansed (Luke 7). Finally she heard: Your sins are forgiven; and: Your faith has saved you, go in peace (Ibid.). Behold Peter, bound by the chains of a threefold denial, loosened the knots of his fall with the bitterest tears (Luke 22).

Behold, a thief, guilty of sedition and the shedding of a brother's blood, condemned to death, in a single moment of time and with one word of confession, passed from the cross to paradise. Finally, it was said to him: "Today you will be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43). Truly a most beautiful example of conversion to be emulated. For the thief is so readily granted pardon that grace appears more abundant than the prayer itself. Behold, Saul, persecuting the Church of God, slaying many for the name of Christ, and almost entirely drenched in the blood of holy martyrs, was at last converted by the Lord's voice, became an apostle, and was called the vessel of election (Acts 9). Where, then, so many and such great examples precede, let evil conversations not give place to despair, since it is already written: "When the sinner turns from his iniquity, and does judgment and justice, in these he himself will live" (Ezekiel 33:19). And in another place: "Do I wish the death of the wicked, says the Lord, as much as that he turn from his evil way and live?" (Ezekiel 18:23). Concerning a life not at all changed for the better, what else shall I answer, except that what someone did not do yesterday, let him do today? Let him not put off conversion from day to day, since he does not know if he has even a single day for correction; and always, resisting evil habit on account of gifts received from above, let him say morning and evening: "Behold, now I have begun; this is the change of the right hand of the Most High" (Psalm 77:11).

CHAPTER XVI. Cupidity says: Surely you are not at fault for desiring to have certain things, because you do not seek to multiply, but you dread being in need; and what another wrongly retains, you yourself spend better. But Contempt of the World responds: These things of this age are procured from no one without danger and offense; because the more someone has, the more he desires to have; and it comes about that he cannot find a limit to having, while he hastens to serve the countless cares of this world. For as Scripture says: "He who loves silver will not be filled with silver" (Eccl. 5). This detestable desire for having, always drinking and always thirsty, never fulfilling its own desire, the Apostle Paul indicates, saying: "And avarice, which is the worship of idols" (Col. 3). How harmful it is to the soul and contrary to salvation, the same Apostle explains, saying: "Those who wish to become rich fall into temptation and a snare, and many useless and harmful desires, which plunge men into ruin and destruction" (1 Tim. 6). How truly detestable the miser is, the Wise Man himself declares when he says: "Indeed, nothing is more unjust than a miser" (Eccl. 10). How harmful the accumulation and heaping up of riches is, Saint James reveals, saying: "Now then, rich men, weep, wailing in your miseries which will come upon you. Your riches have rotted, and your garments have been eaten by moths. Gold and silver re—

rust has drawn, and their rust will be testimony for you, and will eat your flesh. Fire (James 5). But neither did the Redeemer wish to pass over in silence the execrable evil of this cupidity, which he explains as deadly when he says: How difficult it is for those who have money to enter the kingdom of God (Mark 10). And elsewhere: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 19). If, therefore, the cupidity of worldly things is set forth as so dangerous for all, how much more deadly will it be for those who are of the Lord's lot, who have renounced the world, who by habit and conversation have already ceased to be worldly? The words of the Redeemer are especially directed here, that the pernicious disease of avarice may be destroyed, to whom he says: Do not be anxious for your soul what you eat, nor for your body what you put on. For all these things the peoples of the world seek (Luke 12): and elsewhere he adds: But seek first the kingdom of God and its justice: and all these things will be added to you (Matthew 6). How blessed, how secure, how embraceable a saying. For no one in this life is so secure as he who, desiring nothing beyond Christ, possesses him. For all things that are considered necessary for man are proven to be had under this possession, as the very rich poor man Paul said: As having nothing, yet possessing all things (2 Corinthians 6).

Everything," he says, "that is, not superfluous things, but those necessary for human life," as he himself confirms and explains elsewhere, saying: "Having food and clothing, let us be content with these" (1 Tim. 6). But perhaps you will say: It happens that those who are called into the Lord's lot have more, so that they may distribute better than the common people to Christ's poor. And I agree with this, but for prelates, not for subjects, as the example of Lot's wife especially taught, who, when she looked back after leaving Sodom, was turned into a pillar of salt and gave up the ghost (Gen. 19). Hence Christ also warns that something of this kind should be guarded against, saying: "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God" (Luke 9). Hence Peter says: "It was better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after knowing it, to turn back from what was delivered to them by the holy commandment" (2 Pet. 2). For that true proverb happens to them: "A dog returning to its vomit, and a sow washed in the mire" (Prov. 26). This disease of avarice is certainly never better restrained than when the day of death is meditated upon without interruption, when a man considers what he will be like in the tomb after a short time. This certainly remained fixed in the memory of the one who said: "Man is putrefaction, and the son of man is a worm" (Job).

These words never departed from the heart of him who taught: "In all your words, remember your last things, and you will never sin in this world" (Eccl. 7). What then, I ask, what then will preserved riches profit? (Ibid., v). Hear what the holy Job says about them: "Naked I came out of my mother's womb, and naked I shall return there" (Job 1). Hear what the Apostle also says: "We brought nothing into this world, nor can we carry anything away" (1 Tim. 6). CHAPTER 17. Self-love says: If you give what you possess to the needy, will you be able to support yourself and those subject to you without want or with dignity? But the love of God responds: If you keep the apostolic measure in this matter, you will be able to accomplish both. For the same Apostle himself says to the Corinthians: "If the will is ready, it is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have. For it is not that there be remission for others, but tribulation for you, but equality. In the present time, let your abundance supply their need, so that their abundance may be a supplement to your need, that equality may be made" (2 Cor. 8), as it is written: "He who had much did not abound, and he who had little did not have less" (Exod. 16). Hence also the just Tobias admonishes his beloved son, saying: "As it is with you, according to the amount make alms from them: if you have little, do not fear to make alms according to the little" (Tob. 4).

Hence also the incarnate Truth teaches: "Nevertheless, give what is left as alms, and behold, all things are clean for you" (Luke 11). Hear also what is written: "Judgment without mercy for him who has not shown mercy" (James 2). Against this the prophet warns, saying: "Break your bread for the hungry, and lead the homeless poor into your house; if you see someone naked, cover him, and do not despise those of your own seed" (Isaiah 58). Remember what happened to the purple-clad rich man: he was condemned not because he took what belonged to others, but because he did not give his own to the needy poor; and placed in hell, he came to beg for the smallest things, he who here denied small things (Luke 16). Consider also what the Judge of heaven will say to those placed on His left: "Go, accursed ones, into the eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you did not give Me to eat" (Matthew 25), and the rest that is there terrifyingly enumerated.

CHAPTER XVIII. Theft and fraud, although they have a different degree of expression, are nevertheless one in what they say. For theft says: If you do not take what belongs to another, you cannot be rich or self-sufficient from your own property. But fraud says: If you deliver up intact everything entrusted to you, and do not think that even a little should be reserved for yourself, from which you might either serve your own interests or please your friends and household. But simplicity responds to both: It is better to be poor and in need, and to please no one by a gift, than to harm someone by theft or fraud. For whoever unjustly seizes what belongs to another in any way closes the entrance to the heavenly kingdom for himself. Hence the eminent preacher Paul rebukes some, saying: "But you do injury and defraud: and this to brothers. Do you not know that the unjust will not possess the kingdom of God?" (1 Cor. 6). And among other things he adds: "Neither thieves, nor the avaricious, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor plunderers will possess the kingdom of God" (Ibid.). Therefore, theft and fraud exclude a man from the kingdom of God, and for that reason they are to be utterly avoided.

CHAPTER XIX. Deceit and falsehood also say the same thing. For deceit is contrived with cunning, but falsehood with a simple word. Deceit therefore says: To give one example from many, when you seek to deceive someone by not giving, you weave delays in the one asking, saying, "I have something I can give you," while hiding in your heart what you have, either to keep for yourself, or to give to another, if the will is there. Falsehood says: "I do not have at all what you ask for" (even though he has it). Thus falsehood frustrates the one asking not with artful cunning like deceit, but with a simple word of denial. But Truth responds to both: One ought to deceive no one, neither with artful cunning nor with a simple word, because however one lies, by any manner of artifice, one sins; for it is written: "The mouth that lies kills the soul" (Sap. 1). Moreover it is said: "And all liars will have their portion in the lake of burning fire and sulphur, which is the second death" (Apoc. 21).

CHAPTER XX. Gluttony says: God created all things pure for eating, and whoever refuses to be filled with food, what else does he do but contradict the gift that was granted? But pure frailty and simple frugality replies: One of the things you say is true. For lest man perish from hunger, God created all things pure for eating: but lest he exceed the measure of eating, he commanded abstinence (Gen. 1). For among its other evils, Sodom perished from satiety, as the Lord attests, speaking of Jerusalem through the prophet, saying: This is the iniquity of Sodom, my sister's sister, pride in the fullness of loaves (Ezek. 16). Therefore, just as a sick person approaches medicine, so should each approach taking food, not seeking pleasure in it, but satisfying necessity. Hence truth warned through the Gospel: Take heed, he says, lest your hearts be weighed down in gluttony and drunkenness (Luke 21). On the other hand, concerning the insatiable voracity of some, the Apostle says: For many are walking, whom I often told you about, and now I say weeping, enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their own shameful parts, who savor earthly things (Phil. 3); and elsewhere: Food for the belly, and the belly for foods: but God will destroy both this and these (1 Cor. 6).

Finally, that one fully eludes this blemish and gluttony of the belly who, in taking meals, not only maintains frugality—that is, always finishes his refreshment while still hungry—but also disdains more elaborate and more pleasant feasts, except for bodily necessity and the reception of guests. CHAPTER XXI. Foolish Joy says: Why do you hide the mind’s joy within? Go out into public cheerful: say something outdoors whereby either you or your neighbors may laugh: make them joyful with your joy. But Wise Joy and Moderate Sorrow replies. Whence comes such great joy to you? Have you perhaps conquered the devil? Have you perhaps escaped the punishments of hell? Have you perhaps arrived from exile to your homeland? Have you perhaps received some certainty about your election? Or has it perhaps slipped your mind that the Lord says: The world will rejoice, but you will be saddened, yet your sadness will be turned into joy (John 16)? Or has it perhaps fallen from your mind that he says elsewhere: Woe to you who laugh now, because you will mourn and weep (Luke 6)? And [that which is said through holy Solomon: Laughter will be mixed with pain, but the end of joys goes into mourning (Proverbs 14)? And on the contrary, that which is taught through the Gospel: Blessed are those who mourn, for they themselves will be comforted (Matthew 5)? And again, that which is said through Solomon: Because the just and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: and man does not know whether he is worthy of love or hatred, but all things are reserved uncertain for the future (Ecclesiastes 9).

Therefore, suppress empty joy, for you have not yet escaped the penal hardship. Is not that man considered insane among men who, confined in prison darkness, tries to rejoice? CHAPTER XXII. Talkativeness says: He will not be held guilty of a crime who speaks many things, but good ones; but rather he who, though speaking few, is proven to say evil things. To which prudent silence responds: What you say is true; but while many good things seem to be uttered, it often happens that speech begun with good things is diverted to something depraved, as Holy Scripture itself declares: "Because from much talk you will not escape sin; but sparing your lips, you will be prudent" (Prov.). And if perchance among many words crimes are avoided, can useless and idle words be avoided, for which reason will certainly have to be rendered in the future (Matt. 12)? Therefore, moderation must be maintained in speaking (Prov. 11, ch.), and even useful words must sometimes be spared, as the holy Psalmist is read to have done. For he says: "I became mute, and I was humbled, and I was silent even about good things" (Ps. 38).

CHAPTER XXIII. Luxury says: Why do you not now indulge yourself in pleasure, since you do not know what will follow you? You ought not to waste the time granted in your desires, because you do not know how quickly it passes. For if God had not wished man to be mingled in the pleasure of the flesh, He would certainly not have made male and female at the very beginning of the human race. But inviolate chastity responds: I do not wish you to be ignorant of what you will receive after this life, for reward or punishment awaits you. For if you live piously and chastely, you will rejoice without end in another life: if, however, you lead this life impiously and luxuriously, you will be tormented by eternal fires in the other. Therefore, you ought to live all the more chastely and purely, the more quickly the granted time passes, as you say you do not know. As for your claim that at the beginning of the human race God created male and female (Gen. i) so that they should mingle in mutual embraces, you speak truly in some cases: but after the human race has been so widely propagated, the license to marry is left to some, that is, to those who have by no means professed virginity or widowed chastity: while it is forbidden to others, that is, to those who have decided to be virgins or continent. Fornication, however, is granted to no one with impunity. Perhaps you do not heed, or think contemptible, what the Apostle says to the licentious: Flee fornication? For every sin that a man commits is outside the body: but he who fornicates sins against his own body (I Cor. vi).

If you think this is of little account, listen to what you will later lament and groan over for eternity. "Neither fornicators," says the same Apostle, "nor adulterers, nor effeminate men, nor male concubines will possess the kingdom of God" (1 Cor. 6:9-10). How momentary is the delight of the flesh, how fleeting the hour of intercourse, by which eternal life is lost. What profit, I ask, does it bring to the body, what gain does it bestow, that which so quickly leads the soul to Tartarus? CHAPTER XXIV. Spiritual fornication says: Does he who consents to lust in his heart and does not proceed to the act of desired lust do anything damnable? Certainly not: because sin, as the Apostle writes, when it is consummated, generates death (James 1:15). But purity of heart responds: He sins utterly who does not guard the purity of his heart and the chastity of his mind. Therefore, every authority on purity says in the Gospel: "He who looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matt. 5:28). Whence it is also said through blessed Job: "I have made a covenant with my eyes, that I will not gaze upon a virgin" (Job 31:1). And what has God divided from above, and what inheritance of the Most High suffices? For unless the consent to an evil thought displeased our Creator God, it would never be said through Isaiah: "Remove the wickedness from your souls before my eyes" (Isa. 1:16), nor would it be said in the Gospel against the Pharisees: "Why do you think evil in your hearts?" (Matt. 9:4).

But the Apostle Paul would not have written to the Romans: "And with thoughts accusing or even defending one another among themselves, on the day when God will judge the hidden things of men, according to my Gospel through Jesus Christ" (Rom. 2). Chapter 25. Love of the world says: What is more beautiful, more honorable, more comely, or what can be more delightful than what we daily behold in this present life? How marvelous is the vault of the sky in the pleasant air, in the light of the sun, in the waxing and waning of the moon, in the variety and course of the stars; how delightful is the earth in the flowers of the groves, in the sweetness of fruits, in the pleasantness of meadows and streams, in the luxuriant stalks of the grainfields, in the leaves of the vines and the branches full of grape clusters, in the shades of the forests and the green palms, in the running of horses and dogs, in the leaping of stags and roes, in the flight of hawks, in the feathers and necks of peacocks, doves, and turtledoves, in the painted walls and paneled ceilings of houses, in the drums and songs of organs and all musical instruments, and in the comely appearances of women, and in their eyebrows and hair, eyes and cheeks, throat, lips, and hands, and in other externally applied ornaments, namely necklaces set with gold and gems, and other things of this sort, which the mind cannot now recall individually.

But the heavenly love of the fatherland responds: If these things which are under the sky please you so much, why do not those things which are in the sky delight you more? If a prison is considered so vast, how great is the fatherland, the city, and the state? If such are the things which pilgrims cultivate, what are the things which the sons possess? If mortals and wretched ones in this life are so enriched, how are the immortals and blessed ones to be rewarded in the other life? Therefore, the love of the present age, in which no one is born so as not to die, immediately recedes, so that the love of the future, in which all are so given life that they afterwards do not die, succeeds: where no adversity disturbs, no necessity constricts, no trouble disturbs, but perpetual joy reigns. But you will ask what is there, where such and so great a blessedness persists. No one can say otherwise, except that whatever good is, is there: and whatever evil is, is nowhere there. What, you ask, is that good? Why do you ask me? It has been explained by the Prophet and the Apostle: The eye has not seen, nor the ear heard, nor have they entered into the heart of man, those things which God has prepared for those who love Him (Isaiah 64; 1 Corinthians 2). David, crammed with many riches of the age, yearned for this happiness when he said: For what is there for me in heaven? and what have I desired of you on earth? (Psalm 72). He abounded in many royal feasts and other pleasures, and nevertheless he cried out: I shall be sated when your glory appears to me (Psalm

XVI), and again: "My soul thirsts for the strong living God, when shall I come and appear before the face of God?" (Psalm 41), and again: "Woe is me, for my sojourn is prolonged" (Psalm 119). Hence also the Apostle Paul: "Having a desire," he says, "to be dissolved, and to be with Christ, which is much better" (Philippians 1). Having thus run through these matters, although I have omitted many things, nevertheless, as it seems to me, I have briefly demonstrated the strong camp of our enemy, with which he does not cease to assail those living piously in Christ. Behold, dearest brother, among my other occupations I have dictated and written this discourse for you in the nighttime hours, albeit with uncultivated elegance; and because I have recognized that it exceeds the measure of letters, I have preferred to call it rather a little book on the conflict of vices and virtues, in which if you find anything of edification, you will take care to hand it over to others to read.