Sermo De Bono Disciplinae [Incertus]

Sermon on the Value of Discipline. Restored to Valerian, bishop of Cimiez, some time ago by Melchior Haiminsfeld Goldast. Fragments of this little work found in an ancient Colbertine codex also bear his name. We have collated the manuscripts of Victor and of Colbert with Goldast’s copy, and also with the edition that exists in the Library of the Fathers. CHAPTER ONE. Empire and pride. The value of discipline. There are many who oppose sound teaching, who blame justice, and who judge discipline to be empire, and assign reasonable correction to pride: whereas there is no empire except where something unjust is commanded; nor is there pride except where some discipline is neglected. Discipline, therefore, is the teacher of religion, the teacher of true piety: which does not rebuke in order to harm, nor does it chastise in order to injure. Finally, it corrects the morals of men when angered, and guards them when inflamed, as Solomon says: “Son, do not fail from the discipline of the Lord, nor grow weary when you are rebuked by him. For the Lord rebukes whom he loves; but he scourges every son whom he receives” (Prov. 3:11–12). Indeed, there is nothing that discipline does not either correct or make safe. If a wise man takes hold of it, he neither loses the grace of friendships nor incurs the danger of condemnation.

Chapter 1. All things are contained and ordered by discipline. Let no one consider discipline irrational, under which he sees the counsel of almighty God stand firm, with all things in heaven and under heaven composed by the cooperating Word. For in the beginning of his work, God made nothing before discipline. For when, with Wisdom assisting, he suspended the sky, prepared the earth, enclosed the seas, and arranged the course of the sun and the globe of the moon in their places and times, he established all things under discipline (cf. Wisdom 11:22-50). But what would not be dark, what would not be disordered, what would not be considered absurd, unless all elements stood fixed by established laws? Is the course of the sun carried out without discipline? For although it has tirelessly fulfilled the necessity of its daily journey, it nevertheless arrives at its duty in the morning and shows itself in a part of the sky each day to survey the expanses of the earth. So great is the principle of discipline that, within the boundaries of time prescribed by law, the course of the stars is driven by alternating turns of an untiring journey, so that neither does the moon escape the losses of its waning, nor does the flame of the sun's daily light abandon it. Is it without discipline that the waves of such a great sea are contained by the lowly shore of the lands, and that the wave, frequently stirred up by winds in its own bosom, is enclosed by a higher mound? Indeed, a foolish nature would confound everything, were the principle of discipline not to govern the world.

We have proposed to say these things so that you might learn to obey the precepts of the Gospel and to comply with the commands of heaven. But what is expedient for a rational soul, made in the image of God, a man can easily understand, when he sees that even the elements serve the sacred constitutions of discipline established by the will of God. Chapter 3. All vices are restrained by discipline. Hear the prophet saying, "Serve the Lord in fear, and exult to him with trembling. Seize discipline, lest the Lord become angry at some time, and you perish from the just way" (Ps. 2 and 12). Well in all matters does fear obey discipline: for by this very fact that it knows how to avoid impending cases of danger or the angers of judges, it has obtained the power of preserving safety. What, therefore, would be chaste for an adulterer? What safe for a thief? What would not be accessible to a bandit? Who would not dread the hollows of shores, the secrets of forests? What would presumption not possess, unless discipline restrained the madness of minds under the fear of punishment? And unless an order of living had been established, the nature of sin would certainly never put an end to itself. There is nothing that gluttony does not urge, if discipline consents to gluttony; there is nothing that luxury does not destroy, if discipline departs from you through love of vices; there is nothing that the mind does not seize with the desire of having, unless discipline condemns the vice of avarice. All vices lie under the fear of discipline.

There is now no reason why faith should ever blush, if a man looks to the future judgment of God and considers the account of reason to be rendered; nor is there any reason why the avenger of crimes should rage with punishment, if, with an eye to discipline, you either think upon what is honorable or chastise what is shameful. Many there place the name of cruelty where, for the sake of love of discipline, the penalty for a confessed crime punishes a thief: when the sentence of the judge serves just laws; and extends a hand not only to the present, but also to the future. Who, therefore, would not lawfully believe that he ought to sin, if the judge did not prescribe discipline for impure and impious acts? CHAPTER IV. Human discipline serves divine law. What severity is to be avoided. Who are to be spared. Let us see what the law says: You shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not bear false witness (Exod. 20:13, 14, 16). These were the disciplines of the law, to which even the strictness of secular sentence yields; by attacking base things, by cutting away criminal things. For Scripture adds, The judge is not appointed as an avenger of good work, but of evil (Rom. 13:3); so that it even demands a kind of vicarious penalty, when it says, An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth (Lev. 24:20). But we can easily avoid that ancient severity of sentence, if we think upon the flames of future judgment. However, the apostle Paul clearly teaches that the arms of secular judgment can be despised by one who says, If you wish not to fear power, do what is good (Rom. 13).

But these matters are not to be treated idly: for when the Apostle’s teaching recalls these earthly powers, it insinuates into our senses the parts of the heavenly judgment. For when it teaches that we must serve the laws of the age, it admonishes that man must necessarily take heed for future times. "If you wish," he says, "not to fear the power, do what is good": that is to say, "If you wish not to fear the judgment that will fall, turn away from evil, and do good" (Psalm 36). Therefore, we must beware of and overcome this first form of constitution, which lacks the laws of the age: so that we may exclude from ourselves that prejudice of perpetual death. For those whom this temporal punishment does not afflict, that one pursues in eternity with the insatiable pain of torments. But let no one think that he has escaped the crime of homicide, whom the corrupt sentence of a secular judgment has acquitted. Nor let him think that the sin of adultery has been passed over, who, caught by the law, has escaped through indulgence. Let no one, when he sees a healthy right hand, judge that the penalties due by law to the guilty of falsehood have been granted. With bodies dead, crimes remain safe, unless they have first been purged before God by the intercession of tears. For Gehenna awaits its guilty one, armed with the torments it owes. The authority of a secular sentence pertains more to the confusion of the present life, not to the absolution of the crime. Therefore, all those punishments must be considered by us, where man lives while the penalty endures; where torments do not fail the body, nor do the members of the torturer fail.

Yet we can easily avoid these things if we hold the reins of discipline, as the Apostle says: “If you wish not to fear authority, do good, and you will have praise from it” (Rom. 13:3). What wise man would not gladly apply his mind to these goods of discipline, where a man can not only avoid the penalty of crime but also acquire the grace of praise? Chapter V. There are those to whom discipline has not yet come. But they are less guilty than those whom it has abandoned. Discipline: to whom it is burdensome, to whom light. Hear the prophet saying: “Seize discipline, lest the Lord grow angry and you perish from the just way” (Ps. 2:12). In this passage, I think, this sentence pertains to those to whom discipline has not yet come: who still linger in byways, caught in the ancient error of superstition. For those who are admonished to seize the study of discipline are proven never to have lived under the law. It follows in this psalm: “Lest the Lord grow angry and you perish from the just way.” Therefore, if the Prophet judged those to whom discipline has never come as guilty, what are we to think should be judged of those whom discipline has abandoned? Between the acts of both, the authority of the prophetic reading places a lesser fault, clearly, in not having come to discipline than in having spurned the law of discipline. Behold, the prophet says: “He who spurns discipline hates his own soul” (Wis. 3:11). And truly, as he said, so it is: for he is an enemy and foe of his own soul who, having spurned the warnings of discipline, is occupied with diabolical services.

Some say that discipline is established by harsh laws. Let these wretched people speak thus, whom that author of death, the devil, invites to every crime, whose minds an insatiable gluttony possesses, over whom drunkenness reigns, whom foul lust holds captive, and from whom ungrateful pride never departs. But for those to whom it is a pursuit to faithfully preserve honor, continence, humility, and piety, the burden of discipline is sweet, and the yoke of the Lord is light: which does not weigh down, except on those who are either lost or about to perish. CHAPTER VI. Discipline in brutes. I am ashamed to speak, to the confusion of human negligence, why discipline makes so little progress among some, when we see that pastoral teaching does not perish even among dumb animals. Let us learn, behold, to preserve the order of discipline from the docile spirits of horses, when, led in a circle with winding steps, they compose their limbs, and under the restraint of a single rein they allow themselves to be slackened in such a way that a mode of running and standing is preserved under a certain arrangement of laws. Thus, those whom nature separates by number, the study of discipline unites. See how the strong bodies of oxen submit to the plow: they prepare their minds for command to such an extent that, though naturally swelling, they place their necks under a light yoke. Thus they serve the constitutions of discipline, even those born in wildness.

I sometimes wonder how a man, in whom wisdom and the understanding of prudence reside, can everywhere neglect the precepts of discipline, when we see a dumb animal avoid vices, obey commands, serve authority, and so adapt its mind to every obedience that, when need arises, it rushes against armed legions and, at command, throws itself before hostile weapons. Listen in this place to the prophet saying, "The ox has known its owner and the manger of its master; but Israel has not known me" (Isaiah 1:3). I fear to say that this judgment may strike at our own negligence. For one does not know the Lord who does not know the duty of his own condition. CHAPTER VII. How the Lord can be found or known. I will show clearly how the Lord can be either found or known—if, that is, the mind of the one seeing is present. If you wish to see the Lord, seek out the beggar, look to the poor man, welcome the stranger, visit the sick, run to the prison. If you wish to see God, loose the bonds of captivity, cut the knots of iniquity. Hear the Lord speaking about this: "I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in; I was naked, and you covered me; I was sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me" (Matthew 25:35-36). I therefore warn you: do not despise the naked, do not withdraw your hand from the blind, do not scorn one wrapped in rags. For in this garment the Lord was first found when he was sought by the Magi.

CAT UT VIII. There should be a zeal for religious life and good reputation. The common people are accustomed to judge good men ill. Do not give place to suspicion. And concerning the discipline of which we have made mention, under which the Christian faith flourishes, it is necessary that all the ornaments of life be brought to your ears: so that each one may understand that the reputation of conversion profits him little, unless he has loved discipline in contempt of the world. Therefore, whoever has the zeal to worship Christ, let him first take up the garments of heart and body. So every life of the religious profession ought to feel the reputation of integrity: lest the crown of virtue, which awaits someone, strike him with the loss of modesty. Let bodily integrity fortify life; let untainted faith guard integrity: so that, by the benefit of both parts working together, it may make an immaculate man reign with Christ. But the whole reason for our conversion consists in this alone: that we be good. Therefore, above all, that man must labor, so that he who follows goodness may be judged good. For although a man may keep his body pure and immaculate, he carries a lacerated life to God, whose act defames his countenance: although we know that conscience alone can suffice for good acts. But how much better it is, that he who frequently sickens with vain suspicions around your door should always think well of you! For it is naturally implanted in the common people always to judge good men ill. But you who cultivate the care of a good reputation, by your zeal acquire the grace of an unblemished opinion.

Therefore let our life be so bright that it is known to all: let integrity serve religion, modesty serve humility. He whom the love of preserving integrity holds, must above all not admit to himself the reputation of false error. It is indeed great and glorious, and to be proclaimed by the mouth of all up to heaven, never to have given place to evil deeds: but it is much stronger, never to have labored under false suspicions. For what does sobriety profit you, if you practice the vices of drunkenness? Who will not judge you drunk, if among cups flowing with wine you imitate the circles of dancers? Who will think you chaste, if they see you mingled with the tales of harlots, composed in theatrical speech: either speaking foul things, or resounding dishonorable ones? I indeed praise the conscience of chastity in you, but I hate the conversation of a harlot. CHAPTER IX. To what extent a good conscience suffices. At this point someone may perhaps say, A pure conscience suffices for me. As far as innocence is concerned, it suffices for you alone: but care must be taken lest by your easiness another sin, and another's sin take root in you: according to that which Scripture says, Woe to him through whom scandal comes (Matthew 18:7). Moreover, although you clothe your body in precious silk and arrange your limbs in snowy fleece, you do not pass the day without stain if you have touched the mouth of a burning furnace. Therefore in every act of yours, let discipline accompany your life. If you wish to please Christ, strive so that faith may aid your profession, and reputation commend it.

Let patience, the companion of humility, go before you; let chastity, the teacher of integrity, stand by you; let greed flee, let drunkenness blush, let luxury mourn its own deeds, let pride depart in confusion. Therefore whoever it is who hastens to know God, under this order of discipline will be able to find Christ. Many things indeed still remained, most beloved, which the reason of discipline urged to be disclosed; these we have thought for the time being to postpone, lest a long narration produce weariness in idle ears. Lest we seem to have withdrawn something from this work, we shall take care that those things which pertain to religious practices we discuss at a later time.