Liber de Aleatoribus

VI. CONCERNING GAMBLERS. Great is our care for the entire brotherhood, faithful, especially concerning the audacity of all the lost, that is, of gamblers, whose minds plunge into the pit of death through wickedness. And since in us divine and paternal piety has conferred the leadership of the apostolate and has ordained the vicarious seat of the Lord by heavenly grace, and we bear in our superior person the authentic origin of the apostolate upon which Christ founded the Church, having likewise received the power of binding and loosing and the cure of forgiving sins: we are admonished by salutary teaching, lest while we continually pardon the delinquent, we ourselves be tormented equally with them. And therefore we are called the salt of the earth, so that from us the entire brotherhood may be seasoned with heavenly wisdom. For when it says: but if the salt has become insipid, it will be of no value, except to be cast out and trampled underfoot by men, we fear and dread this, lest while we are secure in the Church because the priestly dignity has been handed down to us by the Lord, we be found negligent, according to some idle brothers, or while we give false communion, we lose through our own action, with the Lord indignant, that which we receive with honor from God's grace. For divine scripture says: woe to the shepherds. But if the shepherds themselves are found negligent, what will they answer to the Lord for the flocks, what will they say? that they were harassed by the flocks?

they are not believed: it is an incredible thing that a shepherd could suffer anything from his flock; he will be punished all the more for his lie. And another scripture says: They sought you as a ruler, do not be puffed up. Be to them as one of them: have care for them and sit thus. And again: Consider the priest to be a cultivator, and that all delights, full granaries, are with him, from which whatever my people desire may be satisfied. Now, so that it may be established that we, that is, bishops, are shepherds of spiritual sheep, that is, of the faithful who are placed under our care, let no vice of scab be found in them. The more they are scrutinized by us daily, so that with heavenly medicine applied, their fleeces may grow flourishing for those who advance to the splendor of the heavenly garment. In the Gospel, the Lord said to Peter: Peter, he says, do you love me? And Peter answered: Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. And he said: Feed my sheep. And, giving the command earnestly, he confirmed it a third time, saying: Feed my sheep. And since we have received the episcopate, that is, the Holy Spirit, into the lodging of our heart through the laying on of hands, let us set no sadness before our co-dweller. The Lord warns and says: Do not sadden the Holy Spirit who is in us, and, Do not extinguish the light that has shone forth in us.

But how much, when a bishop acts well and gives salutary admonition, the martyrdoms are worthy of his body without physical tribulation, so much torment is heaped upon a negligent bishop who brings forth no teachings from the holy scriptures. The apostle Paul stirs us and, fitting to their station, he sets forth bishops as stewards of evangelical doctrine, saying: as long as an heir is a child, he is under guardians and agents; but when he grows up, then he claims his inheritance. We too are dispensers and stewards of the gospel: here also among dispensers and stewards it is asked that someone be found faithful and just. If, therefore, among dispensers and stewards it is asked that someone be found faithful and just, what if all transgress and the dispensers forgive the transgressors? Do they not themselves burden themselves with the weight of the transgressors? The same apostle Paul recalls, when teaching Timothy and strengthening him in firmness of faith, that he not deceive God and that he not intercede with the prayers of the saints for evil, being provident and solicitous, saying: O Timothy, my son, keep the charge entrusted to you: do not spurn the gift that is in you through the imposition of the hands of the elders; gird yourself strongly and manfully perform your ministry with integrity; be an example of good to others. Let no one contradict you, let no one despise your youth: rebuke the sinner before many so that others may have fear, and do not share in the sins of others.

and again: if any brother is called a fornicator or a worshiper of idols or a covetous man or a robber or an unjust man, with such a one indeed do not even take food. And in another place: whoever lives by the customs of foreigners and admits things similar to their deeds, cease to be at his banquet: for if you do not do this, you will be his partner as well. And in the teachings of the apostles: if any brother offends in the church and does not obey the law, let him not be gathered together until he does penance, and let him not be received, lest your prayer be polluted and hindered. And the apostle says again: remove the evil from your midst. But if we are taught by the unity of many witnesses and by harmonious admonition not even to eat food with offending brothers, how much more ought one to be kept away from the sacrifice of Christ? How great and abundant is the piety of the Lord of the faithful, that, foreknowing the future, He counsels us, lest any unwary brother be caught again by the snares of the devil. He commanded us to be watchful and provident and learned, since that ancient enemy goes around, striking the servants of God, tempting them not by one kind of thing. For many are his temptations, the beginnings of which are: idolatry, adulteries, thefts, robberies, avarice, fraud, drunkenness, impatience, adulteries, homicides, jealousy, faithlessness, false testimonies, false speech, envy, arrogance, cursing, error, and whatever things are similar that agree with these, among which is the gaming table.

the manifest snare of the devil is at hand, bearing the lethal poison of the serpent and a corrupting enticement: which, when it seems to be nothing, works the downfall of those who embrace it greatly. What is that, I ask you, the faithful, that the hand which has already been cleansed of human injuries and admitted to the Lord's sacrifice and which, pertaining to the salvation of the whole man, itself receives from God's condescension, itself rises in prayer to the praise of the Lord, itself marks the sign of Christ on our foreheads by which we are protected, itself consummates the divine sacraments: what is it that it should again be entangled in the snares of the devil from which it was freed? I speak of the gaming hand, which loses and condemns itself, the hand accustomed to a lustful pursuit, that is, the gaming table, which is the devil's hunting ground and the incurable wound of sin. The gaming table, I say, where the devil is at hand to catch the submissive, and when he has caught them, his triumph of faithlessness, false testimonies. The gaming table, I say, where there is madness, fury, and venal perjury and serpentine conversation. There, rabid friendship, there, the enormity of the most atrocious crime, there, discordant brotherhood, there, insults and savage audacity and an insane mind and wild impatience.

the gaming-board, I say, where there is loss of possessions and the ruin of vast sums of money, and it displays a litigious and thievish madness. O the harmful, sedentary, and sluggish wickedness of gamblers! O the cruel hands, armed against themselves to their own peril, which squander paternal goods and the wealth of ancestors, gained by their sweat, in a shameful pursuit. A fierce, harmful, and sleepless hand, bearing arms of its own instruments by night and day, which has condemned itself by its sins and does not cease after sinning. O the wicked hand, armed for the destruction of its own master, which wastes an entire fortune on the filthiest of copper coins, and though there should have been an increase of family property and great abundance of wealth, now it is needy and poor. Gambling is what the law hates; gambling is what ignoble crime pursues, where there is manifest temptation and hidden punishment. The gaming-board is that snare of evil and the enemy's trap, which brings no profit but consumes everything. Thence people become poor, thence they lose their wealth, thence, when all their resources are consumed, they burden themselves with borrowed money, thence they lose their patrimony without any legal contest. What kind of people are these, O faithful, that those whom no one persecutes persecute themselves with envy, that they squander their paternal inheritances under the manifold number of dice? There is also a time when the gamblers themselves, with prostituted women, celebrate night-long vigils with their author behind closed doors: the wretches arm themselves against themselves, filled with the devil's spirit. And there they commit a double and twin crime.

Here the sound of dice rattles; there, incest is perpetrated in silence. Here, without any regard for their own dignity, without any excuse, they are compelled by a pestilent pursuit to yield up their goods; there, a deadly poison is drunk in secret. Whence this sacrilegious meditation, whence this crime, we prove by the testimony of authors. For when a certain man, well educated in the study of letters, after much meditation discovered this evil and so pernicious pursuit, at the instigation * * of the devil, who had filled him with his arts, he therefore revealed this art, which he also established as worthy of worship with sculptures bearing his own image. He thus set up an image of his own likeness with the subscription of his name, the enemy suggesting it to him, who implanted in his breast how to devise this art. Thus, then, showing himself in a pernicious image, he placed it in some high place, carrying in its folds this gaming-board, so that he himself might appear as the player and inventor of this wickedness, whose name ought not to be uttered by the servants of God (for just as he is base in name, so he is iniquitous in deeds), and so that any servant of God who embraces the gaming-board might be called by the name of the author. For when he formed himself in statuettes and images, he devised another crime, by which he would claim to be worshipped by his imitators; he established a law of sacrificing to himself, so that whoever wished to adhere to his pursuit should not first stretch out his hand to the board unless he had first sacrificed to its author.

Hence it has come about that one who was once a man and an adulterer by the commission of a crime, after death, by the profane and erring, under a fictitious name of divinity, has merited worship. Whoever plays at the gaming board must also know sorcery, which is far from the servants of God, knowing that this madness is malefic and venomous; but again, on the day of judgment, he will be tormented by a revolving fire. Whoever plays at the gaming board must first sacrifice to its inventor, which is not permitted to Christians, the Lord saying: "He who sacrifices to gods shall be eradicated, unless to the Lord alone," and again: "Do not sacrifice to alien gods, lest you provoke me in the works of your hands to destroy you." Whoever you are, a Christian, and you play at the gaming board, even if you do not sacrifice, you are a participant in the law of this crime. And indeed the Lord meets you and says: "Depart from her, my people, lest you be a participant in her offenses." And again: "Withdraw, withdraw from there, depart from the midst of her, you who bear the vessels of the Lord, and do not touch the unclean." Whoever you are, a Christian, and you play at dice, you must first of all know this: that you are not a Christian, but your name is pagan, and that which pertains to the Lord's sacrifice you receive in vain. For thus the Lord says: "Every unclean person shall not touch the holy sacrifice." And again: "Every man who eats the flesh of the sacrifice, and his uncleanness is upon him: that soul will perish from my people." Whoever you are, a gambler, you call yourself a Christian, which you are not, because you are a participant in the world.

You cannot have friendship with Christ when you are a friend of Christ’s enemy. Certainly what madness of faithful gamblers, where they rave and with the most violent shouts go astray, and blinded by the darkness of the devil they lay hands on each other, curse, devote themselves to destruction, dishonor the origin of their parents before the assembled crowds. The noise of the dice sounds publicly, they hasten to the ruin of their own inheritance with their hands, and the wretch does not understand that he harms himself when he binds himself to the dice. And one who has already been defeated more often is again roused to a more harmful pursuit, with the devil urging him on. O art hostile to its devotees and lustful pursuit, which provides not wealth but nakedness and poverty. The hand is an executioner, the hand is guilty, which does not cease even after gains, but still plays after losses. A Christian who plays at dice pollutes his hands with the sacrificers to the devil’s sacrifice, according to the author. And therefore the Lord says he is indignant at this: “Do not,” he says, “stretch out your hands unjustly, lest you provoke me, and I will not allow you to remain long upon the earth,” and again: “Keep your hands from injustice, and do nothing evil.” And the most blessed apostle Paul similarly says: “See, brothers, that you are not conformed to this world and its pomps and delights and pleasures, but restrain yourselves from all injustice of the world.

For that there is no excuse nor any indulgence for a crime against God, and no one is given pardon, the Lord says in the Gospel: "If anyone," he says, "has uttered blasphemy against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but he who has sinned against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this age nor in the future." And again through the prophet: "If a man sins by wrongdoing against another man, prayer shall be made for him to the Lord; but if he sins against God, who will pray for him?" And the blessed apostle, the steward and vicar of Christ, exercising ecclesiastical care, sets down and says: "You are the temple of God, and Christ dwells in you; if anyone violates the temple of God, God destroys him." And the Lord again in the Gospel denies sinners and reproaches them, saying: "Depart from me, all you who work injustice; I do not know you." And the apostle John says: "Everyone who sins is not of God, but is of the devil; and you know that the Son of God is coming to destroy the sons of the devil." Whoever you are, Christian gambler, you are an enemy of yourself and of your inheritance. Whoever you are, cease from that madness of yours, wretch. Why do you voluntarily hurl yourself into the snare of death with the devil? Why do you lose your wealth and riches for the filthiest of coins? Why do you entangle yourself in worldly snares so that you may be judged with the world? Why do you flatter your enemy with favors and praise, with whom you must necessarily be punished?

Be rather not a gambler but a Christian; scatter your money upon the Lord’s table in the presence of Christ, with angels looking on and martyrs present; divide among the poor your patrimony, which perhaps you were about to lose through your savage pursuit; entrust your riches to the victorious Christ; as a servant, withdraw with your Lord; attend to the godly pursuit; imitate the art of the Lord, which does not destroy but rather acquires. Cease from those most thievish habits of yours; restrain your headlong wickedness: let your daily play be with the poor, let your frequent work be with widows: sell off all your property and goods for the study of the Church; store up your gold and silver and money in the heavenly treasuries; transfer your estates and villas to paradise through righteous action, so that your sins may be forgiven you by alms, and apply yourself to continuous works. Do not play at dice, where the game is harmful and a mortal crime, where there is madness without consideration, where there is no truth, but a den of lies. Withdraw your hand from it and turn your heart away from it: draw the enemy’s darkness from your eyes and purify your hand from the sacrifices of the devil: cast off your thievish habits; be patient and a Christian; be just and provident for yourself and your life in your works; flee the pursuing devil and flee the dice, the enemy of your works: let your pursuit be of wisdom, to be instructed by the Gospel’s warnings, to stretch pure hands to Christ, so that you may be able to merit the Lord.

Do not look back at the dice. Amen.