Against Lying.

 1. A great deal for me to read hast thou sent, my dearest brother Consentius: a great deal for me to read: to the which while I am preparing an answer

 2. Perceivest thou not how much this reasoning aideth the very persons whom as great game we make ado to catch by our lies? For, as thyself hast shown

 3. Which sentence dishonoreth the holy Martyrs, nay rather taketh away holy martyrdoms altogether. For they would do more justly and wisely, according

 4. Of lies are many sorts, which indeed all, universally, we ought to hate. For there is no lie that is not contrary to truth. For, as light and darkn

 5. Well then, let us set before our eyes a cunning spy as he makes up to the person whom he has already perceived to be a Priscillianist he begins wi

 6. It remains, then, that what the Priscillianists think, according to the nefarious falsity of their heresy, of God, of the soul, of the body, and th

 7. And, what is more miserable, even they, already made as it were our own, cannot find how they may believe us. For if they suspect that even in the

 8. But now observe how more tolerable in comparison with us is the lying of the Priscillianists, when they know that they speak deceitfully: whom by o

 9. When therefore we teach ours to blaspheme God that the Priscillianists may believe them theirs, let us see what evil themselves say when they there

 10. Ever, my brother, in such cases, it behoves with fear to recollect, “Whoso shall deny Me before men, I will deny him before My Father which is in

 11. “But, hidden wolves,” thou wilt say, “clad in sheep’s clothing, and privily and grievously wasting the Lord’s flock, can we no otherwise find out.

 12. “But,” thou wilt say, “we more easily penetrate their concealment if we pretend to be ourselves what they are.” If this were lawful or expedient,

 13. Or haply is it so, that he who plots in this way to find out Priscillianists, denies not Christ, forasmuch as with his mouth he utters what with h

 14. Wherefore, that which is written, “Who speaketh the truth in his heart,” is not so to be taken, as if, truth being retained in the heart, in the m

 &gt 15. And as for that saying of the Apostle, “Putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another,” far b

 16. For there were even in the Apostles’ times some who preached the truth not in truth, that is, not with truthful mind: of whom the Apostle saith th

 17. Wherefore, though there be indeed many ways in which latent heretics may be sought out, without vituperating the catholic faith or praising hereti

 18. It does indeed make very much difference, for what cause, with what end, with what intention a thing be done: but those things which are clearly s

 19. Some man will say, “So then any thief whatever is to be accounted equal with that thief who steals with will of mercy?” Who would say this? But of

 20. But, what must be confessed, to human minds certain compensative sins do cause such embarrassment, that they are even thought meet to be praised,

 21. If then to sin, that others may not commit a worse sin, either against us or against any, without doubt we ought not it is to be considered in th

 22. And to holy David indeed it might more justly be said, that he ought not to have been angry no, not with one however ungrateful and rendering evi

 23. But in all our doings, even good men are very greatly embarrassed in the matter of compensative sins so that these are not esteemed to be sins, i

 24. Touching Jacob, however, that which he did at his mother’s bidding, so as to seem to deceive his father, if with diligence and in faith it be atte

 25. Nor have I undertaken that in the present discourse, as it more pertains to thee, who hast laid open the hiding-places of the Priscillianists, so

 26. To show then that some things in the Scriptures which are thought to be lies are not what they are thought, if they be rightly understood, let it

 27. There are some things of this sort even of our Saviour in the Gospel, because the Lord of the Prophets deigned to be Himself also a Prophet. Such

 28. Hence is also that which thou hast mentioned that they speak of, that the Lord Jesus, after He was risen, walked in the way with two disciples an

 29. Because, therefore, lying heretics find not in the books of the New Testament any precedents of lying which are meet to be imitated, they esteem t

 30. But why do these persons think they may imitate Tamar telling a lie, and not think they may imitate Judah committing fornication? For there they h

 31. But he who says that some lies are just, must be judged to say no other than that some sins are just, and therefore some things are just which are

 32. But, as for that which is written, that God did good to the Hebrew midwives, and to Rahab the harlot of Jericho, this was not because they lied, b

 33. It remains then that we understand as concerning those women, whether in Egypt or in Jericho, that for their humanity and mercy they received a re

 34. But some man will say, Would then those midwives and Rahab have done better if they had shown no mercy, by refusing to lie? Nay verily, those Hebr

 35. Since these things are so, because it were too long to treat thoroughly of all that in that “Pound” of Dictinius are set down as precedents of lyi

 36. But for that we are men and among men do live, and I confess that I am not yet in the number of them whom compensative sins embarrass not, it oft

 37. Add to this, (and here is cause to cry out more piteously,) that, if once we grant it to have been right for the saving of that sick man’s life to

 38. But infirmity pleadeth its part, and with favor of the crowds proclaims itself to have a cause invincible. Where it contradicts, and says, “What w

 39. But, some man will say, “Strong meat is for them that are perfect.” For in many things a relaxation by way of indulgence is allowed to infirmity,

 40. But sometimes a peril to eternal salvation itself is put forth against us which peril, they cry out, we by telling a lie, if otherwise it cannot

 41. Either then we are to eschew lies by right doing, or to confess them by repenting: but not, while they unhappily abound in our living, to make the

11. “But, hidden wolves,” thou wilt say, “clad in sheep’s clothing, and privily and grievously wasting the Lord’s flock, can we no otherwise find out.” Whence then have the Priscillianists become known, ere this way of hunting for them with lies was ex-cogitated? Whence was their very author, more cunning doubtless, and therefore more covert, got at in his bed? Whence so many and so great persons made manifest and condemned, and the others innumerable partly corrected, partly as if corrected, and in the Church’s compassion gathered into her fold? For many ways giveth the Lord, when He hath compassion, whereby we may come to the discovery of them: two of which are more happy than others; namely, that either they whom they have wished to seduce, or they whom they had already seduced, shall, when they repent and are converted, point them out. Which is more easily effected, if their nefarious error, not by lying tricks, but by truthful reasonings be overthrown. In the writing of which it behoves thee to bestow thy pains, since God hath bestowed the gift that thou canst do this: which wholesome writings whereby their insane perversity is destroyed, becoming more and more known, and being by catholics, whether prelates who speak in the congregations, or any studious men full of zeal for God, every where diffused, these will be holy nets in which they may be caught truthfully, not with lies hunted after. For so being taken, either, of their own accord, they will confess what they have been, and others whom they know to be of the evil fellowship they will either kindly12    “Concorditer”—“Misericorditer.” correct, or mercifully betray. Or else, if they shall be ashamed to confess what with long-continued simulation they have concealed, by the hidden hand of God healing them shall they be made whole.

11. Sed occultos lupos, inquies, indutos pellibus ovium et dominicum gregem latenter graviterque vastantes, aliter invenire non possumus. Unde ergo innotuerunt Priscillianistae, priusquam hujus mendacii fuisset excogitata venatio? unde ad ipsius auctoris illorum, profecto astutioris, et ideo tectioris, cubile perventum est? unde tot tantique manifestati atque damnati, et caeteri innumerabiles partim correcti, partim velut correcti, et in Ecclesiam miserantem collecti sunt? Multas enim vias dat Dominus, quando miseretur, quibus ad eorum perveniatur indaginem: quarum duae sunt aliis feliciores ; ut vel ab eis quos seducere voluerunt, aut ab eis quos jam seduxerant, resipiscentibus conversisque monstrentur. Quod facilius fit, si nefarius eorum error, non mendacibus captationibus, sed veracibus disputationibus evertatur. Quibus conscribendis operam te oportet impendere, quoniam Dominus donavit ut possis: quae scripta salubria quibus eorum perversitas insana destruitur, cum magis magisque innotuerint, et a Catholicis vel antistitibus qui loquuntur in populis, vel a quibusque studiosis zelo Dei plenis, fuerint usquequaque diffusa; haec erunt sancta retia, quibus capiantur veraciter, non mendaciter inquirantur. Sic enim capti, aut ultro quid fuerint fatebuntur, et alios quos in sua mala societate noverunt, vel concorditer corrigent, vel misericorditer prodent: aut si eos pudebit fateri quod diuturna simulatione texerunt, 0526 occulta manu Dei medicante sanabuntur.