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

17. Wherefore, though there be indeed many ways in which latent heretics may be sought out, without vituperating the catholic faith or praising heretical impiety, yet if there were no other way at all of drawing out heretical impiety from its caverns, but that the catholic tongue should deviate from the straight path of truth; more tolerable were it that that should be hid, than that this should be precipitated; more tolerable that the foxes should lurk in their pits unseen, than for the sake of catching them the huntsmen should fall into the pit of blasphemy; more tolerable that the perfidy of Priscillianists should be covered with the veil of truth, than that the faith of catholics, lest it should of lying Priscillianists be praised, should of believing catholics be denied. For if lies, not of whatsoever kind, but blasphemous lies, are therefore just because they are committed with intent to detect hidden heretics; it will be possible at that rate, if they be commuted with the same intention, that there should be chaste adulteries. For put the case that of a number of lewd Priscillianists, some woman should cast her eye upon a catholic Joseph, and promise him that she will betray their hidden retreats if she obtain from him that he lie with her, and it be certain that if he consent unto her she will make good her promise: shall we judge that it ought to be done? Or shall we understand that by no means must such a price be paid in purchase of that kind of merchandise? Why then do we not rout out heretics, in order to their being caught, by the flesh committing lasciviousness in adultery, and yet think right to rout them out by a mouth committing fornication in blasphemy? For either it will be lawful to defend both the one and the other with equal reason, that these things be therefore said to be not unjust, because they were done with intention of finding out the unjust: or if sound doctrine willeth not even for the sake of finding out heretics that we should have to do with unchaste women, albeit only in body, not in mind, assuredly not even for the sake of finding out heretics willeth it that by us, albeit only in voice not in mind, either unclean heresy were preached, or the chaste Catholic Church blasphemed. Because even the very sovereignty of the mind, to which every inferior motion of the man ought to be obedient, will not lack deserved opprobrium, when a thing is done that ought not to be done, whether by member or by word. Although even when it is done by word, it is done by member: because the tongue is a member, by which the word is made; nor is any deed of ours by any member brought to the birth unless it is first conceived in the heart; or rather being by our inwardly thinking upon and consenting unto it already brought to the birth, it is brought forth abroad in our doing of it, by a member. It is therefore no excusing the mind from the deed, when any thing is said to be done not after the purpose of the mind,22    Ex animo which yet were not done, unless the mind decreed it to be done.

17. Quocirca multis quidem modis possunt latentes haeretici vestigari, nec catholica fide vituperata, nec haeretica impietate laudata.

CAPUT VII.

Mendacium nulla velut bona intentione admittendum. Facta alia ex fine vel bona vel mala redduntur, alia sunt per se peccata: haec nullo quasi bono fine facienda. Sed si aliter omnino non posset educi de cavernis suis haeretica impietas, nisi a tramite veritatis lingua catholica deviaret; tolerabilius illa occultaretur, quam ista praecipitaretur; tolerabilius in suis foveis delitescerent vulpes, quam propter illas capiendas in blasphemiae foveam caderent venatores; tolerabilius perfidia Priscillianistarum veritatis velamine tegeretur, quam fides Catholicorum ne a Priscillianistis mentientibus laudaretur, a Catholicis credentibus negaretur. Nam si propterea justa sunt, non qualiacumque, sed blasphema mendacia, quia hoc animo fiunt ut occulti haeretici detegantur; poterunt isto modo, si eodem animo fiant, casta esse adulteria. Quid si enim ex numero Priscillianistarum impudicarum aliqua femina injiciat oculum in catholicum Joseph, 0528 eique promittat prodituram se latebras eorum si ab illo impetraverit stuprum, certumque sit eam, si ei consensum fuerit, quod pollicita est impleturam? faciendumne censebimus? an intelligemus nequaquam tali pretio merces ejusmodi comparandas? Cur ergo non eruimus capiendos haereticos carne in adulterium defluente, et eruendos putamus ore in blasphemia fornicante ? Aut enim licebit utrumque pari ratione defendere, ut ideo haec non esse dicantur injusta, quia ea facta sunt intentione qua deprehenderentur injusti: aut si sana doctrina nec propter inveniendos haereticos vult nos cum feminis impudicis saltem corpore, non mente, misceri, profecto nec propter inveniendos haereticos vult a nobis saltem voce, non mente, aut immundam haeresim praedicari, aut castam catholicam blasphemari. Quia et ipsum mentis imperium, cui debet omnis inferior motus hominis obedire, digno non carebit opprobrio, quando fit, quod fieri non oportet, seu membro, seu verbo. Quanquam etiam cum verbo fit, membro fit: quoniam lingua membrum est qua fit verbum: nec ullum factum nostrum membro ullo paritur, nisi quod prius corde concipitur; vel potius intus cogitando et consentiendo jam partum, foras editur faciendo per membrum. Non itaque animus a facto excusatur, quando dicitur aliquid non ex animo fieri, quod tamen non fieret, nisi animus faciendum esse decerneret.