CHAPTER XX

THE ENEMIES OF RELIGIOUS SEEK, IN EVERY WAY, TO DEFAME THEM. FIRST OF ALL, BY EXAGGERATING ANY EVIL THAT MAY EXIST AMONG THEM

WE have, hitherto, spoken of the false judgments passed by the enemies of religious about things. We will next consider the falsehoods uttered by them about persons.

             It may, perhaps, appear that detraction uttered against persons, ought to be borne by them, without refutation. St. Gregory says, "The blame of wicked men is a testimony to the innocence of our life. For, if we be offensive to them that displease God, it is a proof, that our life must be upright" (IX. Homil. part 1, super Ezech.). Again, we read (John xv. 18), "If the world hate you, know that it hath first hated Me." St. Paul, likewise, teaches us that the judgments of men are to be lightly esteemed, saying (1 Cor. iv. 3): "To me it is a very small thing to be judged by you, or by man's day." We can, especially, afford to despise human opinion, when we have the testimony of a good conscience, and when we can say with Job: "My witness is in heaven" (xvi. 20).

             On further consideration, we shall, however, see, that it is more prudent for religious to silence the tongues of their detractors. This is evident for three reasons:--

             1. First, when religious are defamed, it is not the reputation of one man, or even of two or three, that suffers. The calumny affects the whole body of religious. Hence, their defamers ought to be manfully resisted, or else the whole flock of Christ may be torn by the teeth of wolves. Our Lord says: "The hireling seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep and fleeth" (John x. 12). The Gloss remarks, that, by the "wolf," is meant either, "they who ravage the Church by violence, or the devil who, spiritually, scatters the faithful." The cowardly pastors whom Christ calls hirelings, are thus reproved by Ezechiel (xiii. 5): "You have not gone up to face the enemy, nor have you set up a wall for the house of Israel."

             2. Religious ought to resist their detractors, because they not only require a good conscience for their own sake, they, likewise, need fair reputation, in order to carry weight with those to whom they preach. The Gloss speaking of detraction, says on the words of St. Paul (Gal. iv.), "Cast out the handmaid," etc., "All who seek for earthly happiness in the Church, belong still to Ismael. These are they who wage war against spiritual men, and defame them, and whose lips utter evil things, and whose tongues are full of guile." Therefore, religious ought to resist those who thus detract them. St. Gregory, likewise, observes, in the homily already quoted: "They who occupy a position in which they are looked up to as an example, ought, if possible, to silence the voice of their detractors; lest the faithful, believing these calumnies, refuse to listen to preaching, and become hardened in a sinful life." St. John, writing to Gaius (Ep. iii.), says of Diotrephes: "If I come, I will advertise his works which he doth, with malicious words prating against us." And St. Paul writes in like manner, (2 Cor. x. 10), "His epistles, indeed, say they are weighty and strong; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech is contemptible."

             3. Religious ought to resist their detractors because they strive, not only to defame religious life, but to abolish it entirely. They strive to induce Bishops to cause all men to avoid religious, and to refuse to assist them in their needs. This policy is represented by the following words from Isaias (vii. 5), "Syria hath taken counsel against thee, unto the evil of Ephraim and the sons of Romelia, saying, 'let us go up to Juda, and rouse it up, and draw it away to us,' but, thus saith the Lord God: 'It shall not stand, and this shall not be.'" The same description of plot is mentioned in Jeremias (ii. 19): "They devised counsels against me, saying: let us . . . cut him off from the land of the living, and let his name be remembered no more." But, as Jacob said, "let not my soul go into their counsel" (Gen. xlix. 6). The cruelty of such detraction ought not to be tolerated; for religious may say with Esther (vii. 4), "We are given up, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. And, would to God we were sold for bondmen and bondwomen. The evil might be borne with, and I would have mourned in silence." In Ecclesiasticus (iv. 26) we find this exhortation: "Accept no person against thy own person, nor against thy soul a lie."

             In order that religious may, effectually, resist their detractors, we will note the four forms which detraction generally takes. If any evil exist among good men, (1) that evil will be exaggerated. (2) Doubtful facts will be given to the world as certainties. (3) Falsehoods will be invented. (4) Good deeds will be travestied, to wear a bad appearance.

             Now, any evil which may exist among religious, can be exaggerated in three ways.

             Firstly, in order of time. Thus, a crime committed by a religious before his conversion, may be recalled to the public mind, in order to put him to shame. The words, "Men shall be lovers of themselves" (2 Tim. iii.), are applied to religious. They are accused of coming from a life of crime, into a religious order, which their enemies call "creeping into houses." St. Gregory exposes the falsity of this accusation. Commenting on the words, "Iron is taken out of the earth" (Job xxviii.), he says (18 Moral.): "Iron shall be taken out of the earth, when the champion of the Church is delivered from the earthly bonds that have held him captive." A man ought not to be despised for what he formerly was, after he has begun to lead a new life. St. Paul, after enumerating the vices of the Corinthians, concludes by saying (1st Ep. vi. 11): "Such some of you were; but you are washed; but you are sanctified; but you are justified." Hence, the interpretation given by the opponents of religious to the text is contrary to the meaning of St. Paul. For, the Apostle did not intend to say, that those to whom he wrote had led sinful lives, and afterwards begun to creep into houses. Creeping into houses is one of the vices for which he rebukes them.

             Secondly, if any evil prevail among religious, their enemies exaggerate it with regard to persons. Thus, the faults committed by two or three individuals, are attributed to all religious. Thus, it may be said, that in certain cases some men are not content with the food set before them, but seek better living elsewhere. Even should this accusation be occasionally true of certain individuals, that is no reason why it should be levelled at all religious in general. Hence, St. Augustine, writing to Vincent the Donatist, says (23 Quaest. VI. cap. Quicumque): "If any man, not justly, but avariciously, retain the goods of the poor which you held in the name of the Church, the fact is displeasing to us. You, however, will have some difficulty in proving it. We bear with some men, whom we are not able to correct or to punish. We cannot forsake the granary of the Lord, on account of the chaff contained therein; nor can we break His nets, because of the worthless fish that they have caught." For, the fact that certain men among religious commit crimes, is no reason for defaming the whole religious body. Otherwise, the treachery of Judas ought to have been attributed to the whole College of the Apostles on account of the words, "Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?" (John vi. 71). St. Gregory, commenting on the words of Cant. (ii. 2), "As the lily among thorns, so is my beloved among the daughters," says: "There cannot be bad men without good, nor good without bad." Of the bad we may use the words of St. John (1 Epist. ii. 19): "They went out from us; but they were not of us."

             Thirdly, the enemies of religious exaggerate the degree of any evil that may prevail among them. Thus, the venial offences of religious, are represented to the world as heinous crimes. St. John tells us, that no one can live in the world without sin. "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves" (1st Epist. i. 8). But, the men, of whom we have been speaking, magnify the slight faults observable even in the perfect, and speak of them as though they were serious crimes. Thereby they disobey the exhortation of the Book of Proverbs (xxiv. 15): "Lie not in wait, nor seek after, wickedness, in the house of the just." They call religious false apostles, because, they say, that they seek hospitality in the houses of the wealthy, wherein they will be best fed; because they assist others in their affairs in order to be entertained by them; because they accept material assistance from those to whom they preach; and on other grounds of the like nature. Now, though such actions be faulty, they cannot be called grave crimes; nor ought those guilty of them to be on that account named sinners or false apostles. The Gloss, commenting on the verse in Galat. ii., "We by nature are Jews, and not of the Gentiles, sinners," says: "This epithet (i.e. sinner), is not used in the Scriptures of such, as, although they live upright and praiseworthy lives, are not wholly free from sin." This observation applies to those who see the mote in their brother's eye, but not the beam in their own (Matt. vii. 3). The Gloss, further remarks, that, "many, laden with grave sins, are so filled with envy, hatred, and malice, that they would rather blame and condemn their neighbour for his lesser offences, than strive to correct him." In short, those who venomously attack religious for small faults, and remain unconscious of their own serious defects, are, precisely, those of whom Our Lord said that they strain at a gnat and swallow a camel (Matt. xxxiii. 24).