23. But if moreover any not having charity, which pertaineth to the unity of spirit and the bond of peace whereby the Catholic Church is gathered and knit together, being involved in any schism, doth, that he may not deny Christ, suffer tribulations, straits, hunger, nakedness, persecution, perils, prisons, bonds, torments, swords, or flames, or wild beasts, or the very cross, through fear of hell and everlasting fire; in nowise is all this to be blamed, nay rather this also is a patience meet to be praised. For we cannot say that it would have been better for him that by denying Christ he should suffer none of these things, which he did suffer by confessing Him: but we must account that it will perhaps be more tolerable for him in the judgment, than if by denying Christ he should avoid all those things: so that what the Apostle saith, “If I shall give my body to be burned, but have not charity, it profiteth me nothing,”72    1 Cor. xiii. 3 should be understood to profit nothing for obtaining the kingdom of heaven, but not for having more tolerable punishment to undergo in the last judgment.

23. Si quis autem non habens charitatem, quae pertinet ad unitatem spiritus et vinculum pacis, quo catholica Ecclesia congregata connectitur, in aliquo schismate constitutus, ne Christum neget, patitur tribulationes, angustias, famem, nuditatem, persecutionem, pericula, carceres, vincula, tormenta, gladium, vel flammas, vel bestias, vel ipsam crucem timore gehennarum, et ignis aeterni; nullo modo ista culpanda sunt, imo vero et haec laudanda patientia est. Non enim dicere poterimus, melius ei fuisse ut Christum negando nihil eorum pateretur, quae passus 0624 est confitendo; sed existimandum est fortasse tolerabilius ei futurum judicium, quam si Christum negando cuncta illa vitaret: ut illud quod ait Apostolus, Si tradidero corpus meum ut ardeam, charitatem autem non habeam, nihil mihi prodest (I Cor. XIII, 3); nihil prodesse intelligatur ad regnum coelorum obtinendum, non ad extremi judicii tolerabilius supplicium subeundum.