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with great harshness. For even if someone is wicked ten thousand times, the judgment of conscience is not corrupted; for it is natural and implanted in us by God from the beginning; and even if we contend ten thousand times, it stands over us, crying out, punishing, condemning; and there is no one living in wickedness who does not endure ten thousand pains, both when planning evil things, and when carrying out the plan into action. For what is more wicked than Ahab? but yet when he desired the vineyard, consider how much pain he had. For though he was a king and ruled over all, and had no one to contradict him, because he could not bear the vote of his conscience, he went in sullen, with his head bowed, confused, bearing a great darkness upon his face, 63.670 proclaiming on his countenance the conviction of his conscience's condemnation, and not being able to conceal the pain that came to him from his despondency. Do you wish to know clearly how wealth does not allow men to be men, but beasts and demons? A drought once seized our city, and one could see the sky had become bronze, and a death more grievous than all deaths was expected each day, and God was being entreated to release this terror; by whose love for mankind, against all hope, a great and endless rain was brought down from above. Therefore, when all were in a state of festival and celebration, since they had come up from the very gates of death, one of the rich men, sullen, dejected, dead from despondency, was walking about; and when many asked the reason, he was not even strong enough to keep it inside, but, pricked by the tyranny of this grievous passion, he brought the reason out into the open; For having acquired ten thousand measures of grain, he says, I do not know how I may dispose of them now. What are you saying? Are you grieved because not everyone perished, so that you might gather up gold? Have you not heard what Solomon says: "He that withholds grain, the people shall curse him"? But you go about as a common enemy of the goods of the inhabited world, and an adversary of the Master's generosity, and a friend, or rather a slave, of mammon? Ought not that tongue to be cut out? Ought not the heart that gave birth to these words to be extinguished? For what could be more pitiable than this rich man, who is grieved for this very reason, that he possesses countless things, and is distressed as thinking he has lost them, and who prays every day for a famine to occur, so that gold might be added to him? How do you wish me to describe for you the passions of the covetous and rapacious man? for what is more defiled than those hands? what is more shameless than those eyes, or more impudent and dog-like? He does not see men as men, nor the heaven as heaven, but thinks that all things are money. For the eyes of men are accustomed to see the poor worn out, and to be moved to compassion; but the rapacious see the poor, and become all the more savage. The eyes of men do not long for what is given to others, but they even empty out their own things for others; but these men cannot bear it, unless they take the possessions of all and make them their own. The eyes of men cannot bear to see their neighbor's body naked; but these men, unless they strip everyone naked and store everyone's things at home, never get their fill; or rather, not even then are they satisfied. Therefore, one might say that their hands are not merely those of wild beasts, but much wilder and more grievous than these. For bears and wolves, when they have had their fill of such food, depart; but these men have no fill. And yet God made hands for us for this purpose, that we might help others, not that we might plot against them; since if we were to use them for this, it would be better for them to be cut off and to be without them. For when someone, seeing a sheep being torn apart by a beast, is grieved and his soul is bitten, but when doing this very thing to his own kind, does not think he is doing anything terrible; how could such a one be a man, and not a beast, and worse than a beast? For beasts are such by nature; but the covetous, having what is gentle by nature, against nature into

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μετὰ πολλῆς τῆς δριμύτητος. Κἂν γὰρ μυριάκις πονηρός τις ᾖ, τὸ κριτήριον τοῦ συνειδότος οὐ διαφθείρεται· φυσικὸν γάρ ἐστι καὶ παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἡμῖν παρὰ τὴν ἀρχὴν ἐντεθέν· κἂν μυρία φιλονεικήσωμεν, ἐφέστηκεν ἐκεῖνο καταβοῶν, κολάζον, καταδικάζον· καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν οὐδεὶς τῶν ἐν κακίᾳ ζώντων, ὃς οὐ μυρίαν ὀδύνην ὑπομένει, καὶ βουλευόμενος τὰ κακὰ, καὶ εἰς ἔργον ἐκφέρων τὴν βουλήν. Τί γὰρ τοῦ Ἀχαὰβ πονηρότερον; ἀλλ' ὅμως ἐκεῖνος ἐπιθυμήσας τοῦ ἀμπελῶνος, ἐννόησον πόσην ὀδύνην ἔσχε. Βασιλεὺς γοῦν ὢν καὶ πάντων κρατῶν, καὶ οὐδένα ἔχων τὸν ἀντιλέγοντα, ἐπειδὴ τοῦ συνειδότος τὴν ψῆφον οὐκ ἤνεγκεν, εἰσῆλθε σκυθρωπάζων, κάτω κύπτων, συγκεχυμένος, πολλὴν ἀχλὺν ἐπὶ τῆς ὄψεως φέρων, 63.670 τῆς ἀπὸ τοῦ συνειδότος καταδίκης τὸν ἔλεγχον ἐπὶ τοῦ προσώπου κηρύττων, καὶ οὐ δυνάμενος συσκιάσαι τὴν ἀπὸ τῆς ἀθυμίας ἐγγενομένην αὐτῷ ὀδύνην. Βούλεσθε γνῶναι σαφῶς, πῶς οὐκ ἀφίησιν ἀνθρώπους εἶναι τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ὁ πλοῦτος, ἀλλὰ θηρία καὶ δαίμονας; Αὐχμὸς κατέλαβέ ποτε τὴν πόλιν τὴν ἡμετέραν, καὶ ἦν ἰδεῖν χαλκοῦν τὸν οὐρανὸν γεγενημένον, καὶ τὸν θάνατον τῶν ἁπάντων θανάτων χαλεπώτερον καθ' ἑκάστην προσδοκώμενον τὴν ἡμέραν, καὶ Θεὸν παρακαλούμενον λῦσαι τοῦτο τὸ δέος· οὗ τῇ φιλανθρωπίᾳ παρ' ἐλπίδα ἅπασαν πολὺς καὶ ἄπειρος ὑετὸς ἄνωθεν κατεφέρετο. Πάντων οὖν ἐν πανηγύρει καὶ ἑορτῇ καθεστώτων, ἅτε ἐξ αὐτῶν ἀναβάντων τῶν τοῦ θανάτου πυλῶν, τῶν πλουτούντων τις, στυγνὸς, κατηφὴς, ἀποτεθνηκὼς ὑπὸ ἀθυμίας περιῄει· καὶ πολλῶν τὴν αἰτίαν πυνθανομένων, οὐδὲ κατασχεῖν ἔνδον ἴσχυσεν, ἀλλ' ὑπὸ τῆς τυραννίδος τοῦ χαλεποῦ τούτου πάθους κεντούμενος, εἰς μέσον τὴν αἰτίαν ἐξήνεγκε· Μυρία γὰρ σίτου μέτρα κεκτημένος, φησὶν, οὐκ ἔχω πῶς διάθωμαι ταῦτα λοιπόν. Τί λέγεις; ἀλγεῖς ὅτι μὴ πάντες ἀπώλοντο, ἵνα σὺ συναγάγῃς χρυσίον; οὐκ ἤκουσας τί φησιν ὁ Σολομών· Ὁ τιμιουλκῶν σῖτον, δημοκατάρατος; ἀλλὰ περιέρχῃ κοινὸς ἐχθρὸς τῶν τῆς οἰκουμένης ἀγαθῶν, καὶ τῆς τοῦ ∆εσπότου φιλοτιμίας πολέμιος, καὶ τοῦ μαμωνᾶ φίλος, μᾶλλον δὲ δοῦλος; Οὐ γὰρ ἐκκοπῆναι τὴν γλῶτταν ἐκείνην ἔδει; οὐ γὰρ σβεσθῆναι τὴν καρδίαν τὴν ταῦτα τεκοῦσαν τὰ ῥήματα; Τί γὰρ αὐτοῦ ἐλεεινότερον γένοιτ' ἂν τοῦ πλουσίου, τοῦ δι' αὐτὸ τοῦτο ἀλγοῦντος, ὅτι ἄπειρα κέκτηται, καὶ δυσχεραίνοντος ὡς ἀπολωλεκέναι νομίζοντος, καὶ καθ' ἑκάστην ἡμέραν εὐχομένου γενέσθαι λιμὸν, ἵνα αὐτῷ χρυσίον προσγένηται; Πῶς ὑμῖν ὑπογράψω βούλεσθε τὰ τοῦ πλεονέκτου πάθη καὶ ἅρπαγος; τί γὰρ τῶν χειρῶν ἐκείνων μιαρώτερον; τί τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν ἐκείνων ἀναισχυντότερον, ἢ ἀναιδέστερον καὶ κυνικώτερον; Οὐ βλέπει τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἀνθρώπους, οὐδὲ τὸν οὐρανὸν οὐρανὸν, ἀλλὰ πάντα χρήματα εἶναι νομίζει. Οἱ γὰρ ἀνθρώπων ὀφθαλμοὶ πένητας εἰώθασιν ὁρᾷν καταπεπονημένους, καὶ ἐπικλᾶσθαι· οἱ δὲ ἅρπαγες ὁρῶσι πένητας, καὶ μᾶλλον ἐκθηριοῦνται. Οἱ ἀνθρώπων ὀφθαλμοὶ οὐ τῶν ἄλλοις δεδομένων ἐφίενται, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ αὐτῶν εἰς ἑτέρους κενοῦσιν· οὗτοι δὲ οὐκ ἀνέχονται, εἰ μὴ τὰ πάντων λαβόντες ἰδιοποιήσαιντο. Οἱ ἀνθρώπων ὀφθαλμοὶ γυμνὸν ἰδεῖν τὸ σῶμα τοῦ πλησίον οὐκ ἀνέχονται· οὗτοι δὲ, εἰ μὴ πάντας γυμνώσαιεν, καὶ τὰ πάντων οἴκοι κατάθοιντο, οὐδέποτε κόρον λαμβάνουσι· μᾶλλον δὲ οὐδὲ τότε ἐμπίπλανται. ∆ιόπερ οὐδὲ θηρίων τὰς χεῖρας τὰς τούτων ἄν τις εἶναι φαίη μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τούτων ἀγριωτέρας πολλῷ καὶ χαλεπωτέρας. Ἄρκοι μὲν γὰρ καὶ λύκοι, ἐπειδὰν λάβωσι κόρον τῆς τοιαύτης τροφῆς, ἀφίστανται· οὗτοι δὲ κόρον οὐκ ἔχουσι. Καίτοι διὰ τοῦτο χεῖρας ἡμῖν ἐποίησεν ὁ Θεὸς, ἵνα ἑτέροις βοηθῶμεν, οὐχ ἵνα ἐπιβουλεύωμεν· ἐπεὶ εἰ μέλλοιμεν εἰς τοῦτο αὐταῖς κεχρῆσθαι, βέλτιον αὐτὰς ἐκκοπῆναι καὶ χωρὶς τούτων εἶναι. Ὅταν γὰρ πρόβατον μὲν σπαραττόμενον ὑπὸ θηρίου τις ἰδὼν ἀλγῇ, καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν δάκνηται, εἰς δὲ τὸν ὁμόφυλον τοῦτο αὐτὸ ἐργαζόμενος, οὐ νομίζῃ τι ποιεῖν δεινόν· πῶς ἂν εἴη ἄνθρωπος ὁ τοιοῦτος, ἀλλ' οὐ θηρίον, καὶ τοῦ θηρίου χείρων; Τὰ μὲν γὰρ θηρία τῇ φύσει ἐστὶ τοιαῦτα· οἱ δὲ πλεονέκται κατὰ φύσιν τὸ ἥμερον ἔχοντες, παρὰ φύσιν εἰς