Part I

AGAINST THOSE WHO ATTACK THE RELIGIOUS STATE AND PROFESSION

OPUSCULUM XIX. (IN THE PARMA EDITION OPUSCULUM I.)

PROLOGUE

THE AUTHOR EXPLAINS HIS INTENTION IN UNDERTAKING THIS WORK

"Lo, thy enemies have made a noise: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head. They have taken malicious counsel against thy people, and have consulted against thy Saints. They have said: 'Come, and let us destroy them, so that they be not a nation; and let the name of Israel be remembered no more'" (Ps. lxxxii.).

             Almighty God, the Lover of mankind, makes use of us, as St. Augustine says (Book I., De doctrina Christiana), both for the sake of His own goodness, and for our advantage. He makes use of us for His own goodness, that man may glorify Him. "Every one that calleth upon My name, I have created him for My glory" (Isa. xliii. 3). He, likewise, makes use of us for our own advantage, in order that He may give salvation to all. "Who will have all men to be saved" (1 Tim. ii. 4). At the birth of Our Lord, an angel proclaimed this harmony between God and man, saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth to men of good will" (St. Luke ii. 14).

             But, although God, who is Almighty, could, of Himself alone, have caused man to glorify Him, and to obtain salvation, He has willed, that a certain order should be preserved in this work of salvation. Consequently He has appointed ministers, by whose labours the twofold end of man's creation is to be accomplished. These ministers are rightly spoken of as "God's coadjutors" (1 Cor. iii. 9). But Satan strives, in his jealousy, to hinder both the Divine glory and the salvation of mankind. He, in like manner, endeavours to effect his purpose, by means of his ministers, whom he incites to persecute the servants of God. The emissaries of Satan show clearly, that they are the enemies both of God, whose glory they endeavour to frustrate, and of man, against whose salvation they wage war. More especially do they show themselves hostile to the ministers of God, whom they persecute. "They have persecuted us; and they please not God; they are adversaries to all men" (1 Thess. ii. 15). On this account, the Psalmist, in the verse which we have quoted, enumerates three points.

             First, he mentions the hatred borne by the ministers of Satan to God. "Lo, thy enemies have made a noise," i.e., they who, formerly, spoke secretly against Thee, fear not, now, to oppose Thee publicly. The Gloss tells us, that these words refer to the days of Antichrist, when, the enemies of the Lord, being no longer subdued by fear, will cry out against Him aloud. And, as their clamour will be an unreasoning tumult, it is spoken of as a noise, rather than a voice. They will not, however, manifest their hatred of God by sound only, but also by deeds. "They that hate thee have lifted up their head," i.e., Antichrist, as the Gloss says. And not only Antichrist, the head himself, but likewise his members, who are heads under his head, and being governed by him as their head, are able, so much the more efficaciously, to persecute the saints of God.

             Secondly, the Psalmist points out, how Antichrist and his ministers wage war against the whole human race. Hence, he adds, "They having taken malicious counsel against thy people"; or, according to another version: "They have devised crafty things, that they may deceive them." This reading agrees with the words of Isaias (iii. 12), "O my people, they that call thee blessed, the same deceive thee." They deceive, as the Gloss adds, "with flattering words."

             Thirdly, David shows how the ministers of Satan persecute the servants of God. For, he continues, "they have consulted against thy saints," "not" (as the Gloss points out), "against men of moderate virtue, but even against heavenly men." Hence, St. Gregory (XIII. Lib. Moral.), expounding the words of Job (xvi. 11), "they have opened their mouths upon me; they have reproached me," etc., says: "The reprobate, chiefly, persecute those men in the Holy Church whom they judge likely to be of service to many." The Saint further adds, "These enemies of God deem themselves to have performed a great deed, if they can destroy the life of the preachers of the Gospel." They nourish two designs against the Saints. First, they wish to sweep them from the face of the earth. "Our enemies resolve to destroy us, and extinguish thy inheritance" (Esth. xiii. 15). Secondly, the ministers of Satan desire, if they cannot succeed in slaying the preachers of the Gospel, at least to ruin their good name among men, that, so, their words may produce no fruit. "Do not the rich oppress you by might? Do not they blaspheme the good name that is invoked upon you?" (James ii. 6). Now, the Psalmist alludes to the first of these wicked designs, in these words: "Come" (for, "thus," as the Gloss says, "these reprobates summon their accomplices"), "let us destroy them" (i.e., "the Saints"), "so that they be not a nation." These words the Gloss understands to mean, "let us destroy them, that they be not among the nations: i.e., let us destroy them from the world. This is the persecution of Antichrist." David makes allusion to this second design of Satan against the preachers of the Gospel, in the words, "Let the name of Israel be remembered no more," meaning by this, as the Gloss explains, let their name be held in no esteem by such as consider themselves the true children of Israel.

             In former days, tyrants sought to rid the world of the Saints by violence. St. Paul writes that he saw the literal accomplishment of the verse of the Psalm, "for thy sake we are put to death all the day long: we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter" (Rom. viii. 36). But, in our day, the enemies of God's work aim at this indeed, but rather by cunning counsels, devised especially against religious, who, by word and example, may spread throughout the world the perfection which they profess. Their persecutors refuse to furnish them with certain necessaries of life. They, further, withdraw from them spiritual solace. They impose on them again, bodily hardship, in the hopes, that their condition may, thus, be rendered burdensome, and ignominious, and that they may, finally, cease to exist.

             First, their enemies endeavour, as far as they can, to deprive religious of the means of study and of becoming learned, in order that they may be unable either to confute the adversaries of the truth, or to draw spiritual consolation from the Scriptures. This was the cunning practised by the Philistines. "The Philistines had taken this precaution; lest the Hebrews should make them swords or spears" (1 Kings xiii. 19). The Gloss interprets this passage as signifying the prohibition to study. This mode of persecution was first practised against the Christians by Julian the Apostate, as we read in Ecclesiastical history.

             Secondly, the enemies of religious seek to prevent their consorting with learned men, in order, that, thus, their life may fall into disrepute. "And that no man might buy or sell, but he that hath the character or the name of the beast" (Apoc. xiii. 17), by consenting that is to their malice.

             Thirdly, these same malicious men seek to hinder religious from preaching, and from hearing Confessions, by which means they might effect much good to souls. "Prohibiting us to speak to the Gentiles, that they may be saved" (1 Thess. ii. 16).

             Fourthly, they seek to oblige religious to labour with their hands, that so they may become weary of, and be disgusted with, their state of life; and that they may be impeded in the discharge of their spiritual functions. They were anticipated in this device by that King Pharao, who said, "Behold the people of the children of Israel are numerous and stronger than we. Come let us wisely oppress them." . . . "Therefore," it is added, "he set over them masters of the works" (Exod. i. 9). According to the Gloss, "Pharao means Zabulum who imposes a heavy yoke of earth signifying the labour of tilling the soil."

             Fifthly, the enemies of religious malign them, and blaspheme against their perfection, i.e. the poverty of the Mendicant Orders. "Many shall follow their luxuries; through whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of" (2 Peter ii. 2). The Gloss understands by "the way of truth," good works.

             Sixthly, as far as they are able, they try to deprive religious of alms, and of all other means of subsistence. "And as if these things were not enough for him," writes St. John, "neither doth he himself receive the brethren; and them that receive them he forbiddeth" (3 Ep. John). The Gloss thus comments on these words, "And, as if these things were not enough for him," i.e., as if it did not suffice him to dissuade others from exercising hospitality, "neither doth he himself receive the brethren," i.e. the indigent, "and them that receive them he forbiddeth," i.e. he forbids them to give assistance to those in want.

             Seventhly, the ministers of Satan endeavour to tarnish the reputation of the Saints; and that, not only by word, but by letters, sent to all parts of the world. "From the prophets of Jerusalem, corruption is gone forth into all the land" (Jer. xxiii. 13). St. Jerome, expounding this text, says, "These words are our testimony against those who send forth into the world letters, full of lies, and deceit, and perjury, wherewith to pollute the ears of them that hear them." For, it is not enough for the servants of the devil to nourish themselves with their own malice, or to injure those at hand, but they must needs strive to defame their enemies, and spread their blasphemies against them over the entire globe.

             In our attempt to check the calumnies of these foul tongues, we shall proceed in the following order.

             First, as their malice seems entirely directed against religious, we shall show what the religious life is, and wherein its perfection consists.

             Secondly, we shall demonstrate the worthlessness and folly of the reasons which their enemies adduce against the religious.

             Thirdly, we shall point out that the accusations brought against religious are calumnious.