Chapter 9.—Of the Method in Which Grammarians and Professional Speakers are to Be Dealt with.

13. There are also some who come from the commonest schools of the grammarians and professional speakers, whom you may not venture to reckon either among the uneducated or among those very learned classes whose minds have been exercised in questions of real magnitude. When such persons, therefore, who appear to be superior to the rest of mankind, so far as the art of speaking is concerned, approach you with the view of becoming Christians, it will be your duty in your communications with them, in a higher degree than in your dealings with those other illiterate hearers, to make it plain that they are to be diligently admonished to clothe themselves with Christian humility, and learn not to despise individuals whom they may discover keeping themselves free from vices of conduct more carefully than from faults of language; and also that they ought not to presume so much as to compare with a pure heart the practised tongue which they were accustomed even to put in preference. But above all, such persons should be taught to listen to the divine Scriptures, so that they may neither deem solid eloquence to be mean, merely because it is not inflated, nor suppose that the words or deeds of men, of which we read the accounts in those books, involved and covered as they are in carnal wrappings,58    Carnalibus integumentis involuta atque operta are not to be drawn forth and unfolded with a view to an (adequate) understanding of them, but are to be taken merely according to the sound of the letter. And as to this same matter of the utility of the hidden meaning, the existence of which is the reason why they are called also mysteries, the power wielded by these intricacies of enigmatical utterances in the way of sharpening our love for the truth, and shaking off the torpor of weariness, is a thing which the persons in question must have made good to them by actual experience, when some subject which failed to move them when it was placed baldly before them, has its significance elicited by the detailed working out of an allegorical sense. For it is in the highest degree useful to such men to come to know how ideas are to be preferred to words, just as the soul is preferred to the body. And from this, too, it follows that they ought to have the desire to listen to discourses remarkable for their truth, rather than to those which are notable for their eloquence; just as they ought to be anxious to have friends distinguished for their wisdom, rather than those whose chief merit is their beauty. They should also understand that there is no voice for the ears of God save the affection of the soul. For thus they will not act the mocker if they happen to observe any of the prelates and ministers of the Church either calling upon God in language marked by barbarisms and solecisms, or failing in understanding correctly the very words which they are pronouncing, and making confused pauses.59    Or = confusing the sense by false pauses: perturbateque distinguere. It is not meant, of course, that such faults are not to be corrected, so that the people may say “Amen” to something which they plainly understand; but what is intended is, that such things should be piously borne with by those who have come to understand how, as in the forum it is in the sound, so in the church it is in the desire that the grace of speech resides.60    Ut sono in foro, sic voto in ecclesia benedici Therefore that of the forum may sometimes be called good speech, but never gracious speech.61    Bona dictio, nunquam tamen benedictio Moreover, with respect to the sacrament which they are about to receive, it is enough for the more intelligent simply to hear what the thing signifies. But with those of slower intellect, it will be necessary to adopt a somewhat more detailed explanation, together with the use of similitudes, to prevent them from despising what they see.

CAPUT IX.

13. Grammatici et oratores quomodo 0320 tractandi. Vox ad aures Dei, animi affectus. Sunt item quidam de scholis usitatissimis grammaticorum oratorumque venientes, quos neque inter idiotas numerare audeas, neque inter illos doctissimos, quorum mens magnarum rerum est exercitata quaestionibus. His ergo qui loquendi arte caeteris hominibus excellere videntur, cum veniunt ut christiani fiant, hoc amplius quam illis illitteratis impertire debemus, quod sedulo monendi sunt ut humilitate induti christiana, discant non contemnere quos cognoverint morum vitia quam verborum amplius devitare; et cordi casto linguam exercitatam nec conferre audeant, quam etiam praeferre consueverant. Maxime autem isti docendi sunt Scripturas audire divinas, ne sordeat eis solidum eloquium, quia non est inflatum; neque arbitrentur carnalibus integumentis involuta atque operta dicta vel facta hominum, quae in illis libris leguntur, non evolvenda atque aperienda ut intelligantur, sed sic accipienda ut litterae sonant; deque ipsa utilitate secreti, unde etiam mysteria vocantur, quid valeant aenigmatum latebrae ad amorem veritatis acuendum, decutiendumque fastidii torporem, ipsa experientia probandum est talibus, cum aliquid eis quod in promptu positum non ita movebat, enodatione allegoriae alicujus eruitur. His enim maxime utile est nosse, ita esse praeponendas verbis sententias, ut praeponitur animus corpori. Ex quo fit ut ita malle debeant veriores quam disertiores audire sermones, sicut malle debent prudentiores, quam formosiores habere amicos. Noverint etiam non esse vocem ad aures Dei, nisi animi affectum: ita enim non irridebunt, si aliquos antistites et ministros Ecclesiae forte animadverterint, vel cum barbarismis et soloecismis Deum invocare, vel eadem verba quae pronuntiant non intelligere, perturbateque distinguere. Non quia ista minime corrigenda sunt, ut populus ad id quod plane intelligit, dicat Amen; sed tamen pie toleranda sunt ab eis qui didicerint, ut sono in foro, sic voto in Ecclesia benedici. Itaque forensis illa nonnunquam forte bona dictio, nunquam tamen benedictio dici potest. De Sacramento autem quod accepturi sunt, sufficit prudentioribus audire quid res illa significet: cum tardioribus autem aliquanto pluribus verbis et similitudinibus agendum est, ne contemnant quod vident.