S. AURELII AUGUSTINI HIPPONENSIS EPISCOPI DE OPERE MONACHORUM LIBER UNUS .

 CAPUT PRIMUM.

 2. Primum ergo videndum quid dicant illius professionis homines qui operari nolunt: deinde, si eos non recte sentire invenerimus, ad eorum correctione

 CAPUT II.

 CAPUT III.

 CAPUT IV.

 CAPUT V.

 CAPUT VI.

 CAPUT VII.

 CAPUT VIII.

 10. Apertius et clarius id esse ex consequentibus. Et redit rursus, modisque omnibus etiam atque etiam commendat quid sibi liceat, et tamen non faciat

 CAPUT X.

 CAPUT XI.

 CAPUT XII.

 CAPUT XIII.

 CAPUT XIV.

 16. Paulus praecipiens operari servos Dei, non vult tamen eorum necessitates minus curari a fidelibus. Labor servis Dei eligendus qui animo libero exe

 CAPUT XVI.

 18. Et paulo post dicit: Nam de ministerio quod fit in sanctos, ex abundanti est mihi scribere vobis. Scio enim promptum esse animum vestrum, de quo g

 19. Sicut ergo non cessavit Apostolus, imo Spiritus Dei possidens et implens et agens cor ejus, exhortari fideles qui haberent hujusmodi substantiam,

 CAPUT XVII.

 CAPUT XVIII.

 CAPUT XIX.

 CAPUT XX.

 24. Hanc quaestionem breviter solverem, si dicerem, quia et juste dicerem, credendum esse Apostolo. Ipse enim sciebat cur in Ecclesiis Gentium non opo

 25. Si saltem habebant aliquid in hoc saeculo, quo facile sine opificio sustentarent istam vitam, quod 0568 conversi ad Deum indigentibus dispertiti s

 26. Contingit enim eis quod in viduis junioribus indisciplinatis cavendum idem apostolus dicit: Simul autem et otiosae esse discunt non solum autem o

 CAPUT XXIII.

 28. Proinde rursus istos alio sublimiore gradu justitiae superabunt, qui se ita instituerint, ut quotidie in agros tanquam in pastum pergant, et quo t

 29. Verum et hoc concedamus, toto vertente anno posse in agris reperiri vel ex arbore vel ex herbis, vel ex quibusque radicibus quod in escam sumi pos

 30. Quapropter, ut breviter complectar, isti qui ex Evangelii perverso intellectu tam manifesta apostolica praecepta pervertere moliuntur, aut non cog

 CAPUT XXIV.

 CAPUT XXV.

 33. Quamobrem etiam illi qui relicta vel distributa, sive ampla, sive qualicumque opulenta facultate, inter pauperes Christi pia et salubri humilitate

 CAPUT XXVI.

 35. Et quod sequitur de volatilibus coeli et de liliis agri, ad hoc dicit, ne quisquam Deum putet servorum suorum necessaria non curare cum ejus sapi

 CAPUT XXVIII.

 CAPUT XXIX.

 CAPUT XXX.

 39. Minus enim peccatur, si non laudetur peccator in desideriis animae suae, et qui iniqua gerit benedicatur (Psal. IX, 24).

 CAPUT XXXII.

 CAPUT XXXIII.

11. And he goes on, and adjoins, lest perchance any should imagine that he only therefore received not, because they had not given: “But I have not written these things that they may be so done unto me: good is it for me rather to die than that any make void my glory.”26    1 Cor. ix. 15 What glory, unless that which he wished to have with God, while in Christ suffering with the weak? As he is presently about to say most openly; “For if I shall have preached the Gospel, there is not to me any glory: for necessity is laid upon me;”27    1 Cor. ix. 16. [See R.V.] that is, of sustaining this life. “For woe will be to me,” he saith, “if I preach not the Gospel:” that is, to my own will shall I forbear to preach the Gospel, because I shall be tormented with hunger, and shall not have whereof to live. For he goes on, and says; “For if willingly I do this, I have a reward.” By his doing it willingly, he means, if he do it uncompelled by any necessity of supporting this present life; and for this he hath reward, to wit, with God, of glory everlasting. “But if unwilling,” saith he, “a dispensation is entrusted unto me:”28    1 Cor. ix. 17 that is, if being unwilling, I am by necessity of passing through this present life, compelled to preach the Gospel, “a dispensation is entrusted unto me;” to wit, that by my dispensation as a steward, because Christ, because the truth, is that which I preach, howsoever because of occasion, howsoever seeking mine own, howsoever by necessity of earthly emolument compelled so to do, other men do profit, but I have not that glorious and everlasting reward with God. “What then,” saith he, “shall be my reward?” He saith it as asking a question: therefore the pronunciation must be suspended, until he give the answer. Which the more easily to understand, let, as it were, us put the question to him, “What, then, will be thy reward, O Apostle, when that earthly reward due to good evangelists, not for its sake evangelizing, but yet taking it as the consequence and offered to them by the Lord’s appointment, thou acceptest not? What shall be thy reward then?” See what he replies: “That, preaching the Gospel, I may make the Gospel of Christ without charge;” that is, that the Gospel may not be to believers expensive, lest they account that for this end is the Gospel to be preached to them, that its preachers should seem as it were to sell it. And yet he comes back again and again, that he may show what, by warrant of the Lord, he hath a right unto, yet doeth not: “that I abuse not,” saith he, “my power in the Gospel.”29    1 Cor. ix. 18

CAPUT X.

11. Ex Evangelio cur non vivit Paulus. Et sequitur, et adjungit, ne forte quisquam arbitretur ideo eum non accepisse, quia illi non dederant: Non autem scripsi haec ut ita fiant in me; bonum est mihi magis mori, quam quisquam inanem faciat. Quam gloriam, nisi quam habere voluit apud Deum, in Christo compatiens infirmis; sicut mox apertissime dicturus est? Si enim evangelizavero, inquit, non est mihi gloria: necessitas enim mihi incumbit; id est, sustentandae vitae hujus. Vae enim erit mihi, inquit, si non evangelizavero: id est, malo meo 0557 non evangelizabo, quia fame cruciabor, et unde vivam non habebo. Nam sequitur, et dicit: Si enim volens hoc facio, mercedem habeo. Volentem se dicit facere, si nulla vitae hujus fulciendae necessitate compulsus facit; et ob hoc habere mercedem, utique apud Deum gloriae sempiternae. Si autem invitus, inquit, dispensatio mihi credita est: id est, si necessitate transigendae hujus vitae invitus cogor evangelizare, dispensatio mihi credita est; ut scilicet ex dispensatione mea, quia Christum, quia veritatem praedico, quamvis ex occasione, quamvis mea quaerens, quamvis terreni emolumenti necessitate compulsus, alii proficiant, ego autem apud Deum mercedem gloriosam illam sempiternamque non habeam. Quae ergo, inquit, merces mihi erit? Interrogans dixit: propterea suspendenda est pronuntiatio, donec respondeat. Quod ut facilius intelligatur, tanquam nos eum interrogemus, Quae ergo tibi merces erit, Apostole, quando mercedem istam terrenam etiam evangelistis bonis debitam, non propter hoc evangelizantibus, sed tamen consequentem et oblatam ex Domini ordinatione sumentibus, tu non accipis? quae ergo tibi merces erit? Vide quid respondeat: Ut evangelizans, inquit, sine sumptu ponam Evangelium; id est, ut non sit credentibus sumptuosum Evangelium, ne putent ad hoc sibi evangelizari, ut id evangelistae quasi vendere videantur. Et tamen redit etiam atque etiam, ut ostendat quid sibi jure dominico liceat, et ipse non faciat: Ut non abutar, inquit, potestate mea in Evangelio.