title: De modo regiminis ecclesiastici

author: Agobard of Lyon

source_edition: Migne, Patrologia Latina, vol. 104, coll. 189B–200A

source_text:
## I.

Quia novi inter aliquos, quosdam rumores et suspiciones diversas, haec subteradjecta scripsi, per quae cognoscere dignemini quae ego in actione ecclesiastici regiminis tenenda putem, cessetque paucorum murmuratio, cum omnibus mea fuerit intentio [0189B] patefacta. Unus est sponsus, qui habet sponsam; qui diligendus est propter se, non propter aliud aliquid, cum ipse sit pax, veritas, justitia, sanctificatio, et redemptio, et omne bonum, et sine illo nullum bonum; qui de coelo venit, et super omnes est; qui quos eripit de terra, levat ad coelum. Amici sponsi sunt, qui se videntes et audientes aedificant in amorem et cultum sponsi, filii vero sponsi, et qui aedificant, et qui aedificantur. Unus est agnus, qui habet sponsam, de qua dicitur Joanni apostolo: *Veni, ostendam tibi sponsam, uxorem agni:* et ostensa est illi civitas sancta Hierusalem descendens de coelo a Deo, habens claritatem Dei.

## II.

De hac sponsa et civitate cantatur in coelo *Alleluia, quoniam regnavit Dominus Deus noster omnipotens. [0189C] Gaudeamus et exsultemus, et demus gloriam ei, quia venerunt nuptiae agni, et uxor ejus praeparavit se; et datum est illi, ut cooperiat se byssino.* De hac uxore et civitate dicit Joannes evangelista quod ipsa sit et tabernaculum Dei. Ait enim: *Et civitatem sanctam Hierusalem vidi novam descendentem de coelo, a Deo paratam, sicut sponsam ornatam viro suo. Et audivi vocem magnam de throno dicentem: Ecce tabernaculum Dei cum hominibus, et habitabit cum eis. Et ipsi populus ejus erunt, et ipse Deus erit cum eis eorum Deus, et absterget Deus omnem lacrymam ab oculis eorum; et mors ultra non erit, neque luctus, neque clamor, neque dolor erit ultra.* De hac civitate et uxore virgine generat agnus Dei, agnus Deus, agnus omnipotens, agnus omnipotentis, agnos [0189D] et oves quos commendat beato Petro apostolo dicens: *Pasce agnos meos.* Et iterum: *Pasce oves meas.* Hic sponsus et agnus omnipotens dicit sponsae et uxori suae: *Capilli tui sicut greges caprarum, quae ascenderunt de monte Galaad. Dentes tui sicut grex ovium, quae ascenderunt de lavacro, omnes gemellis fetibus, et sterilis non est in eis.* Et iterum: *Duo ubera tua sicut duo hinnuli capreae gemelli, qui pascuntur in liliis.* Haec uxor et filia est viri sui agni et principis, cui ipse dicit: *Quam pulchri sunt gressus tui in calciamentis, filia principis!*

## III.

Ipse princeps pater sponsae suae, et frater ejus est. Dicit enim ipsi uxori et sorori suae: *Vulnerasti cor meum, soror mea sponsa, vulnerasti cor meum in uno oculorum tuorum, et in uno crine colli tui. Quam pulchrae sunt mammae tuae, soror mea sponsa!* Nec mirum [0190B] si uxor soror est; quia et mammae atque ubera ejus turris, et ipsa murus. Sic enim de illa pater et sponsus loquitur: *Quid faciemus sorori nostrae in die quando alloquenda est. Si murus est, aedificemus super eum propugnacula argentea; si ostium est, compingamus illud tabulis cedrinis.* Et illa respondit: *Ego murus, et ubera mea turris, ex quo facta sum coram eo quasi pacem reperiens.* Quid mirum si murus et civitas, cum et vinea habens virum? *Vinea enim,* inquit, *fuit Pacifico in ea, quae habet populos. Tradidit eam custodibus: vir affert pro fructu ejus mille argenteos.* De qua ipse vir et pater statim subjungit, *Vinea mea coram me est.* Ipsa vinea virginis quoque est et conjux, de qua in carmine nuptiali canitur ipsi regi et sponso: *Stetit conjux in [0190C] dextera tua, in diademate aureo.* Et ipse sponsus et pater ait eidem conjugi: *Audi filia et vide.* Et ipse cantor hujus carminis eidem dicit: *Et, o filia fortissimi, in muneribus faciem tuam deprecabuntur divites populi.* Haec juxta Hebraicum. Antiquior autem translatio, ut eamdem conjugem reginam et filiam regis ostenderet, sic ait ipsi regi: *Astitit regina a dextris tuis.* Et post pauca: *Omnis gloria ejus filiae regis ab intus.* Haec regina non solum vinea est, sed et hortus, et fons. *Hortus conclusus soror mea sponsa, hortus conclusus, fons signatus.* Dicitur et mulier, sicut scriptum est: *Mulierem fortem quis inveniet?* Et post aliqua: *Nobilis in portis vir ejus, quando sederit cum senatoribus terrae.* In ejus persona quibusdam fidelibus et Paulus scribit: *Despondi enim vos [0190D] uni viro virginem castam exhibere Christo.* Cui ipse Christus Dominus loquitur: *Tota pulchra es, amica mea, et macula non est in te.* Et illa de illo: *Veniat dilectus meus in hortum suum, et comedat fructum pomorum suorum.*

## IV.

Ista sponsa regina, et uxor et ancilla est. Sed hoc non mirum. Mirum tamen et omni misericordia plenum, quod vir ejus et dominus, etiam domina est illi, sicut Psalmista decantat: *Sicut oculi ancillae ad manum dominae suae, ita oculi nostri ad Dominum Deum nostrum.* Quae etiam mulier dicitur habens dragmas decem, quae, perdita una, accendit [0191A] lucernam, everrit domum, quaesivit, et invenit. Dicitur et mater, sicut ipse per Isaiam loquitur, dicens: *Quomodo si cui mater blanditur, ita ego consolabor vos.* Vere enim et mater et domina est, virtus et sapientia, fortitudo et gloria, resurrectio et vita, via et veritas, illuminatio et salus, et caetera hujusmodi.

## V.

Illud quoque non minus mirum quod ancilla et amica etiam mater Domini sui esse potest, illo modo quo Dominus ait: *Quicunque enim fecerit voluntatem Patris mei, qui in coelis est, ipse meus frater et soror et mater est.* Quod et Apostolus de se ipso ait: *Filioli mei, quos iterum parturio donec formetur Christus in vobis.*

## VI.

Haec multiplicia nomina sponsi et sponsae, [0191B] Christi et Ecclesiae, non de aliquibus gestis historicis (sicut est, cum Scriptura de Sara, Rebecca, Rachel loquitur, in quibus conjunctio Christi et Ecclesiae figurata est), nec de eo locutionis genere, quo in rebus sensibilibus significativa praenuntiatione ponuntur (sicut est mons domus Domini, ubi mons Dominum et domus ecclesiam significat) et multa hujusmodi, assumpta sunt; sed de illis locis ubi in illam ordinatam narrationem gestorum Scritura exsequitur, sed tantum diversis hujusmodi nominibus Christum et Ecclesiam indicat, et in quibus nullus ita insipiens est ut aliud quaerendum existimet, nisi Christum et Ecclesiam.

## VII.

Miranda vero Conditoris benignitas ostenditur; cum tanta unitate corpus capiti adhaereat, [0191C] et caput corpori praesideat, sicut Propheta decantat: *Induit me vestimentis salutis, et indumento justitiae circumdedit me quasi sponsum decoratum corona, et quasi sponsam ornatam monilibus suis.* Et post aliqua: *Habitabit enim juvenis cum virgine, [0192A] et habitabunt in te filii tui. Et gaudebit sponsus super sponsam, et gaudebit super te Deus tuus.* Et Apostolus aperte ostendit, dicens: *Sicut enim corpus unum est, et membra habet multa, omnia autem membra corporis cum sint multa, unum corpus sunt, ita et Christus. Etenim in uno spiritu omnes nos in unum corpus baptizati sumus, sive Judaei, sive gentiles, sive servi, sive liberi, et omnes in uno spiritu potati sumus.* Quia videlicet hanc unitatem spiritus Christi facit.

## VIII.

Haec sunt quae ineffabiliter jucundissimam praestant avocationem piae et fideli animae, et talem avocationem, qualis in praesenti vita ex creaturarum contemplatione nulla esse potest, et, ut ita dicam confidenter, in omnibus operibus Dei visibilibus [0192B] et invisibilibus nulla similis inveniri potest. De hac avocatione Dominus praecipit per Prophetam: *Loquimini ad cor Israel, et avocate eam.* De hac etiam vir cum quo est Deus in visione qua erudivit eum mater sua, mystico sermone, sic praecipit: *Date siceram moerentibus, et vinum his qui amaro sunt animo. Bibant, et obliviscantur egestatis suae, et doloris sui non recordentur amplius.* De hac et Psalmista, cum beatum diceret eum qui non respexit in vanitatem et insanias falsas, vel sicut in Hebraico legitur, ad superbias pompasque mendacii, in quibus sunt avocationes carnalium mentium, subjunxit: *Multa fecisti, tu Domine Deus meus, mirabilia tua, et cogitationibus tuis non est qui similis sit tui.*

## IX.

Ergo quicunque praedicationis officium et locum regiminis suscepit, et negligit in his summis rebus, quod est summum misericordiae Dei, avocare amicos fidelium, et quaerit consolationem et avocationem in divitiis, in ornamentis metallicis, [0193A] in venationibus, ancupationibus ac piscationibus, et, quod pejus est, in comessationibus, et ebrietatibus, et sonis musicis, sicut Dominus per prophetam detestatur, dicens: *Vae qui consurgitis mane ad ebrietatem sectandam, et potandum usque ad vesperam, ut vino aestuetis. Cithara, et lyra, et tympanum, et tibia, et vinum in conviviis vestris; et opus Domini non respicitis, nec opera manuum ejus consideratis.* Iste talis non est adjutor Dei, sicut Paulas ait: *Dei enim sumus adjutores. Dei agricultura estis, Dei aedificatio estis.* Sed est destructor operis Dei, ac per hoc adjutor Antichristi; [0194A] et licet in oculis humanis sacerdos esse videatur, in oculis tamen Dei non est: quia veniente Domino ad judicium, dividetur, et pars ejus cum infidelibus ponetur, et de qualibus scriptum est: *Vidi impios sepultos: qui etiam cum adhuc viverent, in loco sancto erant, et laudabantur in civitate, quasi justorum operum.* Nullus ergo ex his dux populi Dei esse debet, ne quaerentes regna coelestia in foveam demergat, ubi ipse judicio Dei demersus est, sicut Dominus ad beatum Job demonstrat, dicens: *Si habes brachium sicut Deus?* Et quibusdam interpositis: *Absconde eos,* inquit, id est, superbos [0195A] et impios, *in pulverem simul, et facies eorum demerge in foveam.*

## X.

Sunt alii qui, sicut et isti, non apparent hominibus impii, sed per simulatam justitiam fiunt in oculis hominum sepulcra dealbata; in oculis autem Dei, id est intus, pleni sunt ossibus mortuorum et omni spurcitia. Ait beatus Paulus apostolus: *Non enim sumus sicut plurimi, adulterantes verbum Dei, sed ex sinceritate, sicut ex Deo, coram Deo, in Christo loquimur.* Et iterum: *Habentes hanc ministrationem, juxta quod misericordiam consecuti sumus, non deficimus, sed abdicamus occulta dedecoris, non ambulantes in astutia, neque adulterantes verbum Dei, sed in manifestatione veritatis.* Sicut enim adulter non quaerit fructum prolis, sed tantum [0195B] ut suae voluntati faciat et libidinem impleat; ita omnis qui administrationem verbi suscepit, si ex sinceritate salutem audientium et aedificationem Ecclesiae non quaerit, sed causa alterius rei, quae minor est quam salus auditorum, verbum Dei loquitur, ut suae nimirum propriae voluntati obtemperet, adulter est.

## XI.

Ergo non soli haeretici adulterant verbum Dei, miscendo fallacias suas. Sed et omnes qui per sacrum ministerium ad honores et divitias temporales pervenire festinant, etiam et illi qui ad honores et divitias sublimari non possunt, et victum aut tegumentum quotidianum ex sacro ministerio adipisci cupiunt (quia non ideo sumptus accipiunt ut praedicent, sed ideo praedicant ut accipiant; [0195C] nec loquuntur ex sinceritate sicut ex Deo, coram Deo; sed ambulant in astutia, nec abdicant occulta dedecoris, sed amplectuntur), adulteri sunt. Omnis ergo qui praeponitur caeteris, sive clericus, sive monachus, si ita videtur benevolus et mansuetus atque affabilis, ut subditorum corda in sui amorem et propriam laudem convertat, adulter est, et regimen animarum suscipere nunquam debet. Qui autem ita prudens, mansuetus, et suavis est, ut se videntes et audientes ad amorem et laudem sponsi convertat et accendat amicus est sponsi. castitatem [0196A] quaerit sponsae, meritoque suscipit regimen animarum. Omnis clericus, aut monachus, cui datus est quantuluscunque sermo sapientiae, aut sermo scientiae, et dum loquitur, cupit audientes in proprium amorem et propriam laudem convertere et inflammare, iste se ipsum praedicat, non sponsum; et idcirco pellendus est de interiori thalamo, quia adulter est; foris in atrio praesidet, non sponsae jussu, sed patientiae permissu: quia sive occasione, sive veritate sponsus annuntietur, gaudendum est. Fidelis enim anima a quocunque audiat laudes sponsi, in amorem sponsi accenditur, non in negligenter laudantis. Nam et diligentem laudatorem amat ut proximum, non ut sponsum, amat in sponso, non pro sponso. Ambulans in via immaculata, [0196B] hic Domino ministrat, non sibi; et potest proponi caeteris: non ambulans, sed jacens in ignavia, et qui sic ministrat, sibi ministrat, non Domino, non debet praeponi caeteris. Qui custodes observationum ad libitum suum, et non ad utilitatem domesticorum, sibimet dispensat, non Domino, non est fidelis dispensator et prudens, quem constituat Dominus super familiam suam. *Labor stultorum affliget eos qui nesciunt in urbem sponsi pergere;* et ideo non debent fieri duces aliorum. Labor sapientum sanat eos. Deducuntur enim ab sponso in viam rectam, ut eant in civitatem habitationis; talesque fieri debent duces eorum qui non habent hic manentem civitatem, sed futuram inquirunt in grege qui ascendit de lavacro. Et fecundae [0196C] sunt amandae, et steriles tolerandae; et sani custodiendi, et infirmi sanandi: quia sponsus de coelo venit quod perierat requirere, et quod abjectum erat reducere, et quod confractum alligare, et quod infirmum consolidare, et pingue et forte custodire.

## XII.

Haec in subjectis ovibus ita observanda sunt. In praelatis autem et pastoribus alia conditio est. Quoniam sicut beatus est *fidelis servus et prudens, quem constituit Dominus super familiam suam, ut det illis cibum in tempore,* qui imitatur pastorem [0197A] pastorum in administratione pascuae; ita e contrario de pastoribus qui pascunt semetipsos, quod infirmum est non consolidant, et quod aegrotum non sanant, et quod fractum non alligant, et quod abjectum non reducunt, quod perierat non requirunt: de quorum ore liberet pastor pastorum oves suas, et eas pascat in pascuis uberrimis, etiam eas quae in praesenti vita semper pro se tolerant pravum pastorem. Et quidem pia ovis semper quaerit bonum pastorem. Sed si deest in hac mortalitate, non deest ille qui animam suam posuit pro ovibus suis. Propter quod, ubi emendari non potest, ab ovibus tolerandus est ut mercenarius sedens in cathedra Moysi. Quoniam jussit pius sponsus, verus pastor, ut quae dicunt tales, faciant oves; quae autem faciunt, [0197B] non faciant.

## XIII.

Haec in postremo propterea dixi, ne quis me putet perditam existimare fidelem ovem, quae prudenter tolerat pravum pastorem; illud summopere commonens, ut omnis pastor non sibi, sed Domino nutriat et erudiat atque corripiat in disciplina et timore Domini subditos: sicut et beato Petro summus pastor praecibit dicens: *Pasce agnos meos,* [0198A] inquit, non *tuos;* et idcirco mihi, non tibi. Hoc est certum indicium quod me veraciter diligas, si agnos meos sollicite pascas, propter quod recepturus es justitiae coronam. Sic et quidam antiquus pastor curam sollicitudinis mysticis verbis significavit, dicens: *Non est adhuc tempus ut in caulis includantur oves. Date antea potum ovibus, et sic eas ad pastum reducit.* Quod ubi non fit, et venit illud quod propheta deplorat dicens: *Propterea captivus ductus est populus meus, quia non habuit scientiam; et nobiles ejus interierunt fame, et multitudo ejus siti exaruit.* Et alius: *Parvuli petierunt panem, et non erat qui frangeret eis.*

## XIV.

Haec verba non imperita, imperite tamen ab imperito ordinata, omnibus necessaria sunt, ab [0198B] illo qui sedet in solio, usque ad eum qui laborat ad molam. Ego non tam illis scribo, quibus nihil debeo nisi charitatem, sed eis qui nobis commissi sunt; ita tamen ut in nomine pastorum et rectorum intelligantur abbates, et praepositi, atque presbyteri: quos et obnixe deprecor ut toto corde intendant in exhortationem et obsecrationem beati Petri apostoli, qua dicit: *Seniores ergo, qui in [0199A] vobis sunt, obsecro consenior et testis Christi passionum, qui et ejus quae in futuro revelanda est gloriae communicator, pascite qui est in vobis gregem Dei, providentes non coacte, sed spontanee secundum Deum; neque turpis lucri gratia, sed voluntarie; [0200A] neque dominantes in cleris, sed forma facti gregis ex animo; et cum apparuerit princeps pastorum, percipietis immarcescibilis gloriae coronam. Amen.*

english:
## I.

Because I have learned that among certain persons there are various rumors and suspicions, I have written what is set down below, so that through it you may deign to know what I judge ought to be held to in the exercise of ecclesiastical governance, and so that the murmuring of a few may cease, once my intention has been laid open [0189B] to all. There is one bridegroom, who has a bride; who is to be loved for his own sake, not for the sake of anything else, since he himself is peace, truth, justice, sanctification, and redemption, and every good, and without him no good; who came from heaven, and is above all; who lifts to heaven those whom he snatches up from the earth. The friends of the bridegroom are those who, by seeing and hearing him, are built up into the love and worship of the bridegroom; but the sons of the bridegroom are both those who build up and those who are built up. There is one Lamb, who has a bride, of whom it is said to John the apostle: *Come, I will show thee the bride, the wife of the Lamb;* and there was shown to him the holy city Jerusalem coming down from heaven from God, having the brightness of God.

## II.

Of this bride and city there is sung in heaven *Alleluia, for the Lord our God almighty hath reigned. [0189C] Let us rejoice and exult, and give glory to him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath prepared herself; and it was granted to her that she should cover herself with fine linen.* Of this wife and city John the evangelist says that she is also the tabernacle of God. For he says: *And I saw the holy city Jerusalem, new, coming down from heaven, prepared by God, as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice from the throne saying: Behold the tabernacle of God with men, and he will dwell with them. And they shall be his people, and he, God, shall be with them, their God; and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor crying, nor shall there be sorrow any more.* Of this city and virgin wife the Lamb of God — the Lamb who is God, the almighty Lamb, the Lamb of the Almighty — begets lambs [0189D] and sheep, which he entrusts to the blessed apostle Peter, saying: *Feed my lambs.* And again: *Feed my sheep.* This bridegroom and almighty Lamb says to his bride and wife: *Thy hair is as flocks of goats which have come up from mount Gilead. Thy teeth as a flock of sheep which have come up from the washing, all with twin young, and there is not a barren one among them.* And again: *Thy two breasts are like two twin fawns of a roe, which feed among the lilies.* This wife is also the daughter of her husband, the Lamb and prince, to whom he himself says: *How beautiful are thy steps in sandals, O daughter of the prince!*

## III.

That same prince is the father of his bride, and her brother. For he says to his own wife and sister: *Thou hast wounded my heart, my sister, my bride, thou hast wounded my heart with one of thine eyes, and with one hair of thy neck. How beautiful are thy breasts, my sister, my bride!* Nor is it any wonder [0190B] if the wife is a sister, since her breasts and paps are a tower, and she herself a wall. For thus the father and bridegroom speaks of her: *What shall we do for our sister on the day when she is to be spoken to? If she is a wall, let us build upon it silver bulwarks; if she is a door, let us join it together with boards of cedar.* And she answered: *I am a wall, and my breasts are a tower, since I was made before him as one finding peace.* What wonder if she is a wall and a city, when she is also a vineyard having a husband? *For there was a vineyard,* he says, *belonging to the Peaceable One in that place which has peoples. He handed it over to keepers: the husband brings for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.* Concerning which that same husband and father at once adds, *My vineyard is before me.* That vineyard is also the virgin's and the spouse, of whom it is sung in the wedding song to the king and bridegroom himself: *The spouse stood at [0190C] thy right hand, in a golden diadem.* And that same bridegroom and father says to the same spouse: *Hear, O daughter, and see.* And the singer of this song says to her: *And, O daughter of the mightiest, the rich among the peoples shall entreat thy countenance with gifts.* These readings follow the Hebrew. But the older translation, in order to show the same spouse to be both queen and the king's daughter, speaks thus to the king himself: *The queen stood at thy right hand.* And a little after: *All the glory of the king's daughter is from within.* This queen is not only a vineyard, but also a garden, and a fountain. *A garden enclosed is my sister, my bride, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed.* She is called a woman also, as it is written: *Who shall find a valiant woman?* And after some words: *Her husband is noble in the gates, when he shall sit with the senators of the land.* In her person Paul too writes to certain of the faithful: *For I have espoused you [0190D] to one husband, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ.* To whom Christ the Lord himself speaks: *Thou art all fair, my love, and there is no spot in thee.* And she of him: *Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat the fruit of his apple trees.*

## IV.

This bride is queen, and wife, and handmaid. But this is no wonder. Yet it is a wonder, and full of all mercy, that her husband and lord is also mistress to her, as the Psalmist sings: *As the eyes of the handmaid are upon the hand of her mistress, so are our eyes unto the Lord our God.* She is also called the woman who has ten drachmas, who, when one was lost, lit [0191A] a lamp, swept the house, sought, and found. She is called a mother too, as he himself speaks through Isaiah, saying: *As if a mother should caress someone, so will I comfort you.* For truly she is both mother and mistress, virtue and wisdom, strength and glory, resurrection and life, way and truth, illumination and salvation, and the rest of this kind.

## V.

This too is no less a wonder: that the handmaid and friend can even be the mother of her Lord, in that manner in which the Lord says: *For whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother.* Which the Apostle also says of himself: *My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you.*

## VI.

These manifold names of the bridegroom and the bride, [0191B] of Christ and the Church, have not been taken from any historical deeds (as it is when Scripture speaks of Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, in whom the joining of Christ and the Church is figured), nor from that kind of speech in which things perceptible to the senses are set down by way of significative foretelling (as is the mountain of the house of the Lord, where the mountain signifies the Lord and the house the Church) and many things of this sort; but from those places where Scripture carries through that ordered narration of deeds, yet indicates Christ and the Church only by various names of this kind, and in which no one is so foolish as to think that anything else is to be sought except Christ and the Church.

## VII.

But the wondrous kindness of the Creator is shown, since with so great a unity the body cleaves to the head, [0191C] and the head presides over the body, as the Prophet sings: *He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, and hath compassed me about with the robe of justice, as a bridegroom decked with a crown, and as a bride adorned with her jewels.* And after some words: *For the young man shall dwell with the virgin, [0192A] and thy sons shall dwell in thee. And the bridegroom shall rejoice over the bride, and thy God shall rejoice over thee.* And the Apostle plainly shows it, saying: *For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For in one Spirit we have all been baptized into one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, whether slaves or free, and we have all been given to drink in one Spirit.* Because, clearly, it is the Spirit of Christ that makes this unity.

## VIII.

These are the things which furnish an unspeakably delightful diversion to a devout and faithful soul — and such a diversion as, in the present life, can be had from no contemplation of created things; and, if I may say it confidently, among all the works of God, visible [0192B] and invisible, no like of it can be found. Of this diversion the Lord gives command through the Prophet: *Speak to the heart of Israel, and call her away.* Of this too the man with whom God is, in the vision in which his mother taught him, thus gives command in mystical speech: *Give strong drink to those that mourn, and wine to those that are bitter of soul. Let them drink, and forget their want, and remember their sorrow no more.* Of this too the Psalmist, when he called blessed the man who has not looked upon vanity and false madnesses — or, as it is read in the Hebrew, upon the prides and pomps of lying, in which lie the diversions of carnal minds — added: *Thou, O Lord my God, hast done many things, thy wonders; and in thy thoughts there is none like unto thee.*

## IX.

Therefore whoever has undertaken the office of preaching and the place of governance, and neglects, in these highest matters, what is the highest thing of God's mercy — to call away the friends of the faithful — and seeks his consolation and diversion in riches, in ornaments of metal, [0193A] in hunting, in fowling and fishing, and, what is worse, in feastings and drunkenness and the sounds of music, as the Lord detests it through the prophet, saying: *Woe to you that rise up early to pursue drunkenness, and to drink until evening, that you may be inflamed with wine. The harp and the lyre and the timbrel and the pipe and wine are in your banquets; and you regard not the work of the Lord, nor consider the works of his hands* — such a man is no helper of God, as Paul says: *For we are God's helpers. You are God's tillage, you are God's building.* Rather he is a destroyer of God's work, and thereby a helper of Antichrist; [0194A] and although in human eyes he may seem to be a priest, in God's eyes he is not: because when the Lord comes to judgment, he will be cut apart, and his portion will be set with the unbelievers, and of such men it is written: *I saw the ungodly buried: who also, while they were still living, were in the holy place, and were praised in the city as though for works of justice.* Therefore none of these ought to be a leader of God's people, lest he plunge those seeking the heavenly kingdoms into the pit into which he himself has been plunged by God's judgment, as the Lord shows to blessed Job, saying: *Hast thou an arm like God?* And, after some intervening words, *Hide them,* he says — that is, the proud [0195A] and the ungodly — *in the dust together, and plunge their faces into the pit.*

## X.

There are others who, like these, do not appear ungodly to men, but by a feigned righteousness become in men's eyes whited sepulchres; while in God's eyes, that is, within, they are full of dead men's bones and of every filth. The blessed apostle Paul says: *For we are not as very many, adulterating the word of God, but out of sincerity, as from God, before God, we speak in Christ.* And again: *Having this ministration, according as we have obtained mercy, we do not fail, but we renounce the hidden things of dishonor, not walking in craftiness, nor adulterating the word of God, but in the manifestation of the truth.* For just as an adulterer does not seek the fruit of offspring, but only [0195B] to do his own will and fulfil his lust, so everyone who has undertaken the administration of the word, if out of sincerity he does not seek the salvation of his hearers and the building up of the Church, but speaks the word of God for the sake of some other thing which is less than the salvation of his hearers — namely, that he may comply with his own will — is an adulterer.

## XI.

Therefore it is not heretics alone who adulterate the word of God by mixing in their deceits. But so also do all who hasten to arrive at temporal honors and riches through the sacred ministry; and likewise those who cannot be raised to honors and riches, and desire to obtain their daily food or clothing from the sacred ministry (since they do not receive their keep in order to preach, but preach in order to receive; [0195C] nor do they speak out of sincerity, as from God, before God; but they walk in craftiness, nor do they renounce the hidden things of dishonor, but embrace them) — these are adulterers. Therefore everyone who is set over the rest, whether cleric or monk, if he shows himself benevolent and gentle and affable in such a way as to turn the hearts of his subjects to love of himself and to his own praise, is an adulterer, and ought never to undertake the governance of souls. But he who is prudent, gentle, and agreeable in such a way that he turns and kindles those who see and hear him to the love and praise of the bridegroom, is a friend of the bridegroom. He seeks the chastity [0196A] of the bride, and deservedly undertakes the governance of souls. Every cleric or monk to whom has been given some little word of wisdom or word of knowledge, and who, while he speaks, desires to turn and inflame his hearers to love of himself and his own praise — that man preaches himself, not the bridegroom; and for that reason he is to be driven from the inner chamber, because he is an adulterer; he presides outside in the court, not by the bride's command, but by the leave of her forbearance: because whether the bridegroom be announced by occasion or in truth, one must rejoice. For a faithful soul, from whomever it hears the bridegroom's praises, is kindled to love of the bridegroom, not to love of the one who praises him carelessly. For it loves the diligent praiser as a neighbor, not as the bridegroom; it loves him in the bridegroom, not in place of the bridegroom. Walking in the unspotted way, [0196B] this man ministers to the Lord, not to himself; and he can be set before the rest. But one not walking, but lying in sloth, and who ministers thus, ministers to himself, not to the Lord, and ought not to be set over the rest. He who dispenses the keepers of observances to his own pleasure, and not to the profit of the household, dispenses to himself, not to the Lord, and is not the faithful and prudent steward whom the Lord may set over his household. *The labor of fools shall afflict those who know not how to make their way to the city of the bridegroom;* and therefore they ought not to be made leaders of others. The labor of the wise heals them. For they are led by the bridegroom into the right way, that they may go into the city of habitation; and such men ought to become the leaders of those who have here no abiding city, but seek a city to come, among the flock that comes up from the washing. And the fruitful [0196C] are to be loved, and the barren borne with; and the sound are to be guarded, and the sick healed: because the bridegroom came from heaven to seek again what had perished, and to bring back what had been cast away, and to bind up what was broken, and to strengthen what was weak, and to guard what was fat and strong.

## XII.

These things are to be observed thus among the sheep who are subject. But among prelates and shepherds the condition is otherwise. For just as blessed is *the faithful and prudent servant, whom the Lord has set over his household, to give them food in due season,* who imitates the shepherd [0197A] of shepherds in the administration of the pasture; so, on the contrary, it stands with those shepherds who feed themselves, who do not strengthen what is weak, and do not heal what is sick, and do not bind up what is broken, and do not bring back what is cast away, and do not seek again what had perished: from whose mouth may the shepherd of shepherds deliver his sheep, and feed them in the richest pastures — even those which in the present life always endure a wicked shepherd for their own part. And indeed the devout sheep always seeks a good shepherd. But if he is lacking in this mortal life, he is not lacking who laid down his soul for his sheep. On which account, where he cannot be amended, he is to be borne with by the sheep as a hireling sitting in the chair of Moses. For the devout bridegroom, the true shepherd, has commanded that what such men say, the sheep should do; but what they do, [0197B] they should not do.

## XIII.

I have said these things at the last for this reason, lest anyone should think that I hold lost the faithful sheep which prudently bears with a wicked shepherd — admonishing this above all, that every shepherd should nourish and instruct and correct those subject to him in the discipline and fear of the Lord, not for himself but for the Lord: as the highest shepherd also charged blessed Peter, saying: *Feed my lambs,* [0198A] he says, not *thine;* and therefore for me, not for thee. This is the sure sign that thou truly lovest me, if thou carefully feed my lambs, on account of which thou art to receive the crown of justice. So too a certain ancient shepherd signified the care of his solicitude in mystical words, saying: *It is not yet time that the sheep be shut in the folds. Give the sheep drink first, and so lead them back to pasture.* Where this is not done, there comes that which the prophet laments, saying: *Therefore has my people been led away captive, because it had no knowledge; and its nobles have perished with hunger, and its multitude has dried up with thirst.* And another: *The little ones asked for bread, and there was none to break it for them.*

## XIV.

These words, not unskilled, yet unskilfully arranged by an unskilled man, are necessary for all, from [0198B] him who sits upon the throne down to him who labors at the mill. I write not so much to those to whom I owe nothing but charity, as to those who have been committed to us; yet in such a way that under the name of shepherds and rulers there be understood abbots, and provosts, and priests: whom I earnestly beseech to attend with their whole heart to the exhortation and entreaty of the blessed apostle Peter, in which he says: *Therefore the elders that are [0199A] among you I beseech, who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of that glory which is to be revealed in time to come: feed the flock of God that is among you, taking care of it not by constraint, but willingly, according to God; nor for the sake of filthy lucre, but freely; [0200A] neither as lording it over the clergy, but being made a pattern to the flock from the heart; and when the prince of shepherds shall appear, you shall receive the crown of unfading glory. Amen.*