8. Before I make an end of dictating (for I perceive that I have already exceeded the just limits of a letter) I wish to give a brief explanation of the previous verses of the epistle in which the apostle describes the life of him that is to be made a bishop. We shall thus recognize him as Doctor of the Nations [2103] not only for his praise of monogamy but also for all his precepts. At the same time I beg that no one will suppose that in what I write my design is to blacken the priests of the present day. My one object is to promote the interest of the church. Just as orators and philosophers in giving their notions of the perfect orator and the perfect philosopher do not detract from Demosthenes and Plato but merely set forth abstract ideals; so, when I describe a bishop and explain the qualifications laid down for the episcopate, I am but supplying a mirror for priests. Every man's conscience will tell him that it rests with himself what image he will see reflected there, whether one that will grieve him by its deformity or one that will gladden him by its beauty. I turn now to the passage in question. [2104] "If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work." Work, you see, not rank; toil not pleasure; work that he may increase in lowliness, not grow proud by reason of elevation. "A bishop then must be blameless." The same thing that he says to Titus, "if any be blameless." [2105] All the virtues are comprehended in this one word; thus he seems to require an impossible perfection. For if every sin, even every idle word, is deserving of blame, who is there in this world that is sinless and blameless? Still he who is chosen to be shepherd of the church must be one compared with whom other men are rightly regarded as but a flock of sheep. Rhetoricians define an orator as a good man able to speak. To be worthy of so high an honour he must be blameless in life and lip. For a teacher loses all his influence whose words are rendered null by his deeds. "The husband of one wife." Concerning this requirement I have spoken above. I will now only warn you that if monogamy is insisted on before baptism the other conditions laid down must be insisted on before baptism too. For it is impossible to regard the remaining obligations as binding only on the baptized and this alone as binding also on the unbaptized. "Vigilant (or "temperate" for nephalios means both), wise, [2106] of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach." The priests who minister in God's temple are forbidden to drink wine and strong drink, [2107] to keep their wits from being stupefied with drunkenness and to enable their understanding to do its duty in God's service. By the word wise' those are excluded who plead simplicity as an excuse for a priest's folly. For if the brain be not sound, all the members will be amiss. The phrase "of good behaviour" is an extension of the previous epithet "blameless." One who has no faults is called "blameless;" one who is rich in virtues is said to be "of good behaviour." Or the words may be differently explained in accord with Tully's maxim, [2108] the main thing is that what you do you should do gracefully.' For some persons are so ignorant of their own measure [2109] and so stupid and foolish that they make themselves laughing stocks to those who see them because of their gesture or gait or dress or conversation. Fancying that they knew what is and what is not good taste they deck themselves out with finery and bodily adornments and give banquets which profess to be elegant: but all such attempts at dress and display are nastier than a beggar's rags. As regards the obligation of priests to be teachers we bare have the precepts of the old Law [2110] and the fuller instructions given on the subject to Titus. [2111] For an innocent and unobtrusive conversation does as much harm by its silence as it does good by its example. If the ravening wolves are to be frightened away it must be by the barking of dogs and by the staff of the shepherd. "Not given to wine, no striker." With the virtues they are to aim at he contrasts the vices they are to avoid.
9. We have learned what we ought to be: let us now learn what priests ought not to be. Indulgence in wine is the fault of diners out and revellers. When the body is heated with drink it soon boils over with lust. Wine drinking means self-indulgence, self-indulgence means sensual gratification, sensual gratification means a breach of chastity. He that lives in pleasure is dead while he lives, [2112] and he that drinks himself drunk is not only dead but buried. One hour's debauch makes Noah uncover his nakedness which through sixty years of sobriety he had kept covered. [2113] Lot in a fit of intoxication unwittingly adds incest to incontinence, and wine overcomes the man whom Sodom failed to conquer. [2114] A bishop that is a striker is condemned by Him who gave His back to the smiters, [2115] and when He was reviled reviled not again. [2116] "But moderate"; [2117] one good thing is set over against two evil things. Drunkenness and passion are to be held in check by moderation. "Not a brawler, not covetous." Nothing is more overweening than the assurance of the ignorant who fancy that incessant chatter will carry conviction with it and are always ready for a dispute that they may thunder with turgid eloquence against the flock committed to their charge. That a priest must avoid covetousness even Samuel teaches when he proves before all the people that he has taken nothing from any man. [2118] And the same lesson is taught by the poverty of the apostles who used to receive sustenance and refreshment from their brethren and to boast that they neither had nor wished to have anything besides food and raiment. [2119] What the epistle to Timothy calls covetousness, that to Titus openly censures as the desire for filthy lucre. [2120] "One that ruleth well his own house." Not by increasing riches, not by providing regal banquets, not by having a pile of finely-wrought plates, not by slowly steaming pheasants so that the heat may reach the bones without melting the flesh upon them; no, but by first requiring of his own household the conduct which he has to inculcate in others. "Having his children in subjection with all gravity." They must not, that is, follow the example of the sons of Eli who lay with the women in the vestibule of the Temple and, supposing religion to consist in plunder, diverted to the gratification of their own appetites all the best parts of the victims. [2121] "Not a novice lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil." I cannot sufficiently express my amazement at the great blindness which makes men discuss such questions as that of marriage before baptism and causes them to charge people with a transaction which is dead in baptism, nay even quickened into a new life with Christ, while no one regards a commandment so clear and unmistakable as this about bishops not being novices. One who was yesterday a catechumen is to-day a bishop [2122] ; one who was yesterday in the amphitheatre is to-day in the church; one who spent the evening in the circus stands in the morning at the altar: one who a little while ago was a patron of actors is now a dedicator of virgins. Was the apostle ignorant of our shifts and subterfuges? did he know nothing of our foolish arguments? He not only says that a bishop must be the husband of one wife, but he has given commandment that he must be blameless, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach, moderate, [2123] not given to wine, no striker, not a brawler, not covetous, not a novice. Yet to all these requirements we shut our eyes and notice nothing but the wives of the aspirants. Who cannot give instances to shew the need of the warning: "lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil?" A priest [2124] who is made such in a moment knows nothing of the lowliness and meekness which mark the meanest of the faithful, he knows nothing of Christian courtesy, he is not wise enough to think little of himself. He passes from one dignity to another, yet he has not fasted, he has not wept, he has not taken himself to task for his life, he has not striven by constant meditation to amend it, he has not given his substance to the poor. Yet he is moved from one see [2125] to another, he passes, that is, from pride to pride. There can be no doubt that arrogance is what the Apostle means when he speaks of the condemnation and downfall of the devil. And all men fall into this who are in a moment made masters, actually before they are disciples. "Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without." The last requirement is like the first. One who is really "blameless" obtains the unanimous approval not only of his own household but of outsiders as well. By aliens and persons outside the church we are to understand Jews, heretics and Gentiles. A Christian bishop then must be such that they who cavil at his religion may not venture to cavil at his life. At present however we see but too many bishops who are willing, like the charioteers in the horse races, to bid money for the popular applause; while there are some so universally hated that they can wring no money from their people, a feat which clowns accomplish by means of a few gestures.
10. Such are the conditions, son Oceanus, which the master-teachers of the church ought with anxiety and fear to require of others and to observe themselves. Such too are the canons which they should follow in the choice of persons for the priesthood; for they must not interpret the law of Christ to suit private animosities and feuds or to gratify ill-feeling which is sure to recoil on the man who cherishes it. Consider how unimpeachable is the character of Carterius in whose life his ill-wishers can find nothing to censure except a marriage contracted before baptism. "He that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. If we commit no adultery yet if we kill, we are become transgressors of the law." [2126] "Whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." [2127] Accordingly when they cast in our teeth a marriage entered into before baptism, we must require of them compliance with all the precepts which are given to the baptized. For they pass over much that is not allowable while they censure much that is allowed.
[2010] Matt. xx. 15.
[2011] A.V. unbelief.'
[2012] Rom. xi. 32.
[2013] Rom. v. 20.
[2014] Ex. xii. 29, 30, 38.
[2015] The Cainites appear to have denied the efficacy of the atonement.
[2016] A.V. sin.'
[2017] Joh. i. 29.
[2018] Joh. v. 19.
[2019] i.e. Paul.
[2020] 1 Pet. i. 2.
[2021] 1 Tim. iii. 2.
[2022] This synod held in 359 a.d. was attended by about 450 bishops. It put forth an Arian formula which caused general consternation. "The whole world," says Jerome, "groaned and was astonished to find itself Arian."
[2023] See note on Letter LXI. 3.
[2024] Cf. Cic. In Pis. 1.
[2025] 1 Tim. iii. 1-7.
[2026] Tit. i. 5-9.
[2027] Rendered elders' in A.V.
[2028] Cf. Rom. i. 26, 27.
[2029] Exoleti.
[2030] A Scottish tribe, cannibals according to Jerome (Against Jov. ii. 7.)
[2031] Bk. V. 457.
[2032] Matt. vii. 5.
[2033] Matt. xxiii. 23, 24, R.V.
[2034] Gen. i. 28.
[2035] Heb. xiii. 4.
[2036] 1 Cor. iii. 17, R.V.
[2037] 1 Cor. vi. 11.
[2038] Ex. xxi. 10.
[2039] Lev. xxi. 7, 13.
[2040] Canon xv.
[2041] Cf. Ph. ii. 14, 15.
[2042] 1 Tim. iii. 4.
[2043] Isa. xxvii. 11, LXX. A.V. follows the Hebrew.
[2044] A.V. that are at ease.
[2045] Isa. xxxii. 9.
[2046] Prov. xxxi. 10, 11.
[2047] Prov. xiv. 1.
[2048] Jer. iii. 20.
[2049] 2 Cor. xi. 2.
[2050] i.e. that of strained interpretations.
[2051] V. Dict. Ant. s. v. stola and cf. Cic. Phil. ii. 18, 44.
[2052] Gen. i. 2.
[2053] It is hardly necessary to remark that this derivation is purely fanciful and has no foundation in fact.
[2054] Ezek. i. 22.
[2055] Gen. ii. 7.
[2056] Query a reference to Isa. xl. 12: the Latin is obscure.
[2057] Paradisus.
[2058] Gen. ii. 8, 10.
[2059] Ezek. xlvii. 1, 8.
[2060] Gen. viii. 8, 11.
[2061] Matt. iii. 16.