Caput XXV
The Withdrawal of Miraculous Signs
Odo explains that miraculous signs were given to the early Church to strengthen faith, but are now withdrawn before the coming of Antichrist so that the faithful may be tested in their motives.
As for signs, this much must be understood: according to Scripture, "To each thing there is its own time under heaven" (Eccl.✦1 3:17). So it was that holy Church, in its earliest beginnings, needed signs to strengthen the faith of its own. But now, with the state of faith long since firmly established, it hardly needs signs at all. Yet so that the inner judge may reveal the thoughts hidden in many hearts, by a terrible dispensation the signs of miraculous power are withdrawn from that same Church before the Antichrist appears.2 For prophecy is hidden away, the grace of healings is taken from us, the power of sustained fasting is diminished, the words of teaching fall silent, and the wonders wrought by miracles are removed — all this in book thirty-four of the Moralia.3 This is permitted to happen so that, with miraculous gifts withdrawn, that same Church may appear more abject, and it may become clear who seek her out for the hope of heavenly rewards and not for the sake of visible signs — and who they are who neglect to follow the invisible things she promises, since they are not stirred to reverence for her by visible signs, even as the riches of miracles are withdrawn from the faithful themselves.4 Hence it is written of this same Antichrist: "Want will go before his face."5
The Scarcity of Signs and the Rise of Perjury
Odo warns that Antichrist's attendants will perform wonders to draw away those who valued the Church only for miracles, while God now permits perjuries to multiply and the saints' power to punish oath-breakers seems to fade.
The attendants of that same Antichrist are about to perform wonders, and through this it will come about that those who venerate the Church for the sake of miracles alone, once its reverence is scorned, will be handed over to the fellowship of those who have performed the signs. For good people, however, signs will not be lacking in every way, but compared with theirs they will seem few or none at all. This is why even perjuries, which God was once so quick to punish, He now avenges with open vengeance — indeed, He allows them to multiply as though they deserved no punishment at all. Can perjurers say that either God no longer punishes what He once was accustomed to punish, or that the saints do not share that same power, so that perjuries committed against them, which they used to punish in the past, they are now unable to punish? They certainly can, but the time has now come for signs to cease. It is surely no wonder if God overlooks avenging the contempt of prelates, since He endures the wrongs of saints with such great patience. But since the occasion has arisen to speak of oaths, let us recall what Jerome says on this matter in the fifth book of his commentary on Ezekiel. King Zedekiah had entered into a pact of submission with King Nebuchadnezzar, but he broke faith, fleeing to the king of Egypt.
Zedekiah's Broken Covenant and the Judgment of God
Drawing on Ezekiel's prophecy against Zedekiah, Odo contrasts the worldly maxim that enemies may be deceived with the sacred obligation of oaths sworn in God's name, arguing that one who breaks faith despises God Himself.
Ezekiel says, therefore: Will the one who breaks the covenant escape?✦ As I live, says the Lord, I will bring him into Babylon, and there he will die — for in the transgression by which he despised me, he will die (Ezek.✦ 17, 15, 20). It is a worldly maxim: let deceit or valor be sought against an enemy. This is the saying that those who claim enemies ought to be deceived by fraud are accustomed to cite — and they invoke it so that we may hold our peace while you swear an oath and enter into a covenant in the name of God. It belongs to prudence and to courage either to deceive or to overcome your adversary in whatever way you can. But once you have bound yourself by an oath, the one you swear by is not to be treated as an enemy who deserves to be deceived — because the question is not to whom you swear, but through whom you have sworn. Otherwise, you both despise the one through whom you swear, and the enemy proves more faithful than you — you who, for the sake of God's name, he trusted.
The Christian Who Breaks Faith with a Brother
Odo applies the lesson of Zedekiah's fate to any Christian who breaks an oath against a fellow Christian, warning that if a Jew was so severely punished for covenant-breaking with a pagan, how much more will a Christian be judged for betraying a brother in God's name.
It's not an enemy he deceives, but a friend — the one he deceives is someone bound to him by an oath in the divine name. Let this saying help any Christian who breaks an oath against a fellow Christian understand what he deserves: if the covenant a Jew broke against a pagan was punished this severely — that Zedekiah, his eyes torn out, was led captive to Babylon with his leaders on account of this very transgression.
Read the original Latin
De signis vero illud sciendum, quia juxta Scripturam: Unicuique rei tempus suum est sub coelo (Eccle. III, 17). Unde sancta Ecclesia signis ad corroborandum suorum fidem in primordiis suis indiguit. Nunc vero constante jamdudum fidei statu signa admodum non requirit. Verum ut internus arbiter cogitationes ex multis cordibus revelet, terribili dispositione priusquam Antichristus appareat, virtutum signa ab eadem Ecclesia subtrahuntur. Nam prophetia absconditur, curationum gratia aufertur, prolixioris abstinentiae virtus minuitur, doctrinae verba conticescunt, miraculorum prodigia tolluntur: hoc in libro XXXIV Moralium. Quod idcirco fieri permittitur, ut dum subtractis virtutibus eadem Ecclesia abjectior apparuerit, manifestum fiat qui illam propter spem coelestium praemiorum, et non propter praesentia signa venantur, et qui sunt illi qui invisibilia, quae promittit, sequi negligunt, dum signis visibilibus ad ejus reverentiam non incitantur, cum etiam a fidelibus miraculorum divitiae subtrahuntur. Unde scriptum est de eodem Antichristo: quia faciem ejus praecedet egestas.
Satellites ejusdem Antichristi mira facturi sunt, qua videlicet occasione fiet, ut qui Ecclesiam pro solis miraculis venerantur, illius veneratione contempta, ad illorum qui signa fecerint consortium transferantur. Bonis tamen signa omnimodis non deerunt, sed in comparatione eorum aut pauca, aut nulla videbuntur. Inde est quod nec ipsa perjuria, quae tam cito Deus punire solebat, jam manifesta ultione vindicat, imo vero ea, quasi non punienda sint, multiplicari permitit. Nunquid perjuri dicere possunt, quod vel Deus modo non puniat quod ante solebat, vel sancti non ejusdem sint potestatis, ut perjuria super se facta sicut olim puniebant, ita nunc punire nequeant? Possunt utique, sed jam tempus est ut signa cessent. Non utique mirum si contemptum Deus praelatorum vindicare dissimulat, quandoquidem sanctorum injurias tam longanimiter suffert. Sed quia de juramento sese occasio praebuit, quid de hoc Hieronymus in Ezechielis libro V dicat commemoremus. Sedecias rex pactum subjectionis cum rege Nabuchodonosor inierat, sed mentitus est ad regem Aegypti confugiens.
Dicit ergo Ezechiel: Nunquid effugiet qui solvit pactum? Vivo ego, dicit Dominus, quia adducam eum in Babylonem, et ibi morietur in praevaricatione, qua despexit me (Ezech. XVII, 15, 20). Sententia saecularis est, dolus an virtus in hoste requiratur. Quam sententiam solent opponere qui dicunt hostes fraude decipiendos, et quibus ut quiescamus donec jures et pactum ineas sub nomine Dei. Prudentiae est et fortitudinis, vel decipere, vel superare adversarium qualitercunque potueris. Cum autem te constrinxeris juramento, neque tanquam adversarius decipiendus est, quia non est considerandum cui juras, sed per quem juraveris. Alioquin et illum despicis per quem juras, et hostis fidelior invenitur quam tu, qui propter nomen Dei tibi credidit.
Non enim hostem decipit, sed amicum, qui illum decipit cui juramento divini nominis fuerat copulatus. Hoc dictum sit ut Christianus, qui contra Christianum juramentum frangit, quid mereatur hinc intelligat, si foedus illud quod contra paganum Judaeus violavit sic animadvertitur, ut Sedecias avulsis oculis propter hanc praevaricationem in Babylonem cum ducibus suis captivus ductus sit.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Eccl.3.17 — I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every purpose and for every work there.
- ↩Ezek.17.15 — But he rebelled against him, sending his messengers to Egypt to give him horses and a large army. Will he succeed? Will he escape who does these things, breaking his covenant—and yet escape?
- ↩Ezek.17.15-Ezek.17.20 — But he rebelled against him, sending his messengers to Egypt to give him horses and a large army. Will he succeed? Will he escape who does these things, breaking his covenant—and yet escape? Ezek.17.16 — As I live, declares the Lord GOD, surely in the place where the king who made him reign — he who despised his oath and broke his covenant — in the midst of Babylon he shall die. Ezek.17.17 — Nor will Pharaoh, with his great army and vast host, make war against him—by casting up siege mounds and building siege ramps to cut off many lives. Ezek.17.18 — He despised the oath by breaking the covenant; and behold, he gave his hand, yet having done all this, he shall not escape. Ezek.17.19 — Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: As I live, surely my oath that he despised and my covenant that he broke — I will return it upon his own head. Ezek.17.20 — I will spread my net over him, and he will be caught in my snare. I will bring him to Babylon, and I will enter into judgment with him there for the treachery he has committed against me.
Notes
- 1 ↩Quotation from Ecclesiastes 3:17 (Vulgate). The Ecclesiasticus abbreviation 'Eccle' in the source is rendered as 'Eccl.' per standard citation.
- 2 ↩'Terribili dispositione' — 'terrible arrangement/dispensation' — carries a sense of awe-inspiring divine judgment, not merely frightening. Rendered as 'by a terrible dispensation' to preserve the gravity.
- 3 ↩The catalogue of withdrawn gifts (prophecy, healings, fasting-power, teaching, miracles) is presented as a unified eschatological observation attributed to Gregory the Great's Moralia.
- 4 ↩The sentence weaves together purpose (ut), temporal (dum), and indirect question (qui…venantur, qui sunt illi qui…negligunt) clauses. The logic is: God permits the withdrawal of miracles as a test of motive — to distinguish those who love the Church for heavenly hope from those who only value visible wonders.
- 5 ↩The quotation 'faciem ejus praecedet egestas' appears to be a scriptural or patristic allusion. It does not correspond verbatim to a standard Vulgate text; it may echo a gloss or a conflation. Moses resolution needed.
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