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Chapter 30OdoC.2.30

Caput XXIX

The Corruption of Priests and Prophetic Rebuke

Odo laments that priests, who should cleanse the faithful through preaching, have fallen into negligence, silence, and mercenary judgment, and he supports this charge with prophetic texts from Micah, Malachi, and the Psalms, noting Jerome's teaching that partiality is the gravest sin.

Every faithful person is, moreover, a spiritual house — a house that priests ought to cleanse from the stains of vice by their preaching. But this has now sunk into such negligence that they either keep entirely silent, or they judge for the sake of gifts, or they pray for pay.1 Hence it is said through Micah: His priests judge for gifts, and teach for hire, and prophesy for money (Micah✦2 3:11). And Malachi: You do not keep my ways, and you show partiality (Malac.✦3 2:9); he had already spoken many things against the priests. But as Jerome explains, the sin of showing partiality is placed last because it is the greater sin.4 Hence the Psalmist: Why do you accept the faces of sinners? (Psal.5

God's Threat Against Those Who Show Partiality

Drawing on Jacob, Malachi, and Ecclesiasticus, Odo warns that God rejects the offerings of those who show partiality, curses their blessings, and demands that sinners truly cease from sin, citing Jerome's insistence that repentance means not repeating the sin.

(Psalm 81:2)?✦ And Jacob reproves this sin more fully, because whoever has done it should hear what God threatens against such people through Malachi. For he says: 'Surely I have no pleasure in you, and I will not accept an offering from your hand; but I will cast you out, and I will destroy both master and disciple, and I will curse your blessings.'✦ (Malachi 1:10). This happens when a priest presumes to offer sacrifice on behalf of someone who does not cease from sinning. Jerome puts it this way on this point: the only remedy for the sinner is not to do again what he has done. Hence it is written: 'It is a sacrifice of salvation to attend to the commandments and to depart from all iniquity' (Ecclesiasticus).

The Danger of Shielding Sinners from Correction

Odo teaches that true prayer flows from obedience to God's word, and he condemns leaders who soften correction for the sake of worldly favor, using Ezekiel's image of those who sew cushions under every elbow to describe clergy who let sinners rest comfortably in error.

And the plea for sins is to turn away from injustice. And above this: "Whoever keeps the word multiplies prayer" (Eccli. XXXV, 1). Against those who protect sinners, however, the prophet says: "Woe to those who sew cushions under every elbow" (Ezech. XIII, 18). This is what the one does who, to someone inclined toward the love of the world as if toward a bed, withdraws the harshness of correction, so that in error he may lie softly and no contradiction of harshness strikes him. But these leaders, who love themselves, undoubtedly show these things to those by whom they fear being harmed in the pursuit of worldly glory.

The Robber's Burial and the Altar Split Open

Odo recounts a dramatic story in which a priest began to celebrate Mass for a murdered robber, but at the moment of consecration the church roof thundered and the altar split, causing all to flee; he concludes by warning those who promise to pray for the wicked to win their favor.

On the road that leads from the Tiberine monastery to the market, there is the church of St. Peter called "at the Halls": near it, before this three-year period, a certain robber had been staying, who, wishing to rob two travelers he had received into his hospitality, tried to kill them by night; but they overpowered him and killed him: and when he was being carried to the church to be buried, the priest began to celebrate Mass for him. When he was about to reach the words of the Lord's consecration, a terrible crash resounded in the roof of the church, and the altar — as is still visible today — was split all the way to its base. And so the priest, along with everyone present, was struck with immense terror and fled, and he ceased to offer sacrifice for the apostate.6 Let this be said against those who promise to pray on behalf of the wicked for the sake of winning their favor.7

Read the original Latin

Est autem domus spiritalis unusquisque homo fidelis, quam videlicet domum sacerdotes praedicando mundare deberent a sordibus vitiorum. Sed hoc jam ita in negligentiam venit, ut vel ex toto taceant, vel pro muneribus judicent, vel orent. Unde per Michaeam dicitur: Sacerdotes ejus in muneribus judicant, et in mercede docent, et in pecunia divinant (Mich. III, 11). Et Malachias: Non servatis vias meas et accipitis faciem (Malac. II, 9); qui multa jam contra sacerdotes dixerat. Sed ut Hieronymus exponit, idcirco de acceptione personae ponitur ultimum, quia majus est peccatum. Unde Psalmista: Cur facies peccatorum sumitis (Psal.

LXXXI, 2)? Et Jacob hoc plenius peccatum arguit, quod qui fecerit audiat quid Deus per Malachiam talibus comminetur. Ait enim: Nonne mihi voluntas in vobis, et manu non suscipiam de manu vestra, sed projiciam vos, et disperdam magistrum et discipulum, et maledicam benedictionibus vestris? (Malac. I, 10). Quod tunc fit, cum sacerdos pro tali praesumpserit offerre, qui peccare non cessat. Quod sic Hieronymus in hoc loco dicit, hoc solum esse remedium peccatori non facere quae fecit. Hinc scriptum est: Sacrificium salutare attendere mandatis, et discedere ab omni iniquitate (Eccli.

XXXV, 2), et deprecatio pro peccatis recedere ab injustitia. Et supra: Qui conservat verbum, multiplicat orationem (Eccli. XXXV, 1). Contra fautores vero criminosorum propheta dicit: Vae qui consuunt pulvillos sub omni cubitu (Ezech. XIII, 18). Quod ille facit, qui alicui ad mundi amorem, quasi ad lectum declinanti, correptionis duritiam subtrahit; et ut in errore molliter jaceat nulla hunc asperitatis contradictione pulsat. Sed haec rectores, qui semeipsos diligunt, his proculdubio exhibent, a quibus se noceri posse in studio gloriae temporalis timent. In ea via, quae a Tiberinensi monasterio ducit ad forum, est ecclesia S. Petri quae dicitur ad Salas: in cujus vicinio manebat ante hoc triennium quidam latro, qui duos itinerantes, quos hospitio susceperat, spoliare volens, nocte interficere tentavit; sed illi praevalentes interfecerunt eum: cumque ad ecclesiam sepeliendus deferretur, sacerdos pro eo missam celebrare coepit.

Cum ergo ad verba consecrationis Dominica venire deberet, terribilis sonitus in tecto ecclesiae percrebuit, et altare, sicut hucusque paret, usque ad radicem scissum est: sicque sacerdos cum omnibus ingenti pavore perculsus fugit, et pro apostata sacrificare cessavit. Hoc contra eos dictum sit, qui pro sceleratis ob gratiam eorum se oraturos pollicentur.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Mic.3.11 — Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets divine for silver; yet they lean upon the LORD, saying, "Is not the LORD among us? No evil shall come upon us."
  2. ↩Mal.2.9 — So I also have made you despised and low before all the people, because you do not keep my ways, but show partiality in the law.
  3. ↩Ps.81.2 — Sing aloud to God our strength; shout joyfully to the God of Jacob.
  4. ↩Mal.1.10 — Oh, that one among you would shut the doors, so that you would not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the LORD of Hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩The three alternatives (taceant, judicent, orent) describe corrupt priestly behavior: silence, bribery in judgment, and mercenary prayer. The subjunctive mood under ut...venit conveys result.
  2. 2 ↩Direct quotation from Micah 3:11 (Vulgate). The Latin text is incomplete — the closing parenthesis and verse number are cut off in the source.
  3. 3 ↩Quotation from Malachi 2:9 (Vulgate). 'Accipitis faciem' rendered as 'show partiality' — the Latin idiom literally means 'accept the face/person.' Source text is truncated.
  4. 4 ↩'Ponitur ultimum' — Jerome's commentary rationale: partiality is listed last in the prophetic catalog not by accident but because it represents the gravest offense. The author uses this to underscore the severity of clerical favoritism.
  5. 5 ↩Quotation from the Psalms (Vulgate). 'Cur facies peccatorum sumitis' — the exact psalm reference is uncertain from the abbreviated source. 'Sumitis' (you take/accept) with 'facies' (faces) = showing partiality. Source text is truncated.
  6. 6 ↩The portent at the moment of consecration underscores the gravity of offering the Eucharistic sacrifice on behalf of one who has fallen from the faith.
  7. 7 ↩The jussive subjunctive 'sit' frames the preceding narrative as a moral warning: intercede for the unrepentant to gain their goodwill, and you invite divine displeasure.

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