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← Collationes (Conferences / Collations)/Book 3 · Collationes — Liber III
Chapter 10OdoC.3.10

Caput IX

The Contagion of Vice in Those Who Rule

Drawing on Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, Odo warns that the vices of a ruler flow easily into those who obey, so teachers must not only avoid vice but actively model virtue, lest they become complicit in corruption and share in the suffering that love feels when justice is struck.

Nor is it bothersome to relate certain words from the apology of Saint Gregory of Nazianzus: If there is, he says, a disease of vices in a ruler, it is poured into those who are at hand to obey him much more easily than if they were to see anything of virtue in him. For this reason, those of us who undertake to instruct and care for others must not be found ourselves without discipline, itching with the sores of vices. But it is not enough for a teacher simply not to be bad. This is certainly blamed in those who are taught, unless they themselves are also distinguished by all good deeds, and their life will not stand out from comparison with the imperfect — if they conduct themselves in a manner worthy of their own rank and position — so that their progress can draw others to the pursuit of virtues, and by their example as much as by their exhortation cleanse vices, turn their purpose toward better things, and let their chief concern be to overcome those who love themselves carnally, fighting against their own salvation, hiding their vices as much as they can, hating those who reprove them, despising their words, and — what is worse — never publicly defending their own sins; and furthermore excusing and shielding others lest they be corrected. And indeed, when the wicked do not harm wicked superiors — nay, even venerate them — because they nevertheless neglect to oppose them for the sake of justice, they sometimes persecute those who do. This happens through the devil lying in wait, so that when they themselves are shaken by the support of the wavering, they grow sluggish. But as it is written, whoever fears God neglects nothing (Ecclesiastes VII, 19), and for this reason, the mind that true love possesses — if the justice that it loves in others is struck — is nevertheless pierced by the same blow.✦ VII, 19), and for this reason, the mind that true love possesses — if the justice that it loves in others is struck — is nevertheless pierced by the same blow.✦

The Wounded Physician: Teaching Through Suffering

Even in personal trial a pastor must not abandon care for others, like a wounded physician who still brings healing; this double burden is harder than either suffering or teaching alone, yet the good pastor must both rebuke the reckless and shield the weak, following Paul's example of tireless ministry amid affliction.

And if he himself is the one longed for, even in the pain of his own trial he does not abandon concern for another's good. It is as if a great physician, struck down, who, while he himself endures the gaping wounds of his injury, brings remedies of healing to others: so also this man, though he experiences adversity in himself, still foresees what is necessary for others by teaching.1 But it is far easier either to teach when you endure nothing, or to endure when you have no need to teach. But it is necessary for good people to extend themselves skillfully in both directions, being cautious in both respects in this way: that they may both pierce the reckless with the darts of words before them, and protect the weak, as if placed behind them, with the shield of consolation, or from their assault or from the wound of complaining.23 Like Paul, a soldier of the camps of God, who when he suffered such great and such numerous things — which neither he himself can recount, nor we can enumerate — nevertheless argued with the Greeks and refuted the Jews.✦ For because of one of these he says: 'We were weighed down beyond measure, so that it wearied us even to live.'✦ Because of the other, if — he says — 'I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus' (1 Cor 15:32).✦ (1 Cor 15:32).✦

Paul and Job: Models of Pastoral Fortitude

Paul, more concerned for the faint-hearted than for his own chains, urged others not to lose heart in his tribulations; Job likewise both preached and protected, and the figure of the war-horse in Job 39 shows that a preacher must stand against evil for the sake of others, even throwing himself before his subjects.

He who was more concerned about the faint-heartedness of the weak than about his own pain used to say: Let no one be troubled by these chains (1 Thess. 3:3).✦ 3:3). And again: I beg you, do not lose heart in my tribulations (Eph. 3:13).✦ 3:13). Job had done both — he who could say: The ear that heard me called me blessed (Job 29:11) — which surely pertains to preaching, in that he would deliver the poor man crying out for help.✦ This has to do with protection. But that a preacher, even if he himself is not hindered by evils, ought nevertheless to stand against them for the sake of others — the voice of God makes this clear, because under the figure of preachers it is said of the horse: it goes out to meet the armed (Job 39:21).✦ Therefore, as far as the cause demands, as far as the position allows, a leader ought to throw himself before his own subjects.

Elisha's Zeal and the Reward of Correction

A pastor must not fear to stand against the enmities of his hearers for the sake of fraternal peace, nor let their hardness silence his zeal for correction, as Elisha's rebuke of Joash teaches; even if the ruler despises the proclaimed justice, the one who corrects will receive a full reward.

Nor should he fear, if it is necessary, to stand against their enmities for the sake of fraternal peace, nor should he let the hardness of his hearers make him cease from the zeal of correcting them — as Elisha teaches, who in the person of Christ grows angry against King Joash as though against a negligent superior, because he struck the earth, that is, the sinner, to whom it is said: 'You are earth' (Gen. III, 19), and he struck no more than three times.✦ III, 19), and he struck no more than three times.✦ For he says that if he had struck five or seven times, he would have gained a full victory — because if a ruler will be able to say, 'I have proclaimed your justice' (Psal. XXXIX, 10), even though they themselves despise it, he will nevertheless be rewarded in full. XXXIX, 10), even though they themselves despise it, he will nevertheless be rewarded in full.✦

Read the original Latin

Nec piget quaedam de apologia sancti Gregorii Nazianzeni verba referre: Si quis, inquit, in rectore morbus vitiorum est, his qui ad obtemperandum ei praesto sunt multo facilius transfunditur, quam si aliquid virtutis in eo viderint. Quapropter necesse est, ut qui alios instituendos atque curandos praesumimus, ne inveniamur ipsi sine disciplina, et excatentes ulceribus vitiorum. Sed neque satis est malum non esse doctorem. Quod utique culpatur in his qui docentur, nisi et omnibus bonis actibus praedicti sint, nec vitam suam mansurent ex comparatione imperfectorum, si digna loco et gradu suo gerant, ut provectus eorum possit illicere caeteros ad studia virtutum, eorumque tam exemplo quam exhortatione vitia purgare, propositum ad meliora convertere, summumque eorum studium sit illos vincere, qui se carnaliter amant contra salutem suam dimicantes, et vitia sua quantum possunt celantes, odientes eos qui arguunt, et eorum sermonem contemnentes, et nunquam, quod pejus est, peccata sua publice defendentes: insuper etiam alios ne corrigantur excusantes, atque tuentes. Et equidem quando mali praelatos ipsos non laedant, quin etiam venerentur, quia tamen eis obviare pro justitia negligunt, interdum vero persequuntur eos. Quod insidiante diabolo fit, ut cum ipsi concutiuntur a vacillantium sustentatione pigrescant. Sed, ut scriptum est, qui Deum timet, nihil negligit (Eccle. VII, 19), et ob id cujus mentem vera charitas possidet, si justitia quae diligit in aliis feritur, ipse nihilominus eadem percussione confoditur.

Quod si et ipse appetitur, in dolore tribulationis suae curam non deserit utilitatis alienae. Nam quasi magnus quidam medicus percussus, qui cum ipse scissuras vulneris toleret, aliis medicamenta sanitatis proferat: ita et iste licet in se adversa sentiat, aliis tamen necessaria docendo praevidet. Valde autem levius est aut docere cum nihil toleres, aut tolerare cum docere non indigeas. Sed necesse est sancti viri sese ad utraque solerter extendant, sic nimirum utrobique circumspecti, quatenus et audaces ante se verborum jaculis confodiant, et debiles quasi positos post se scuto consolationis vel ab illorum impetu vel a murmurationis vulnere defendant. Sicut miles castrorum Dei Paulus, qui cum tanta ac talia pateretur, quae nec ipse referre, nec nos enumerare sufficimus, disputabat tamen cum Graecis, et revincebat Judaeos. Nam propter alterum horum dicit: Gravati sumus supra modum, ut taederet nos vivere. Propter alterum vero, si, inquit, ad bestias pugnavi Ephesi (I Cor. XV, 32).

Qui tamen plus de infirmorum pusillanimitate, quam de proprio dolore sollicitus, aiebat: Nemo moveatur in vinculis istis (I Thess. III, 3). Et item: Obsecro vos ne deficiatis in tribulationibus meis (Ephes. III, 13). Utrumque Job egerat, qui dicere poterat: Auris audiens beatificabat me (Job XXIX, 11), quod utique ad praedicationem pertinet, eo quod liberaret pauperem vociferantem. Quod pertinet ad tuitionem. Quod autem praedicator etiamsi ipse a malis non impediatur, tamen pro aliorum causa debet eis obsistere, vox illa Dei demonstrat, quia sub typo praedicatorum de equo dicitur: in occursum pergit armatis (Job XXXIX, 21). Quapropter in quantum causa exigit, in quantum locus admittit, debet rector pro subditis suis semetipsum objicere.

Nec timeat, si necesse est, eorum inimicitiis pro fraterna pace obviare, nec per audientium duritiam a corrigendi studio cessandum esse, ut docet Eliseus, qui in persona Christi contra Joas regem quasi contra negligentem praepositum irascitur, eo quod terram, id est peccatorem, cui dicitur: Terra es (Gen. III, 19), non amplius quam ter percusserit. Ait enim, quia si quinquies aut septies percussisset, plenam victoriam caperet; quia si rector dicere poterit: Annuntiavi justitiam tuam (Psal. XXXIX, 10), quamvis ipsi contemnant, plena tamen mercede donabitur.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Eccl.7.19 — Wisdom gives strength to the wise person more than ten rulers who are in the city.
  2. ↩Eccl.7.19 — Wisdom gives strength to the wise person more than ten rulers who are in the city.
  3. ↩2Cor.11.23-2Cor.11.29 — Are they servants of Christ? I am speaking as one beside myself—I am more: in labors far more, in prisons far more, in beatings beyond measure, in deaths often. 2Cor.11.24 — Five times I received from the Jews forty lashes minus one. 2Cor.11.25 — Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I spent in the deep. 2Cor.11.26 — In dangers from rivers, dangers from bandits, dangers from my own people, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, dangers among false brothers; 2Cor.11.27 — in toil and hardship, in sleepless nights many times, in hunger and thirst, in fastings many times, in cold and nakedness 2Cor.11.28 — Apart from what is external, there is the daily pressure on me—the anxiety for all the churches. 2Cor.11.29 — Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation?
  4. ↩2Cor.1.8 — For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, about the affliction that came upon us in Asia—that we were burdened beyond measure, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life itself.
  5. ↩1Cor.15.32 — If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for merely human reasons, what good is it to me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.
  6. ↩1Cor.15.32 — If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for merely human reasons, what good is it to me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.
  7. ↩1Thess.3.3 — so that no one would be shaken by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we are appointed for this.
  8. ↩Eph.3.13 — Therefore, I ask you not to lose heart over my sufferings on your behalf, which are your glory.
  9. ↩Job.29.11 — For when the ear heard, it called me blessed, and when the eye saw, it bore witness to me.
  10. ↩Job.39.21 — He paws in the valley and rejoices in his strength; he goes out to meet the weapons.
  11. ↩Gen.3.19 — By the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread, until you return to the ground, for from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
  12. ↩2Kgs.13.18-2Kgs.13.19 — And he said, "Take the arrows." And he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, "Strike the ground." And he struck three times and stopped. 2Kgs.13.19 — And the man of God was angry with him and said, "You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck down Aram until you had made an end of it. But now you will strike down Aram only three times."
  13. ↩Ps.39.10;Ps.41.10 — I am silent; I will not open my mouth, for you have done this. Ps.41.10 — Even the man who was my close friend, who trusted in me, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩scissuras vulneris rendered as 'gaping wounds of his injury' to capture the vivid medical imagery; Latin is more concrete than metaphorical here.
  2. 2 ↩sancti viri rendered as 'good people' rather than 'holy man' to avoid archaic gendered language while preserving the moral sense.
  3. 3 ↩murmurationis vulnere rendered as 'wound of complaining' to capture the metaphorical use of murmuring/grumbling.

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