Liber Primus, Caput X. Abusus advocatorum, judicum, procuratorum, eorumque fraudes graviter perstringit.
The Corruption of the Courts
Bernard laments that fraud and violence have overtaken the land, the poor are crushed, and the Church's legal practices have become detestable and unfit for any court of law.
But grant this: a different custom has taken hold, the times are different, and people's character and dangerous circumstances aren't just looming now — they're already here. Fraud, deception, and violence have swept across the land. There are plenty of accusers, but rarely a defender; everywhere the powerful crush the poor. We can't abandon the oppressed, and we can't deny justice to those who suffer wrong. Unless cases are pursued, unless both sides are heard, how can anything be judged between the parties? Let cases be pursued, but properly. Because the way things are commonly done now is utterly detestable — and not only unfit for the Church, I'd say, but for any court of law. I'm genuinely astonished that your devout ears can stand to hear this kind of lawyerly wrangling and verbal sparring, which does more to tear down the truth than to uncover it. Correct this corrupt practice, cut away the empty talk, and shut down the lying lips.
The Tongues of Deceivers
Those skilled in eloquence use their gifts to serve falsehood and attack the truth, whereas honesty and brevity reveal truth without effort.
These are people who've trained their tongues to speak lies, eloquent against justice, skilled in the service of falsehood. They're wise in order to do evil, eloquent in order to attack the truth. These are the ones who teach by the very people they should have been taught by; they build up not what is proven, but their own inventions; they fabricate slanders out of their own store against innocence; they tear down the simplicity of truth and block the paths of justice. Nothing makes the truth so plainly clear without labor as a brief and honest account.
Judging with Discernment and Mercy
Bernard urges the judge to handle cases carefully and quickly, giving priority to the widow and the poor while entrusting lesser matters to others.
So the cases that must come before you (and not all of them must, after all), I want you to handle carefully, but get in the habit of settling them quickly, and cut off the stalling tactics and the hunting delays. Let the widow's case come before you, the case of the poor person, and of the one who has nothing to give. You can entrust many other cases to others to settle at another time, cases more numerous and yet not worthy of a judge's hearing. For what's the point of admitting those whose sins are already on full display before the judgment?
Ambition's Shameless Throne
The ambitious have grown shameless and numerous, finding no resistance in a Church that has become as hardened to their schemes as a robber's cave is to plunder.
Some people are so shameless that, even though their whole case reeks with the itch of obvious ambition, they don't blush to demand a hearing, parading themselves before the consciences of many — people before whom they could have been sufficiently confounded by the judgment of their own conscience alone. There was no one to blunt their worn-down brows; and so they have grown more numerous, and hardened all the more. And yet somehow a corrupt person does not shrink from the consciences of the corrupt: where everyone is filthy, the stench of one more is scarcely noticed. For who, for instance, has ever been ashamed of greed because he is greedy, or ashamed of filth because he is filthy, or ashamed of lust because he is lustful? The Church is full of the ambitious: there is nothing left that recoils at the schemes and maneuvers of ambition, any more than a robber's cave recoils at the spoils of travelers.
Read the original Latin
Sed esto: alius inolevit mos, dies alii sunt, et alii hominum mores et tempora periculosa non instant jam, sed exstant. Fraus, et circumventio, et violentia invaluere super terram. Calumniatores multi, defensor rarus, ubique potentiores pauperiores opprimunt: non possumus deesse oppressis, non negare injuriam patientibus judicium. Nisi agitentur causae, audiantur partes, inter partes judicari quid potest? Agitentur causae, sed sicut oportet. Nam is modus, qui frequentatur, exsecrabilis plane; et qui, non dico Ecclesiam, sed nec forum deceat. Miror namque quemadmodum religiosae aures tuae audire sustinent hujusmodi disputationes advocatorum, et pugnas verborum, quae magis ad subversionem, quam ad inventionem proficiunt veritatis. Corrige pravum morem, et praecide linguas vaniloquas, et labia dolosa claude.
Hi sunt qui docuerunt linguas suas loqui mendacium, diserti adversus justitiam, eruditi pro falsitate. Sapientes sunt ut faciant malum, eloquentes ut impugnent verum. Hi sunt qui instruunt a quibus fuerant instruendi; adstruunt non comperta, sed sua; struunt de proprio calumnias innocentiae; destruunt simplicitatem veritatis, obstruunt judicii vias. Nihil ita absque labore manifestam facit veritatem, ut brevis et pura narratio. Ergo illas quas ad te necesse erit intrare causas (neque enim omnes necesse erit), diligenter velim, sed breviter decidere assuescas, frustratoriasque et venatorias praecidere dilationes. Causa viduae intret ad te, causa pauperis, et ejus qui non habet quod det. Aliis alias multas poteris committere terminandas, quam plures nec dignas audientia judicare. Quid enim opus est admittere illos, quorum peccata manifesta sunt praecedentia ad judicium?
Tanta est impudentia nonnullorum, ut cum manifestae ambitionis prurigine scateat tota facies causae eorum, non erubescant audientiam flagitare, publicantes semetipsos ad multorum conscientias, in quo vel suae solius satis poterant confundi judicio. Non fuit qui retunderet attritas frontes; et ideo plures facti sunt, et magis induruerunt. Sed et nescio quomodo vitiosus conscientias vitiosorum non refugit: et ubi omnes sordent, unius fetor minime sentitur. Quis enim unquam, verbi causa, avarum avarus, immundum immundus, luxuriosum luxuriosus erubuit? Plena est ambitiosis Ecclesia: non est jam quod horreat in studiis et molitionibus ambitionis, non plus quam spelunca latronis in spoliis viatorum.
De consideratione (On Consideration) companion
Make consideration a daily appointment
Bernard told Eugene to set aside time every day. Chosen Portion holds that time for you, free.
Bernard's core prescription — a fixed daily time reserved for examining the soul — is exactly the habit Chosen Portion installs with its daily devotional portion.
- One 10-minute daily portion for self-examination and prayer
- Reflection prompts drawn from historic texts, not improvised journaling
- A visible streak that protects the daily interval Bernard insisted on