Quartum capitulum de malis quae fiunt occulte.
The Hidden Crimes of the Heart
If we could see into the veiled conscience, we would find that hidden crimes are the most serious, committed with the greatest confidence precisely because they are secret.
But look — after the ambushes of the roads, after civil strife, after various battles and the disgraces of lust, after spectacles as shameful as they are bloody, if we could insert our eyes into hidden places and penetrate with our gaze the walls of conscience covered by their veils, crimes would meet us: the more hidden they are, the more serious they truly are, because the more hidden the guilt, the greater the confidence with which it is often committed.
No Escape from the Divine Gaze
Scripture shows that darkness, walls, and self-deception cannot hide guilt from the Judge who searches Jerusalem with lamps, from the adversary who tempts, and from the host of heavenly witnesses.
As if anyone should believe he has escaped his own conscience just because he fears no mortal witness to his guilt — as it is written: 'Who sees me?'✦ Darkness surrounds me, walls cover me, and no one sees me.✦ Whom do I fear? But the Judge certainly sees — He who searches Jerusalem with lamps; the adversary sees — he who suggests and stirs up shameful acts; the multitude of heavenly witnesses sees, cursing and departing in indignation.✦
The World Will Speak What You Conceal
Proverbial wisdom and prophetic testimony agree: deeds done in secret will eventually be proclaimed — by people, by slaves and beasts, and even by the very stones and timbers of walls — and the Judge's scrutiny is greatly to be feared.
See for yourself, you who act — what you are doing — because according to the common proverb: 'If there is one who does, there will be one who speaks'; and according to the poet: 'Let slaves be silent and let the beasts of burden speak.' Or if we prefer that prophetic word: 'If these timbers of buildings and stones of walls were silent, they would proclaim it.'✦ And if all these things were silent, the scrutiny of the Judge who will search Jerusalem with lamps would be greatly to be feared.✦
Living Before the All-Seeing Judge
If divine scrutiny operates even in Jerusalem, nowhere in Babylon is safe; therefore we must do good before the eyes of a Judge who sees all, for man sees only the face while God examines the heart.
And what's safe in Babylon, if scrutiny still operates in Jerusalem — and with that sharpest fivefold eye that leaves nothing unexamined and passes nothing uncorrected?1 So there's a great necessity laid on us to do good, since we do everything before the eyes of a Judge who sees all things. Man sees what appears outwardly in the face; God, however, looks inwardly, examining the heart.✦
True Glory: Conscience and the Lord
Many sinners hypocritically condemn in public what they practice in secret, but Scripture calls us to boast only in the Lord and in the testimony of a good conscience, for the wise person examines his work by the light of truth under the watchful guardian spirit within.
Why, then, do many people do certain things in secret — things they can't even take pleasure in themselves — and yet, so that the shameful one may appear innocent, he defames the shameful, rebukes those who collaborate in similar vice, and publicly accuses others when in secret he stands guilty before his own conscience? For by a twofold testimony are those condemned who glory neither in the Lord nor in conscience, as it is written: 'Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.'✦ And again: 'This is our glory — the testimony of our conscience.'✦ For the wise person who boasts proves his work by the light of truth, examines it carefully, and so has glory not in another but in himself.2 As we read in the letters of Seneca: 'A sacred spirit sits within us, the observer and guardian of our evils and our goods.'
Read the original Latin
Sed ecce, post viarum insidias, post civiles discordias, post diversa praelia et libidinum obprobria, post spectacula tam turpia quam cruenta, si possemus oculos secretis inserere et conscientiarum obductos parietes linteis, oculis penetrare, occurrerent crimina quanto secretiora tanto siquidem graviora, quia quo culpa secretior, eo est perpetrandi fiducia saepe major. Quasi quis ideo suam credat conscientiam effugisse quia nullum mortalem adesse metuit conscium suae culpae, sicut scriptum est : Quis me videt ? Tenebrae circumdant me, parietes cooperiunt me, et nemo conspicit me. Quem vereor ? Sed certe videt judex qui scrutatur Jherusalem in lucernis, videt adversarius qui flagitia suggerit et instigat, videt cœlestium testium multitudo, execrans et indignabunda recedens. Vide ipse qui facis quid facias, quia secundum vulgare proverbium : Si fuerit qui faciat, erit qui dicat ; et secundum poetam : Servi ut taceant jumenta loquantur. Aut si maluimus illud propheticum : Si tacuerint hii, ligna aedifîciorum et lapides parietum proclamabunt. Et si haec omnia tacerent, valde timendum esset scrutinium judicis qui scrutabitur Jherusalem in lucernis.
Et quid tutum inBabylone, si in Jherusalem manet scrutinium, et illo acutissimo V* oculo qui nihil deseret inscrutatum, nihil praeteriet incorrectum ? Magna igitur nobis est benefaciendi indicta nécessitas, cum omnia faciamus ante oculos judicis cuncta cernentis. Homo enim videt quae exterius apparent in facie Deus autem interius speculatur in corde. Quid igitur in occulto multi quaedam faciunt etiam quae facientibus placere non possunt, et tamen ut innocens appareat turpis, turpem infamat, et illos increpat qui vitio consimili collaborât, et in publico accusant alios unde in occulto rei sunt apud semetipsos. Duplici enim testimonio condempnantur, qui nec in Domino nec in conscientia gloriantur, sicut scriptum est : Qui gloriatur, in Domino glorietur. Et iterum : Gloria nostra haec est, testimonium conscientiae nostrae. Sapiens enim gloriator opus suum probat *, ad lumen veritatis diligenter examinât, et sic non in altero sed habet gloriam in seipso. Ut autem in epistolis Senecae legimus : Sacer intra nos spiritus sedet, malorum bonorumque nostrorum observator et custos.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Gen.4.9 — Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" And he said, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?"
- ↩Ps.141.4 — Do not bend my heart toward any evil thing, to practice wicked deeds with people who do wrong; and let me not eat their delicacies.
- ↩Zeph.1.12 — And it will be at that time, I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are thick upon their lees, who say in their hearts, 'The LORD will not do good, and he will not do harm.'
- ↩Hab.2.11 — For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the rafter will answer from the wood.
- ↩Zeph.1.12 — And it will be at that time, I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are thick upon their lees, who say in their hearts, 'The LORD will not do good, and he will not do harm.'
- ↩1Sam.16.7 — But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, for I have rejected him. For not as man sees does God see, for man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart."
- ↩1Cor.1.31 — so that, as it is written, 'Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.'
- ↩2Cor.1.12 — For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and sincerity of God—not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God—we conducted ourselves in the world, and more abundantly toward you.
Notes
- 1 ↩V* (five/fivefold) is uncertain in the source; it may refer to a fivefold mode of scrutiny or be an abbreviation. The translation preserves the sense of penetrating, comprehensive sight.
- 2 ↩The 'wise gloriator' here is the person whose boasting is grounded in truth and self-examination, not in external approval. The asterisk in the source text (probat *) may mark a textual variant or lacuna.
Eruditio regum et principum (Education of Kings and Princes) companion
Louis IX kept a daily rule of reading. Keep yours.
After day 21, Chosen Portion keeps the habit going with one historic devotional portion each morning, free on iOS.
Guibert formed Louis IX through short scheduled installments, and Chosen Portion delivers formation in the same daily-installment pattern.
- One reading and prayer per day, about 3 minutes
- Continue with 78 royal and monastic works after the plan ends
- Reflection questions suited to reading with a teen or small group