Capitulum XV, de malis quae faciunt clerici saeculares in curiis.
Fleeing the Court for the Sanctuary
The author resolves to leave the royal court and seek true holiness in the princes' chapels.
I'm weary of the court by now. We must get out of the palace. Let us visit the sanctuary — if perhaps we can find holy things belonging to the saints in the princes' chapels.✦
The Cleansing of the Sanctuary
The author calls for ministers to be properly instructed and for princes to ensure their clergy are ordained and worthy.
So in this sanctuary let ministers be so instructed, so equipped for their duties, so fit for the Sacraments, so careful in everything that their conduct may be a model for the clergy. I know that if I touch here on the deeds of certain people, I won't please courtiers who refuse to hear the truth but wallow in the dregs of their custom. And so in a way my mind is afraid, my hand trembles, but I hope that good people will grant me forgiveness, since I'm writing this not so rashly as timidly. So then, in order that the sanctuary may be cleansed, let princes open their eyes and see whether they have an ordained clergy.
Testing and Approving Clerics
Clerics must be tested and approved before admission, since it is better never to admit the unworthy than to cast them out later.
First, then, let their clerics be tested, and let them serve only those who have no stain of crime whatsoever. Let the testing be done beforehand, over the course of time, once their character has been revealed.1 To have brought in men of this kind — it would be too late for repentance. For it is more shameful to throw a man out than never to have admitted him in the first place.2 For if they have not been tested and approved, who on earth will approve them?3 For in royal courts, the good person is often nowhere to be found. How much less does the wicked man get ahead!
The Corruption of Court Clergy
Once admitted to the prince's confidence, corrupt clerics abuse their office through false accusations, greed, pride, and the adoption of secular manners.
This is why, once they've been admitted to the prince's confidence, very many of them immediately start throwing their weight around — bringing false accusations, pulling strings for their friends, making threats, stealing resources. They are enemies of justice, lacking in eloquence, empty of wisdom. They drag out court cases; once hired, they obstruct; once passed over, they take offense; once warned, they forget; once enriched, they sell out. They prolong interventions, withdraw those who need to be heard, and in settling deals they thirst for gold — they drink gold. They don't look to the mouth of the lawgiver but to the hand of the prince — hot in their dealings, puffed up with pride, unruly and arrogant. And just as we read about certain Jews in the book of Maccabees, that they made themselves foreskins by fitting on skins, so they wouldn't be seen as circumcised by the Gentiles — so these men fit themselves with military trappings, so they won't be seen as clerics. Pride has a grip on them — they're wrapped in their own iniquity and impiety, stuffed with riches and propped up by favors. They consider the revenues of the church something they have for free.
The Shameful Ambition of Clerics
Rather than embrace true poverty, these clerics shamelessly pursue favor, power, and ecclesiastical office through flattery, bribery, and betrayal.
But to exalt the title of beggary — in the word of the blessed Bernard — it would have been better for them to dig, or even to beg. These men are shameless in asking, quick to refuse, pushy in receiving, ungrateful once they've received — most generous in promise, most stingy in delivery, most flattering in praise, most biting in criticism, most simple in pretense, most malicious in betrayal. These are the ones who craftily hunt for the favor of all in their presence, who generally pour out their resources, and the greater the power they crave, the more eagerly they spend them — and the more ambition they spend on them. And once they've obtained power, they're raised up into tyranny, and forgetful of their own condition, they don't hesitate to oppress others. If indeed a cathedral seat happens to be vacant, they press their services, they solicit with flatteries, they dig secretly with a certain silver mattock at the enemy's expense, and they do not cease to press on until the temple founded on the stone of help is turned, through the commerce of business, into a den of robbers.✦ Another they anticipate through a certain collusion — the generosity of the one calling them — but afterwards, like their own Gehazi, they'll repay the favor bestowed on them all the more fully.✦
The Virtues Required of Royal Counselors
Princes should admit only those counselors who are proven in holiness, obedient, humble, and endowed with every virtue necessary for faithful governance.
We don't wish to spell out the kinds and forms of ambition here and now, since our concern at the moment is to press on to other matters. Therefore, let princes admit to their council only those who are well-composed in character, proven in holiness, ready for obedience, gentle in patience, submissive to discipline, strict in censure, catholic in faith, faithful in stewardship, harmonious in peace, and conformed to unity.45 Let them be upright in judgment, provident in counsel, discreet in commanding, diligent in arranging, active in acting, modest in speaking, secure in adversity, devout in zeal, sober in mercy — not remiss in leisure, not idle in hospitality, not dissolute in feasting, not excessive in care of their own household affairs, not anxious about another's business, not greedy for what is theirs, not wasteful of what is another's — circumspect everywhere and in all things, and such that secrets can be entrusted to them.678
Read the original Latin
Taedet jam curiae. Exeundum palatio. Visitemus sacrarium, si fortassis in capellis principum reperire possimus sancta sanctorum.
In hoc ergo sacrario sint ministri taliter informati, sic ad officia expediti, ad sacramenta ydonei, ad omnia circumspecti quod eorum sit conversatio forma cleri. Scio quod si aliquorum hic de factis tetigero, satrapis veritatem audire nolentibus sed in consuetudinis faece scalentibus non placebo. Et ideo quodammodo timet animus, tremit manus, sed spero quoniam boni veniam dabunt mihi non tam temere quam timide hoc scribenti. Ut igitur purgetur sanctuarium, aperiant principes oculos, et videant si clerum habeant ordinatum.
Primum ergo clerici eorum probentur, et sic ministrent dumtaxat qui maculam criminis nullam habent. Sit probatio praeambula, de successione temporis revelatis eorum moribus. Introduxisse hujusmodi sera sit poenitentia. Turpius enim eicitur quam non admittitur hospes. Nam eos, si probati non fuerint, qui s probabit ? In curiis enim fréquenter bonus deficit. Quanto minus malus proficit !
Hinc est quod in fidelitatem principis admissi, plurimi statim incipiunt dominari, inferunt calumpnias, deferunt personas, afferunt minas, auferunt substantias, hostes justitiae, vacantes eloquentiae, vacui sapientiae, causas protelant, adhibiti impediunt, praetermissi fastidiunt, ammoniti obliviscuntur, locupletati vendunt, intercessiones protrahunt, audiendos retrahunt, transsigentes aurum sitiunt, aurum bibunt. Non ad os legislatoris, sed ad manum aspiciunt principis, actu calidi, fastu elati, incompositi et superbi, et sicut de quibusdam Judaeis in libro Machabaeorum legitur quod fecerunt sibi praeputia, sibi aptantes pelliculas, ne viderentur a gentibus circumcisi, sic et ipsi sib aptant phaleras militares, ne videantur clerici. Tenet eos superbia, operti iniquitate et impietate sua, suffarcinati divitiis et suffulti beneficiis, redditus ecclesiasticos gratis reputant se habere.
Sed ut mendicitatis titulum exaltemus secundum verbum beati Bernardi : Bonum erat eis magis fodere vel etiam IO mendicare. Isti sunt inverecundi ad petendum, faciles ad negandum, importuni ut accipiant, ingrati cum acceperint, largissimi promissores, parcissimi exhibitores, blandissimi adulatores, mordacissimi detractores, simplicissimi dissimulatores, malignissimi proditores. Hii sunt qui callide omnium M venantur in praesentia gratiam, opes plerumque effundunt, et quanto majoris potentiae cupidiores existunt tanto eos cum majori ambitione expendunt. Et cum potentiam nacti fuerint, in tirannidem eriguntur *, et suae conditionis immemores, alios deprimere non verentur. Si vero sedem vacare contigerit cathedralem, instant obsequiis, sollicitant blandiths, fossorio quodam argenteo fodiunt occulte ad hostium, et laborem continuare non cessant donec templum fundatum in lapide adjutorii ex negociationis commercio convertatur in speluncam latronum. Alium collusione quadam liberalitas vocantis praevenit, sed postmodum collatam gratiam suo Giezi plenius compensabit.
Ambitionis gênera et species nolumus ad praesens exprimere, quoniam nostra interest nunc ad alia properare. Ergo eos principes in suum admittant consilium qui sint compositi ad mores, probati ad sanctimoniam, parati ad obedientiam, mansueti ad patientiam, subjecti ad disciplinam, rigidi ad censuram, catholici ad fidem, fidèles ad dispensationem, concordes ad pacem, conformes ad unitatem. Qui sint in judicio recti, in consilio providi, in jubendo discreti, in disponendo industrii, in agendo strenui, in loquendo modesti, in adversitate securi, in prosperitate devoti, in zelo sobrii, in misericordia non remissi, in otio non otiosi, in hospitio non dissoluti, in convivio non effusi, in cura rei familiaris non anxii, alienae rei non cupidi, suae non prodigi, ubique et in omnibus circumspecti, quibus possiwt sécréta committi.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Exod.26.33-Exod.26.34 — And you shall hang the veil beneath the clasps, and bring in there, inside the veil, the Ark of the Testimony; and the veil shall separate for you between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. Exod.26.34 — And you shall place the mercy seat upon the ark of the testimony, in the Holy of Holies.
- ↩Matt.21.13;Mark.11.17;Luke.19.46 — And he said to them, "It is written, My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers." Mark.11.17 — And he taught them, saying, "Is it not written, My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations? But you have made it a den of robbers." Luke.19.46 — But He said to them, "It is written, My house will be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers."
- ↩2Kgs.5.20-2Kgs.5.27 — Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, the man of God, said, 'Look, my master has let this Aramean Naaman off the hook by not accepting what he brought. As surely as the LORD lives, I will run after him and get something out of him.' 2Kgs.5.21 — So Gehazi pursued after Naaman. And when Naaman saw him running after him, he got down from the chariot to meet him, and said, "Is all well?" 2Kgs.5.22 — "Peace, my lord — he sent me to say: 'Just now two young men from the hill country of Ephraim have come to me, from among the sons of the prophets. Please give them a talent of silver and two changes of clothing.'" 2Kgs.5.23 — Then Naaman said, 'Please, take two talents of silver.' And he urged him, and he bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of clothing, and gave them to two of his servants, and they carried them before him. 2Kgs.5.24 — And he came to the Ophel, and he took from their hands, and he stored it in the house, and he sent the men away, and they departed. 2Kgs.5.25 — And he came and stood before his master. And Elisha said to him, "Where have you been, Gehazi?" And he said, "Your servant has not gone anywhere at all." 2Kgs.5.26 — Then he said to him, "My heart did not go with you when a man turned from his chariot to meet you. Is this the time to take the silver, and to take garments, and olive groves, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and male servants and female servants? 2Kgs.5.27 — Therefore the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and to your offspring forever. And he left his presence, a leper, white as snow.
Notes
- 1 ↩praeambula rendered as 'done beforehand' to capture the sense of a preliminary or prior step; the morphology is uncertain.
- 2 ↩hospes rendered as 'a man' to capture the sense of someone seeking entry; the proverbial force is preserved.
- 3 ↩The token 's' in 'qui s probabit' is ambiguous — possibly an abbreviation or scribal error. The translation assumes the intended sense is 'who will approve them?' and renders accordingly.
- 4 ↩Sanctimonia rendered as 'holiness' rather than 'sanctimony' (which in English has a pejorative sense); the Latin means genuine devoutness or holiness of life.
- 5 ↩Dispensationem rendered as 'stewardship' to capture the sense of faithful management of resources and responsibilities, rather than the narrower theological sense of 'dispensation.'
- 6 ↩possiwt is a scribal error for possint ('they are able'); translated as 'can' to reflect the intended meaning.
- 7 ↩The long catalogue of paired virtues and vices follows a deliberate rhetorical pattern of 'in X, [quality]' with negated counterparts introduced by 'non.' The translation preserves this parallel structure as closely as natural English allows.
- 8 ↩In prosperitate devoti — the Latin says 'in prosperity, devoti' (devout), but the pairing with adversitate securi suggests the sense is 'steadfast/devout even in prosperity.' Rendered as 'devout in zeal' to capture the sense that prosperity does not make them lax; however, the Latin word order is ambiguous and the pairing may intend 'in prosperity, [remaining] devout.' The translation adjusts for clarity.
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