Quia ueindicari possunt, quae sunt adulationihus
The Deception of Flattery
The author warns against the destructive influence of flatterers who manipulate affection and exploit the trust of the unwary.
Things acquired; regarding pimps, soft men, and their punishment; and the fact that purity cannot be taken by force unless the mind itself consents. Yet a flatterer can by no means obey someone who seeks nothing but to please; if he can, he does it himself, but if not, he looks for a substitute—perhaps a wife or someone else connected by law or affection. Affection, however, is more effective because it approaches nature more familiarly, and whatever is joined by the bond of affection is united to the soul itself. Certainly, no flattery is more destructive than that which comes from the influence of affection. That is why husbands often embrace more tightly, expose themselves more fully to their rivals, and more frequently invite the corruptors of their marriage to dinner, while—as the proverb says, 'the incautious lover trusts the chaste wife more'—he trusts them more than he trusts his own suspicious eyes. Isn't he sufficiently deluded who prefers a woman's assertion to his own eyes, which deceives more frequently for the sole reason that it is less often intercepted? For a pillow-talker is most effective and, as they say, a night-raven is more eloquent than any orator, dressing the face of any work in whatever color it pleases. Therefore, the more cautious one is, the more suspicious one should be. If a contract is based on deceit, it is rescinded, and everything that followed from it or because of it is revoked. The heirs of the deceased are also held fully and permanently accountable for whatever is proven to have come into their possession. But what is more deceitful than a flatterer? You might object that I don't know everyone. That is true, but I feel that I have learned the character of all people from many others. Duellius, now an old man, now decrepit in body and trembling in heart, went home, grieving that it had been thrown in his face during an argument that he was foul-smelling due to a defect of the mouth. When he complained quite heavily to his wife that she had never warned him to seek a cure for this defect, she said, "I would have, if I hadn't thought that the mouths of all men smelled that way." You can praise the modesty of that marriage and prefer the patience of the woman who bore her husband's defect with such patience that he perceived the infirmity of his body not through his wife's disgust, but through the insult of an enemy. But I, too, have a similar answer regarding flatterers: I assume they all smell like this. They all reek of deceit and trickery, and wherever they go, they bring this not as a scent, but as a stench to anyone with a sensitive nose. So be it. Whatever is acquired for that reason can justly be taken away, even from an heir. Nor do I believe that petitioners can be opposed if they dare to claim what they have bestowed upon flatterers. But who is wise enough to understand these things, or who is fit for this, when there is such an abundance of flatterers not only in every house but in every gathering of people, that if any modest person dares to mutter against them, a whole crowd and a phalanx locked shield-to-shield defends them? Certainly, while an honest man, relying on his conscience and sticking to his duties, goes hungry, thirsty, and cold, and endures the many injuries of an angry fortune, the vile flatterer lies drunk in painted purple, gorges himself on delicacies until he is sick, burns with wine, swells with the finest foods, and at his own whim uses various tricks to make his own heaven. He gets the best seats at dinners and the first places in meetings; he is hailed by his chosen title, receives the first greetings, and offers the first opinions in court; he is thought most honest in his demonstrations and most useful in his deliberations; whatever he says is pure salt, and whatever he does is justice or generosity.
The Shame of Moral Corruption
A scathing critique of those who prostitute their own families and bodies for worldly gain, abandoning natural law for shameful vice.
Go ahead, then, and dare to be wise among them. A whole crowd of flatterers will come at you immediately, and they'll try to force you into their pack, as if you were one of their own. They are safe because of their numbers and their craftiness, which allows them to overcome even kings and princes; strangely, an unarmed mob prevails over the armed, and by their softness, they powerfully conquer those who are most robust. I had intended, however, to keep silent about these soft people who, just as they are shameful, also appear contemptible. A reverence for good character imposes silence, and a modest soul, by the prompting of nature, turns its gaze away from them. Why say more? If nature refuses to speak, indignation finds the words. Among these people, it's an art to prostitute one's own modesty and to violate or attack the modesty of others. And it isn't just about his own wife, especially when the laws of marriage are violated and a husband facilitates his wife's adultery. When a bride leaves the bridal chamber, don't think of her spouse as a husband, but as a pimp. He brings her out and exposes her to the lustful, and if the hope of some dishonest profit shines through, he prostitutes her with a clever pretense of affection. For a daughter who is more attractive, or if... Whatever else in the family might please a wealthier man is public merchandise, exposed for sale if he can find a buyer. But although a righteous grief may torment those who allow or facilitate the sharing of the marriage bed, this sickness is nonetheless mitigated by the advantage of profit, or at the very least, the pain of the torment is hidden. For if the matter is taken seriously, and if everyone is given the freedom to judge, there is no pain like the pain of seeing one's own body subjected to the lust of another. For other sins are outside the body, but whoever commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. “This,” he says, “is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh, so that the man and the woman are no longer two, but one flesh.” This bond certainly isn't broken without pain, nor is it shared without jealousy. Kingdoms and lust do not last well with partners; and just as there is no loyalty among partners in a kingdom, there is none in the marriage bed. It's certainly easier to yield the riches of a kingdom to another than the affection of a spouse. And yet, these people aren't spouses, but pimps. Only then are they believed to have exposed everything to the wealthy, when a violated faith makes a mockery of faith itself. But why do I complain that daughters and wives are exposed or prostituted—something that, although the laws forbid it, nature nevertheless permits in some way? They rise up against nature itself, like other giants waging a new war against the gods. They offer their sons to Venus, and by presenting them as dolls, they force them to lead the way as virgins. For in those cases, one expects the maturity of age, but in these, it is enough that the pleasure of another's impurity can be satisfied. It is shameful to say that men, older in years and sense, do not withdraw themselves from such great filth, and although nature created them in the nobler sex, they slide down to the worse one as much as lies within them, effeminate through vice and the corruption of morals, even though by the benefit of nature they cannot be women. When the luxury of a lascivious rich man prepares its vows for lust, a curled and pampered youth receives the feet of the one reclining, envying the splendor of a prostitute, the attire of an actor, the grooming of suitors, the adornment of virgins, and even the triumphal finery of princes; and in the sight of others, he handles the feet and—not to say more—the shins with tender hands, for he walks around gloved for a long time so that he might soften his hands, stripped of the sun, for the rich man's use. Then, as this license goes further, he wanders over the man's body with an impure touch, scratching the itch he created himself and stoking the fires of a languid Venus. Truly, this abomination is not so much to be shown as to be spat upon, and it would be shameful to have it inserted into our trifles, had not the Apostle, writing to the Romans, expressed it more clearly in words, saying that their women changed the natural use into that which is against nature, and the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their desires, men with men working that which is shameful, so that they were given over to a reprobate sense and did things that were not fitting, and being subject to all vices, they provoked the indignation of God and the stings of all punishments upon themselves; and at that time, indeed, the apostolic trumpet was sounding this in the ears of the Romans when the most impious emperor Nero, in his raging luxury, attempted to transform the boy Sporus into a female nature by cutting off his testicles. From that time, a proverb was born: 'The use of the beautiful is an abuse'; and another: 'The grace of beauty is less pleasing to the wise man, the more pleasing it is to the corruptor in its corruption.' After all, it’s harder for weak defenders to guard what many covet.
The Integrity of the Mind
True modesty resides in the mind, and those who participate in or ignore such corruption will face divine judgment.
The deceitful person steals it from the unwary, or the violent predator of modesty extorts it from the unwilling. Yet the Fathers established long ago that modesty cannot be taken away unless the corruption of the mind comes first. For as the great Augustine asserts, what the body suffers violently without the mind’s prior lust should be called a trial rather than corruption. Modesty can therefore be preserved where no corruption exists except that which is voluntary—in the integrity of the mind, that is, where modesty can be preserved forever. It isn't a great thing for the flesh to be intact when the mind is polluted by foul corruption. But now, even if the deceitful lover or the violent person is absent, adolescents are so poorly trained from a tender age that they entice corrupters with lascivious eyes, facial expressions, bodily gestures, outward dress, and a seductiveness hardly allowed even to prostitutes; they have no reverence or fear for the many laws already enacted against them, even though the Emperor has decreed that they should be punished most severely. For he says: 'When a man marries into a woman, intending to extend his strength, what does he desire?' Where the sex has lost its place, and there is no crime that one doesn't know how to commit, where Venus is changed into another form, where love is sought and not found, we order the laws to rise up and the statutes to be armed, so that those who are or will be guilty may be subjected to the avenging sword and to exquisite punishments. Yet he doesn't spare those who consent, but imposes capital punishment on them, since under divine law both those who act and those who consent face the same penalty; and he defined those who stay silent about a known error, or who hide it when they could correct it, as consenting—just as the great bishop Ambrose of Milan established. But why do we drag out such a shameful and hateful discussion about them? To bring their fate to a fitting conclusion: without a doubt, the Lord will rain snares upon them so they cannot escape—fire, sulfur, and a blast of storms will be their portion; and along with their own authors, whom Sodom devoured, they will be an eternal stench and disgrace for ages to come. What, I ask, will the favor of the wealthy profit them then? Or what use or pleasure can there be in worldly things that such great pain and such great shame won't swallow up?
Read the original Latin
adquisita; et de lenonihus et mollihus et pena eorum; et quod pudicitia auferri non potest uiolenter, nisi mens ipsa conseniiat. Atqui adulator ei nequaquam parere potest, qui nichil aliud quaerit nisi ut placeat; si potest, per se; sin autem, personam suppositam quaerit, uxorem forte aliamue coniunctam uel iure uel affectione. Affectio tamen eflScacior est, eo quod ad naturam familiarius accedit, ipsique unitur animae quicquid affectionis federe copulatur. Non est ic utique pemiciosior assentatio quam ea quae affectionis inductione procedit. Inde est quod saepe mariti artius amplectuntur, et se riualibus suis exponunt plenius, et saepius inuitant ad cenam matrimonii corruptores, dum (ut prouerbialiter dicitur amator incautus pudicae magis uxori) quam infidelibus oculis credit. Nonne satis delusus est qui oculis suis assertionem femineam, quae ex eo solo decipit crebrius quod intercipitur rarius, anteponit? Pica siquidem puluinaris eificacissima est et, ut dici solet, comix nocturna quouis oratore disertior, et cuiusque operis faciem quocumque libuerit colore uestit. Quo ergo cautior, eo suspectior habenda est.
Si dolus dedit causam contractui, rescinditur, et reuocantur omnia quae ex eo uel ob id profecta sunt. Heredes quoque defuncti in solidum et in perpetuum tenentur de eo, quod ad eos constiterit pemenisse. Sed quid adulatore dolosius? At michi forte obicies quia non omnes noui. Vemm quidem est; sed a multis michi didicisse uideor omnium mores. Duellius iam senex, iam decrepitus corpore cordeque trementi, dolens a sibi exprobratum esse in iurgio quod oris uitio fetidus esset, se domum contulit. Cumque uxori grauius quereretur, quod numquam eum monuerat huius uitii quaerere medicinam: Fecissem, inquit, nisi putassem ora uirorum omnium sic olere. Laudare poteris eius matrimonii pudicitiam et praeferre patientiam mulieris quae uiri uitium tanta patientia tulit ut ille infelicitatem corporis non uxoris fastidio sed maledicto senserit inimici.
At et ego de adulatoribus aliquid tale respondeo, quia omnes arbitror sic olere. Omnes fallaciam et dolum redolent et, quocumque se uertant, pudicis naribus hunc important non odorem sed fetorem. Quicquid ergo. ex ea causa adquiritur, etiam ab herede iuste potest auelli. Nec credo quod possit petib toribus obuiari, si uendicare audeant quod adulatoribus contulerunt. Sed quis sapiens et intelliget ista aut ad hoc quis idoneus, cum non modo in omni domo aut conuiuentium cetu adulantium tanta sit copia ut, si quis modestus aduersus eos mutire audeat, illos defendat numerus iunctaeque umbone phalanges? Certe, dum uir honestus innitens conscientiae uirtutumque insistens officiis esurit sitit alget et multiplices fortunae indignantis iniurias excipit, uilis adulator picto iacet ebrius ostro, delitiis ingurgitatur ad crapulam, uino estuat, lautioribus cibis distenditur, et pro arbitrio uariis artificiis celum sibi contemperat. Primos habet recubitus in cenis, in conuenc tibus primos consessus, praeelecto praenomine conclamatur, salutationes excipit primas, primas sententias in iudiciis profert, in demonstrationibus honestissime, in deliberationibus utilissime sentit; quicquid loquitur, sal merum est, quicquid agit, iustitia aut liberalitas.
Age ergo et inter istos sapere aude. Ilico multa adulatorum ueniet manus, et ueluti te ludei cogent in suam concedere turbam. I eum nunquam A recubitus habet A in iuditiis Multitudine itaque tuti sunt et artificio ut ipsos possint etiam reges et principes expugnare; et miro modo inermis populus praeualet in armatos et mollitie quae robustissima sunt potenter expugnat. Disposueram tamen silere de mollibus qui, sicut ignominiosi, ita sunt et uidentur ignominabiles. Silentium indicit reuerentia morum, et uerecundus animus natura dictante illorum declinat aspectum. Quid multa? Si natura negat, facit indignatio uerbum. Apud istos ars est suam pudicitiam prostituere, alienam uiolare uel oppugnare.
Nec quidem simpliciter suam, cum matrimonii temerentur iura et coniugis adulterium coniunx procuret. Dum egreditur sponsa de thalamo, coniugem noli maritum credere sed lenonem. Producit eam, libidinosis exponit et, si spes dolosi nummi refulgeat, afiectus callida simulatione prostituit. Filia namque decentior, aut si. quid aliud in familia placeat ditiori, publica merx est, exposita quidem si emptorem inueniat. Sed licet iustus dolor eos aliquatenus cruciet, qui thori participes admittunt aut faciunt, egritudo tamen utilitatis compendio mitigatur uel saltem doloris dissimulat cruciatum. Si enim res serio agatur, si libera donentur cunctis iudicia, non est dolor sicut dolor ille quo corpus suum quis uidet aliena libidine poUui. Cetera namque peccata extra corpus sunt; sed qui fomicatur, in corpus suum peccat.
Hoc, inquit, os ex ossibus meis, et caro de came mea, ut non iam duo sint uir et mulier, sed una caro. Haec utique sine dolore non scinditur neque sine inuidia communicatur. Non bene cum sociis regna Venusque manent; et sicut nuUa fides regni sociis, ita nec thori. Certe facilius est regni diuitias quam affectionem coniugii alii cedere. Atqui nec isti coniuges sunt sed lenones. Tunc demum omnia creduntur exposuisse diuitibus, cum fidei fidem faciat fides uiolata. Sed quid filias et uxores (quod, licet iura prohibeant, tamen quocumque modo natura permittit) exponi queror aut prostitui? In ipsam naturam, quasi gigantes alii teomachiam nouam exercentes, insurgunt.
Filios offerunt Veneri, eosdemque in oblatione pupparum uirgines praeire compellunt. In illis etenim etatis maturitas expectatur, at in his sufficit alienae impudicitiae uoluptatem posse expleri. Pudet dieere quod seipsos uiri etate prouectiores et sensu turpitudini tantae non subtrahunt et, eum eos in nobiliori sexu natura creauerit, ad deteriorem, quantum in ipsis est, ex innata mahtia prolabuntur, effeminati uitio et corruptela morum, cum tamen naturae beneficio feminae esse non possint. Cum lasciuientis diuitis luxus libidini uota sua procingit, recumbentis pedes calamistratus comatulus excipit, nitorem inuidens meretrici, histrioni habitum, cultum procis, uirginibus ornatum, triumphalem quoque principibus apparatum, et in aliorum conspectu pedes et, ne plus dicam, t neris manibus tibias tractat; cirotecatus enim incessit diutius, ut manus soli subtractas emolliret ad diuitis usum. Deinde licentia paululum procedente totum corpus impudico tactu oberrans pruriginem scalpit quam fecit, et ignes Yeneris languentis inflammat. Verum haec abominatio non tam ostendenda est quam conspuenda, puderetque eam nugis nostris esse insertam, nisi eandem Apostolus Eomanis scribens uerbis manifestius expressisset, dicens quia feminae eorum immutauerunt naturalem usum in eum qui est contra naturam, et masculi, relicto naturali usu feminae, exarserunt in desideriis suis, masculi in masculos inuicem turpitudinem operantes, ut darentur in sensum reprobum facerentque quod minime conuenirent, et uitiis uniuersis obnoxii indignationem Dei et omnium penarum in se aculeos prouocarent, Et tunc quidem in auribus Romanorum a hoc tuba apostolica conclamabat, quando impiissimus imperator Nero luxuriae seuientis puerum Sporum exectis testiculis in muliebrem naturam transformare conatus est. Ab eo tempore prouerbium natum est quia: Vsus formosorum abusio est; et illud: Formae gratia eo minus grata est sapienti, quo corrupto est gratior corruptori. Difficilius etenim ab infirmis defensoribus custoditur quod plures appetunt.
IUud incauto facilius surripit fraudulentus aut inuito pudicitiae praedo uiolentus extorquet. A patribus tamen pridem diffinitum est quia pudicitia auferri non potest, nisi mentis corruptio antecedat. Quod enim, ut magnus asserit Augustinus, non praecedente libidine uiolenter patitur corpus, uexatio potius dicenda est quam corruptio. Ibi ergo seruari pudicitia potest, ubi nuUa nisi uoluntaria esse potest corruptio, in mentis scilicet integritate, ubi in etemum seruari pudicitia potest. Nec magnum est integram esse camem, ubi mens tetra corraptione poUuitur. At nunc si deceptor amans aut uiolentus abest, ita male a teneriori etate instituuntur adolescentes, ut oculis lasciuientibus, nutu faciei, corporis gestu habituque exteriori et lenocinio uix ipsis meretricibus concesso soUicitent cormptores, et legum quae in eos iam plurimae latae sunt nullam habeant reuerentiam uel timorem, licet in eos grauissime animaduertendum decreuerit Imperator. Ait enim: Cum uir nubit in feminam uires porrecturam, quid cupiat? Vbi sexus perdidit locum, nec scelus est quod non proficit scire, ubi Venus mutatur in alteram formam, ubi amor quaeritur et non inuenitur, iubemus insurgere leges, armari iura, ut gladio ultore et exquisitis penis subdantur infames, qui sunt uel futuri sunt rei.
Sed neque consentientibus parcit, quin eis penam irroget capitalem, cum et lege diuina facientes et consentientes pari pena plectantur, Ipsosque, magno episcopo auctore (Ambrosium Mediolanensem attende), consentientes esse diffiniuit, qui notum errorem reticent, aut corrigere cum possint dissimulant. Sed quid de eis uerecundum odiosumque sermonem protendimus? Vt sortem eorum condigna conclusione claudamus, proculdubio pluet super eos Dominus laqueos ut non efiugiant, ignis, sulfur, spiritus procellarum, pars calicis eorum; et cum auctoribus suis, quos Sodoma deuorauit, erunt seculis in fetorem et obprobrium sempitemum. Quid proderit quaeso eis tunc diuitum fauor? Aut quis potest esse temporalium usus aut uoluptas, quem tantus dolor et tanta erubescentia non absorbeat?
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