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← Liber Divinorum Operum (Book of Divine Works)/Book 3 · Liber Divinorum Operum — Pars 3
Chapter 57LDO.3.57

VISIO DECIMA, cap. XVI

The Cry Against Ravening Shepherds

Justice's complaint reaches the supreme Judge, and the oppressed faithful denounce corrupt prelates as ravening wolves who abuse spiritual power, plunder churches, and must be separated from the community or reformed according to ancient discipline.

For once Justice has directed her complaint to the supreme Judge, as was said above, he will receive the voices of her grievance and, by his just judgment, will bring his vengeance upon the violators of righteousness and allow the tyranny of their enemies to rage against them — so that they will say to one another: "How long will we endure and tolerate these ravening wolves, who ought to be healers and are not?✦ " But because they hold the power to speak, to bind, and to loose, that's why the fiercest beasts seize us.✦ Their crimes fall upon us too, and the whole Church withers because of them, because they don't cry out for what is just and they destroy the law — just as wolves devour lambs — and in their drunkenness they are insatiable, they commit countless adulteries, and because of such sins they judge us without mercy.✦ They are plunderers of the churches too, and through greed they swallow up whatever they can, and by their offices they make us poor and destitute, and they contaminate both themselves and us. Therefore let us judge them with just judgment and separate them from us, because they prove to be deceivers rather than teachers; and let us do this also so that we don't perish, since if they persist like this, they'll throw the whole region into turmoil by subjecting it to themselves. Now then, let us tell them that they must live out their way of life and office according to just religious discipline, as the ancient Fathers established it — or else let them withdraw from us and give up what they hold. Stirred by divine judgment, they will press these and similar charges upon them fiercely, and, rushing upon them, they will say: "We don't want these men to rule over us, with their estates and lands and the rest of their worldly goods, over which we have been established as rulers.✦ " And how is it fitting that shorn men in their stoles and cassocks should have more soldiers and more weapons than we do?

A Just Division of Cloak and Tunic

The faithful reason that spiritual and temporal roles must be kept distinct, using the parable of the cloak and the tunic to argue that secular people should hold broad worldly responsibility while clergy possess only what is necessary, with excess given to the poor.

But then, is it really fitting that a cleric should be a soldier, or a soldier a cleric? So let us take from them what they hold not rightly but unjustly. But let us carefully consider what has been offered with great discretion for the souls of the departed, and let us leave that to them, since this is not plunder. For the Almighty Father rightly divided all things — heaven, that is, to the heavenly, and earth to the earthly — and so let there be a just division among the children of men: namely, that spiritual people have what pertains to them, and secular people what suits them, so that neither group oppresses the other through plunder. God did not command that both tunic and cloak be given to one son while the other remained naked, but He ordered that the cloak be given to one and the tunic to the other. Therefore let secular people have the cloak, on account of the breadth of worldly responsibility and on account of their children, who are always growing and multiplying; but let the tunic be granted to the spiritual people, so that they do not lack food or clothing, and so that they possess no more than necessary. For this reason we judge and choose that all the things spoken above be rightly divided; and wherever the cloak is found together with the tunic among spiritual people, there let the cloak be taken away and given to those in need, so that they are not destroyed by poverty. And so at last, through this judicial sentence, they will strive to carry out all these things according to their own desires.

The Humbling of the Proud Clergy

When heaven's barrier closes against them and all their powers fail, the clergy are humbled by divine judgment, confess that they cast aside God to fulfill carnal desires, and are subjected to secular rule until a new ordering of all ranks is accomplished in the final hours of the age.

But those who hold episcopal office, and all who serve under them in spiritual roles, will find it enormously difficult to resist when the gates of heaven first close against them. But when they finally realize that they cannot resist by the power to bind or to loose, nor by the confirmation of their own offerings, nor by force of arms, nor by flattery, nor by threats—then, terrified by God's judgment, they will set aside the hollow, proud confidence they had always placed in themselves. Turning back to themselves, they will be humbled before those others, and howling they will cry out: "Because we cast aside almighty God in the conduct of our office, this confusion has come upon us—that we are now oppressed and humbled by those we ought to have oppressed and humbled." For over those whom we had been set as rulers, and over those who were subjected to us by discipline, God has withdrawn the bond of subjection, and he allows them to have dominion over us. So let us recognize that we are suffering God's just judgment. We wanted to bring the kingdoms of the world under our own control, when we ourselves ought to have been under God's yoke. And because we indulged every carnal desire, no one dared to call us to account. God commanded the people of the Jews to offer animal sacrifices to their Creator, but they, despising his commands, gave themselves over to every carnal desire. That is why foreign nations were brought in over them. But to us he appointed a living and spiritual sacrifice—yet we did not shrink from handling it with polluted hands. And when he was ready to crown us with the diadem of his scepter, we exalted ourselves above all things and indulged the desires of our flesh in every way. And so our enemies rage against us, just as the enemies of those earlier transgressors held dominion over them. And then both the greater and the lesser of each people will so order the clergy, and will arrange the things they need in this manner, that they lack nothing in food or clothing; and they will no longer endure such disgrace from the seculars. These things will begin among both the spiritual and the secular, as if in the first hour of the day. Then, as if in the third hour, they will be brought to full effect. And finally, as if in the sixth hour, they will be brought to completion. All ranks of people will be regarded as after the sixth hour and arranged differently than they are now—so that each order stands firm in its own integrity, and even the free return to the honor of their freedom, and servants to the proper service of their subjection.✦

Peace Before the Age's End

Once God's vengeance is satisfied through the correction of transgressors, justice and peace will shine forth before the end of the age, with some portion of the Jews converted and acknowledging the one they now deny.

So, once God's vengeance has been calmed through the correction of transgressors, may the ordering of justice and the tranquillity of peace shine forth before the age's end, just as they also did before the Lord's first coming — and this with some portion of the Jews even converted and rejoicing, and acknowledging that he has come, the one they now deny.✦1

Read the original Latin

Justitia enim postquam ad supernum judicem querelam suam ut supra dictum est direxerit, ille voces querimoniae ejus suscipiens, justo judicio suo vindictam suam super praevaricatores rectitudinis atque tyrannidem inimicorum eorum super eos grassari permittet, sic ad invicem dicentium: « Quandiu rapaces lupos istos patiemur et tolerabimus, qui medici esse deberent et non sunt? » Sed quoniam potestatem loquendi, ligandi et solvendi habent, idcirco ut ferocissimae bestiae nos capiunt. Scelera quoque eorum super nos cadunt, omnisque Ecclesia per eos arescit, quia quod justum est non clamant, legemque destruunt, quemadmodum lupi agnos devorant, atque in crapula voraces sunt, adulteriaque quamplurima perpetrant, et propter talia peccata absque misericordia nos judicant. Raptores etiam ecclesiarum sunt, et per avaritiam quaecunque possunt deglutiunt, atque cum officiis suis nos pauperes et egenos faciunt, ac se ipsos et nos contaminant. Quapropter justo judicio dijudicemus et dividamus eos quia seductores magis quam doctores existunt, et hoc etiam idcirco faciamus ne pereamus, quoniam si sic perseveraverint, totam regionem sibi subjiciendo disturbabunt. Nunc autem dicamus eis, quod secundum justam religionem habitum et officium suum compleant, quemadmodum antiqui Patres illa constituerunt, vel a nobis recedant, et ea quae habent relinquant. Haec et his similia divino judicio excitati illis acriter proponent, atque super eos irruentes dicent: « Nolumus hos regnare super nos, cum praediis, et agris, et reliquis saecularibus rebus, super quas principes constituti sumus. » Et quomodo decet ut tonsi cum stolis et casulis suis plures milites et plura arma quam nos habeant?

Sed et num conveniens est, ut clericus miles sit, et miles clericus? Unde abstrahamus eis quod non recte sed injuste habent. Diligenter autem consideremus quid cum magna discretione pro animabus defunctorum oblatum sit, et illud eis relinquamus, quoniam hoc rapina non est. Omnipotens enim Pater recte divisit omnia, coelum scilicet coelestibus, terram vero terrestribus; atque hoc modo justa divisio inter filios hominum sit, videlicet quod spiritales homines ea habent, quae ad ipsos respiciunt, saeculares autem illa quae eis conveniunt, ita ut neutra pars istorum aliam per rapinam opprimat. Deus quidem non praecepit ut tunica et pallium alteri filio daretur, et alter nudus remaneret, sed jussit ut isti pallium, illi tunica tribueretur. Pallium itaque saeculares propter amplitudinis saecularis curae, et propter filios suos qui semper crescunt et multiplicantur habeant; tunica vero spiritali populo concedatur, ne in victu aut in vestitu deficiant, et ne plus quam necesse sit possideant. Quapropter judicamus et eligimus ut omnia quae praedicta sunt recte dividantur; atque ubicunque pallium cum tunica in spiritalibus invenitur ibi pallium subtrahatur, et indigentibus detur, ne per inopiam consumantur. Et sic tandem per hanc judicialem sententiam omnia ista secundum voluntates suas perficere conabuntur.

Sed pontificales dignitates, omnesque in spiritali habitu sub eis degentes, illis cum clausura coeli primitus resistere multum laborabunt. Sed cum tandem praesenserint quod nec potestate ligandi, nec solvendi, nec confirmatione oblationum suarum, nec strepitu armorum, nec blanditiis, nec minis, ipsis resistere potuerunt, divino judicio territi inanem superbamque fiduciam quam prius in semetipsis semper habuerant deponentes et in se redeuntes, coram illis humiliabuntur, atque ululando clamabunt, et dicent: « Quia omnipotentem Deum in ordine officii nostri abjecimus, idcirco super nos confusio haec inducta est, videlicet ut ab illis opprimamur et humiliemur, quos opprimere et humiliare debueramus. » Nam illis super quos principes constituti eramus, et his qui nobis per disciplinatum subjiciebantur, Deus funem subjectionis abstraxit, nobisque eos dominari permittit. Quapropter consideremus quod justa judicia Dei patimur, quoniam regna mundi nobis subjugare voluimus, sicut et nos sub jugo Dei esse debebamus, et quia voluptatem cujusque carnalis concupiscentiae perfecimus, ne ob hoc ullus nos arguere audebat. Deus enim genti Judaeorum praecepit ut sacrificia de animalibus Creatori suo offerrent; sed illi jussa ejus contemnentes, in omnes carnales sensus se convertebant. Unde et gentes alienigenarum super eos inducti sunt: nobis autem ut vivum et spiritale sacrificium offerremus indixit, sed nos illud pollutis manibus tractare non pertimuimus, et cum diademate sceptri sui nos coronaret, super omnia nos exaltavimus, atque concupiscentias carnis nostrae omnibus modis complevimus; et ideo inimici nostri super nos grassantur, quemadmodum prioribus praevaricatoribus inimici eorum dominati sunt. Et tunc tam majores quam minores utriusque populi, clerum ita ordinabunt, et ea quae illi necessaria sunt hoc modo disponent, ut nec in victu aut in vestitu defectum habeant; et a saecularibus hujusmodi opprobria deinceps non sustineant. Haec autem tam in spiritali quam in saeculari populo quasi in prima hora diei incipientur, et deinde velut in tertia in plenum opus perducentur, et tandem quemadmodum in sexta ex toto perficientur, et omnes gradus hominum quasi post sextam considerabuntur, et in alium modum quam modo sint disponentur, ita scilicet, ut quisque ordo in rectitudine sua consistat, et etiam liberi ad honorem libertatis suae, et famuli ad debitam servitutem subjectionis suae redeant.

Quod ultione Dei per correctionem praevaricatorum sedata, ordinatio justitiae et pacis tranquillitas ante saeculum sicut et ante primum Domini adventum resplendeant, Judaeorum etiam aliqua parte conversa et gaudente, et illum advenisse fatente quem modo negant.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Luke.10.3;Matt.10.16 — Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Matt.10.16 — Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves; therefore be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.
  2. ↩Matt.16.19 — I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
  3. ↩John.10.12;Acts.20.29 — The hired hand, who is not the shepherd—the sheep are not his own—sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees. And the wolf snatches them and scatters them. Acts.20.29 — I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.
  4. ↩Luke.19.14 — But his citizens hated him, and they sent a delegation after him, saying, 'We do not want this man to reign over us.'
  5. ↩Matt.20.1-Matt.20.6 — For the kingdom of heaven is like a man, a master of a house, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. Matt.20.2 — And when he agreed with the workers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. Matt.20.3 — And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing in the marketplace, idle. Matt.20.4 — and to them he said, 'You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.' Matt.20.5 — But he went out again about the sixth and ninth hour, and did the same. Matt.20.6 — And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing around, and he said to them, 'Why are you standing here all day idle?'
  6. ↩Rom.11.25-Rom.11.26 — For I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be wise in your own estimation: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. Rom.11.26 — And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: 'The Deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.'

Notes

  1. 1 ↩The ablative absolute chain (conversa et gaudente, et ... fatente) is syntactically ambiguous: the participles could modify 'parte' (a converted, rejoicing, acknowledging part) or imply an impersonal construction. Rendered as the converted part also rejoicing and acknowledging, which preserves the theological claim that some Jews turn to Christ before the end.

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