DE MODO REGIMINIS ECCLESIASTICI

Because I have learned that among certain persons there are various rumors and suspicions, I have written what is set down below, so that through it you may deign to know what I judge ought to be held to in the exercise of ecclesiastical governance, and so that the murmuring of a few may cease, once my intention has been laid open 189Bto all. There is one bridegroom, who has a bride; who is to be loved for his own sake, not for the sake of anything else, since he himself is peace, truth, justice, sanctification, and redemption, and every good, and without him no good; who came from heaven, and is above all; who lifts to heaven those whom he snatches up from the earth. The friends of the bridegroom are those who, by seeing and hearing him, are built up into the love and worship of the bridegroom; but the sons of the bridegroom are both those who build up and those who are built up. There is one Lamb, who has a bride, of whom it is said to John the apostle: Come, I will show thee the bride, the wife of the Lamb; and there was shown to him the holy city Jerusalem coming down from heaven from God, having the brightness of God.

Of this bride and city there is sung in heaven Alleluia, for the Lord our God almighty hath reigned. 189CLet us rejoice and exult, and give glory to him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath prepared herself; and it was granted to her that she should cover herself with fine linen. Of this wife and city John the evangelist says that she is also the tabernacle of God. For he says: And I saw the holy city Jerusalem, new, coming down from heaven, prepared by God, as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice from the throne saying: Behold the tabernacle of God with men, and he will dwell with them. And they shall be his people, and he, God, shall be with them, their God; and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor crying, nor shall there be sorrow any more. Of this city and virgin wife the Lamb of God — the Lamb who is God, the almighty Lamb, the Lamb of the Almighty — begets lambs 189Dand sheep, which he entrusts to the blessed apostle Peter, saying: Feed my lambs. And again: Feed my sheep. This bridegroom and almighty Lamb says to his bride and wife: Thy hair is as flocks of goats which have come up from mount Gilead. Thy teeth as a flock of sheep which have come up from the washing, all with twin young, and there is not a barren one among them. And again: Thy two breasts are like two twin fawns of a roe, which feed among the lilies. This wife is also the daughter of her husband, the Lamb and prince, to whom he himself says: How beautiful are thy steps in sandals, O daughter of the prince!

That same prince is the father of his bride, and her brother. For he says to his own wife and sister: Thou hast wounded my heart, my sister, my bride, thou hast wounded my heart with one of thine eyes, and with one hair of thy neck. How beautiful are thy breasts, my sister, my bride! Nor is it any wonder 190Bif the wife is a sister, since her breasts and paps are a tower, and she herself a wall. For thus the father and bridegroom speaks of her: What shall we do for our sister on the day when she is to be spoken to? If she is a wall, let us build upon it silver bulwarks; if she is a door, let us join it together with boards of cedar. And she answered: I am a wall, and my breasts are a tower, since I was made before him as one finding peace. What wonder if she is a wall and a city, when she is also a vineyard having a husband? For there was a vineyard, he says, belonging to the Peaceable One in that place which has peoples. He handed it over to keepers: the husband brings for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver. Concerning which that same husband and father at once adds, My vineyard is before me. That vineyard is also the virgin's and the spouse, of whom it is sung in the wedding song to the king and bridegroom himself: The spouse stood at 190Cthy right hand, in a golden diadem. And that same bridegroom and father says to the same spouse: Hear, O daughter, and see. And the singer of this song says to her: And, O daughter of the mightiest, the rich among the peoples shall entreat thy countenance with gifts. These readings follow the Hebrew. But the older translation, in order to show the same spouse to be both queen and the king's daughter, speaks thus to the king himself: The queen stood at thy right hand. And a little after: All the glory of the king's daughter is from within. This queen is not only a vineyard, but also a garden, and a fountain. A garden enclosed is my sister, my bride, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed. She is called a woman also, as it is written: Who shall find a valiant woman? And after some words: Her husband is noble in the gates, when he shall sit with the senators of the land. In her person Paul too writes to certain of the faithful: For I have espoused you 190Dto one husband, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ. To whom Christ the Lord himself speaks: Thou art all fair, my love, and there is no spot in thee. And she of him: Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat the fruit of his apple trees.

This bride is queen, and wife, and handmaid. But this is no wonder. Yet it is a wonder, and full of all mercy, that her husband and lord is also mistress to her, as the Psalmist sings: As the eyes of the handmaid are upon the hand of her mistress, so are our eyes unto the Lord our God. She is also called the woman who has ten drachmas, who, when one was lost, lit 191Aa lamp, swept the house, sought, and found. She is called a mother too, as he himself speaks through Isaiah, saying: As if a mother should caress someone, so will I comfort you. For truly she is both mother and mistress, virtue and wisdom, strength and glory, resurrection and life, way and truth, illumination and salvation, and the rest of this kind.

This too is no less a wonder: that the handmaid and friend can even be the mother of her Lord, in that manner in which the Lord says: For whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother. Which the Apostle also says of himself: My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you.

These manifold names of the bridegroom and the bride, 191Bof Christ and the Church, have not been taken from any historical deeds (as it is when Scripture speaks of Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, in whom the joining of Christ and the Church is figured), nor from that kind of speech in which things perceptible to the senses are set down by way of significative foretelling (as is the mountain of the house of the Lord, where the mountain signifies the Lord and the house the Church) and many things of this sort; but from those places where Scripture carries through that ordered narration of deeds, yet indicates Christ and the Church only by various names of this kind, and in which no one is so foolish as to think that anything else is to be sought except Christ and the Church.

But the wondrous kindness of the Creator is shown, since with so great a unity the body cleaves to the head, 191Cand the head presides over the body, as the Prophet sings: He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, and hath compassed me about with the robe of justice, as a bridegroom decked with a crown, and as a bride adorned with her jewels. And after some words: For the young man shall dwell with the virgin, 192Aand thy sons shall dwell in thee. And the bridegroom shall rejoice over the bride, and thy God shall rejoice over thee. And the Apostle plainly shows it, saying: For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For in one Spirit we have all been baptized into one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, whether slaves or free, and we have all been given to drink in one Spirit. Because, clearly, it is the Spirit of Christ that makes this unity.

These are the things which furnish an unspeakably delightful diversion to a devout and faithful soul — and such a diversion as, in the present life, can be had from no contemplation of created things; and, if I may say it confidently, among all the works of God, visible 192Band invisible, no like of it can be found. Of this diversion the Lord gives command through the Prophet: Speak to the heart of Israel, and call her away. Of this too the man with whom God is, in the vision in which his mother taught him, thus gives command in mystical speech: Give strong drink to those that mourn, and wine to those that are bitter of soul. Let them drink, and forget their want, and remember their sorrow no more. Of this too the Psalmist, when he called blessed the man who has not looked upon vanity and false madnesses — or, as it is read in the Hebrew, upon the prides and pomps of lying, in which lie the diversions of carnal minds — added: Thou, O Lord my God, hast done many things, thy wonders; and in thy thoughts there is none like unto thee.

Therefore whoever has undertaken the office of preaching and the place of governance, and neglects, in these highest matters, what is the highest thing of God's mercy — to call away the friends of the faithful — and seeks his consolation and diversion in riches, in ornaments of metal, 193Ain hunting, in fowling and fishing, and, what is worse, in feastings and drunkenness and the sounds of music, as the Lord detests it through the prophet, saying: Woe to you that rise up early to pursue drunkenness, and to drink until evening, that you may be inflamed with wine. The harp and the lyre and the timbrel and the pipe and wine are in your banquets; and you regard not the work of the Lord, nor consider the works of his hands — such a man is no helper of God, as Paul says: For we are God's helpers. You are God's tillage, you are God's building. Rather he is a destroyer of God's work, and thereby a helper of Antichrist; 194Aand although in human eyes he may seem to be a priest, in God's eyes he is not: because when the Lord comes to judgment, he will be cut apart, and his portion will be set with the unbelievers, and of such men it is written: I saw the ungodly buried: who also, while they were still living, were in the holy place, and were praised in the city as though for works of justice. Therefore none of these ought to be a leader of God's people, lest he plunge those seeking the heavenly kingdoms into the pit into which he himself has been plunged by God's judgment, as the Lord shows to blessed Job, saying: Hast thou an arm like God? And, after some intervening words, Hide them, he says — that is, the proud 195Aand the ungodly — in the dust together, and plunge their faces into the pit.

There are others who, like these, do not appear ungodly to men, but by a feigned righteousness become in men's eyes whited sepulchres; while in God's eyes, that is, within, they are full of dead men's bones and of every filth. The blessed apostle Paul says: For we are not as very many, adulterating the word of God, but out of sincerity, as from God, before God, we speak in Christ. And again: Having this ministration, according as we have obtained mercy, we do not fail, but we renounce the hidden things of dishonor, not walking in craftiness, nor adulterating the word of God, but in the manifestation of the truth. For just as an adulterer does not seek the fruit of offspring, but only 195Bto do his own will and fulfil his lust, so everyone who has undertaken the administration of the word, if out of sincerity he does not seek the salvation of his hearers and the building up of the Church, but speaks the word of God for the sake of some other thing which is less than the salvation of his hearers — namely, that he may comply with his own will — is an adulterer.

Therefore it is not heretics alone who adulterate the word of God by mixing in their deceits. But so also do all who hasten to arrive at temporal honors and riches through the sacred ministry; and likewise those who cannot be raised to honors and riches, and desire to obtain their daily food or clothing from the sacred ministry (since they do not receive their keep in order to preach, but preach in order to receive; 195Cnor do they speak out of sincerity, as from God, before God; but they walk in craftiness, nor do they renounce the hidden things of dishonor, but embrace them) — these are adulterers. Therefore everyone who is set over the rest, whether cleric or monk, if he shows himself benevolent and gentle and affable in such a way as to turn the hearts of his subjects to love of himself and to his own praise, is an adulterer, and ought never to undertake the governance of souls. But he who is prudent, gentle, and agreeable in such a way that he turns and kindles those who see and hear him to the love and praise of the bridegroom, is a friend of the bridegroom. He seeks the chastity 196Aof the bride, and deservedly undertakes the governance of souls. Every cleric or monk to whom has been given some little word of wisdom or word of knowledge, and who, while he speaks, desires to turn and inflame his hearers to love of himself and his own praise — that man preaches himself, not the bridegroom; and for that reason he is to be driven from the inner chamber, because he is an adulterer; he presides outside in the court, not by the bride's command, but by the leave of her forbearance: because whether the bridegroom be announced by occasion or in truth, one must rejoice. For a faithful soul, from whomever it hears the bridegroom's praises, is kindled to love of the bridegroom, not to love of the one who praises him carelessly. For it loves the diligent praiser as a neighbor, not as the bridegroom; it loves him in the bridegroom, not in place of the bridegroom. Walking in the unspotted way, 196Bthis man ministers to the Lord, not to himself; and he can be set before the rest. But one not walking, but lying in sloth, and who ministers thus, ministers to himself, not to the Lord, and ought not to be set over the rest. He who dispenses the keepers of observances to his own pleasure, and not to the profit of the household, dispenses to himself, not to the Lord, and is not the faithful and prudent steward whom the Lord may set over his household. The labor of fools shall afflict those who know not how to make their way to the city of the bridegroom; and therefore they ought not to be made leaders of others. The labor of the wise heals them. For they are led by the bridegroom into the right way, that they may go into the city of habitation; and such men ought to become the leaders of those who have here no abiding city, but seek a city to come, among the flock that comes up from the washing. And the fruitful 196Care to be loved, and the barren borne with; and the sound are to be guarded, and the sick healed: because the bridegroom came from heaven to seek again what had perished, and to bring back what had been cast away, and to bind up what was broken, and to strengthen what was weak, and to guard what was fat and strong.

These things are to be observed thus among the sheep who are subject. But among prelates and shepherds the condition is otherwise. For just as blessed is the faithful and prudent servant, whom the Lord has set over his household, to give them food in due season, who imitates the shepherd 197Aof shepherds in the administration of the pasture; so, on the contrary, it stands with those shepherds who feed themselves, who do not strengthen what is weak, and do not heal what is sick, and do not bind up what is broken, and do not bring back what is cast away, and do not seek again what had perished: from whose mouth may the shepherd of shepherds deliver his sheep, and feed them in the richest pastures — even those which in the present life always endure a wicked shepherd for their own part. And indeed the devout sheep always seeks a good shepherd. But if he is lacking in this mortal life, he is not lacking who laid down his soul for his sheep. On which account, where he cannot be amended, he is to be borne with by the sheep as a hireling sitting in the chair of Moses. For the devout bridegroom, the true shepherd, has commanded that what such men say, the sheep should do; but what they do, 197Bthey should not do.

I have said these things at the last for this reason, lest anyone should think that I hold lost the faithful sheep which prudently bears with a wicked shepherd — admonishing this above all, that every shepherd should nourish and instruct and correct those subject to him in the discipline and fear of the Lord, not for himself but for the Lord: as the highest shepherd also charged blessed Peter, saying: Feed my lambs, 198Ahe says, not thine; and therefore for me, not for thee. This is the sure sign that thou truly lovest me, if thou carefully feed my lambs, on account of which thou art to receive the crown of justice. So too a certain ancient shepherd signified the care of his solicitude in mystical words, saying: It is not yet time that the sheep be shut in the folds. Give the sheep drink first, and so lead them back to pasture. Where this is not done, there comes that which the prophet laments, saying: Therefore has my people been led away captive, because it had no knowledge; and its nobles have perished with hunger, and its multitude has dried up with thirst. And another: The little ones asked for bread, and there was none to break it for them.

These words, not unskilled, yet unskilfully arranged by an unskilled man, are necessary for all, from 198Bhim who sits upon the throne down to him who labors at the mill. I write not so much to those to whom I owe nothing but charity, as to those who have been committed to us; yet in such a way that under the name of shepherds and rulers there be understood abbots, and provosts, and priests: whom I earnestly beseech to attend with their whole heart to the exhortation and entreaty of the blessed apostle Peter, in which he says: Therefore the elders that are 199Aamong you I beseech, who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of that glory which is to be revealed in time to come: feed the flock of God that is among you, taking care of it not by constraint, but willingly, according to God; nor for the sake of filthy lucre, but freely; 200Aneither as lording it over the clergy, but being made a pattern to the flock from the heart; and when the prince of shepherds shall appear, you shall receive the crown of unfading glory. Amen.