Many kings and rulers have during a time of pestilence
Crusment oF Rome twice have I spoken to you thus: I have looked at this people, and behold, it is stiff-necked; suffer me to exterminate them, and I will wipe out their name from under heaven; and | will make you the ruler of a nation mighty and wonderful and much greater than this one. 4 Then Moses said: No, no,
Lord! Forgive this people their sin, or else blot me also out of the book of the living. 5 O great charity! O unsurpassed perfection! A servant pas boldly to the Lord: he asks forgiveness for the people, or else that he himself may be blotted out with them!
54. Now, then, who among you is noble, who compas sionate, who full of charity?
2 Let him say: "If I am the cause of sedition and strife and schism, then I depart; I go wherever you wish; I do whatever the majority enjoins: only let the flock of Christ have peace with the appointed presbyters."***
3 He who acts thus will win great glory for himself in Christ, and every place will welcome him; for the earth and all that is in it are the Lord's." 4 Those who live as citizens of God's Kingdom—a life that never brings regrets
—have acted thus and will act thus.
55. But let us also adduce examples from the heathens.
Many kings and rulers have during a time of pestilence accepted the advice of oracles and given themselves up to death in order to rescue by their own blood their fellow citizens. Many left their own cities to prevent the spread of a schism. 2 We know of many in our own midst" who gave themselves up to imprisonment in order to ransom others. Many gave themselves up to slavery, and with the Bs they received for themselves, furnished food for others.
3 Many women, invested with power through the grace of God, have accomplished many a manly deed. 4 The blessed