CHAPTER X The Priesthood not the cause of these evils, but our own dullness
CHAPTER X
The Priesthood not the cause of these evils, but our own dullness
218. Nevertheless, I would not blame the priestly office for these evils. Let me not be so infatuated as that. For no men of understanding say that the sword is to blame for murder, or wine for drunkenness, or power for insolence, or courage for unreasonable daring; but that they are to blame who do not use as they ought the gifts which God has given; and them they punish.
219. Therefore the priestly office will justly accuse us, if we do not rightly administer it. For it is not to blame for the evils which have been mentioned, but we who have profaned it with as many pollutions as we could, by conferring it upon such persons as came in our way, who had neither become acquainted with their own souls, nor considered the gravity of the office, but readily accepted what was offered them, and when they came to the work, being clouded by inexperience, they overwhelmed with a myriad evils the people entrusted to them.
220. This is the very thing almost which must have happened to me, if God had not suddenly delivered me from those dangers,—thus sparing both his own Church and my soul.
221. Whence, tell me, do you think so great troubles are generated in the Churches? I do not think they come from any where else, than from the choice and election of prelates rashly and by chance.
222. For the head ought to be the strongest, that it may be able to superintend and reduce to order all the evil exhalations from beneath which arise from the rest of the body; but when it happens to be weak in itself and incompetent to repel those pestiferous attacks, it becomes even feebler than it is, and ruins the rest of the body as well as itself.
223. That this might not now come to pass, God has kept my feet in the rank which I occupied from the beginning.
224. There are very many other things besides those which have been mentioned, Basil, which a priest ought to have, and I have not, and before others, this: his soul must be altogether purified from the desire of the office.
225. For if he should perchance incline too eagerly to this post, when he attains it he kindles a yet more violent flame, and being taken by force, he will suffer a myriad of mischiefs in order to hold it fast, even though it should be necessary to flatter, or to suffer what is ignoble and unworthy, or to spend abundance of wealth.
226. For that some have filled the churches with murders, and made cities desolate, when contending for this position, I now pass over, lest I should seem to say what is incredible to any.
227. But I think one ought to have so much reverence for the matter, as to avoid the charge at the outset; and after having entered upon it, not to wait the judgment of others if any fault should be committed sufficient to call for deposition, but to anticipate them and retire from office; for thus would mercy be likely to be obtained from God. To cling to the office in an unseemly manner, is to deprive oneself of all pardon, and to enkindle yet more the anger of God, by adding a second and a worse offence.