CHAPTER II He did not avoid it through vain glory
CHAPTER II
He did not avoid it through vain glory
171. If such a kind of love had ever possessed me, I ought rather to have accepted than avoided the office. Wherefore? Because it would have brought me much glory. The fact that one of my age, who had recently abandoned worldly pursuits, should so suddenly be deemed worthy of admiration by all, as to be honoured in preference to such as have spent their whole time in these labours, and to receive more suffrages than they, would have persuaded all men to surmise something great and admirable concerning me, and would have caused me to be reverenced and respected.
172. But now, excepting a few, the greater portion of the Church does not know me even by name: so that it is not plain to all that I have refused, but only to a few; nor do they, I fancy, know it certainly; and perhaps even of them, many think I have not been elected at all, or have been passed over after election, because I seemed to be unsuitable, and not that I have declined of my own accord.