20. The bishop's cathedra, or throne.
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2. The sacraments, baptism, confirmation, and eucharist, celebrated during the vigil of the pre¬ ceding week; but he also probably included under "the sacraments," the special daily services and sermons for the infantes of Easter week.
3. "You" referring now to the newly baptized, whereas in the previous sentence it referred to the rest of the faithful.
4. See Mt 7:14.
5. From "Refrain" M reads: "Refrain from fornication, from robbery, from fraud, from perjury, from unlawful business, from disputes. Turn your backs on drunkenness. Dread adultery like death."
The word for disputes, jurgiis, is very like the word for whirlpool, gurges. 6. Thus M. RB leaves out this unusual mode of address. 7. M reads: .. of those whom he holds bound by his chains."
8. For "enchantments," incantationem, M reads incarnationem. 9. M leaves out this last half of the sentence, and substitutes, "the rough into the smooth, the bitter into the sweet."
10. He means the pains of eternal damnation.
11. So M, from "... when he said, Eat." RB reads: "... when he said, You will not die the death. God had said, The day you eat you shall die the death. Along comes the enemy and says, 'What's this that God said to you, You shall die the death? You will not die the death, but when you eat, your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods.' God's threat was slighted, the devil's promise heeded. God's threat was discovered to be true, the devil's promise to be false. But what good did it do, I ask you, what good did it do her that the woman said, The serpent led me on, and the man himself said, The woman you gave me as a companion gave it me, and I atel Did the excuse carry weight and condemnation not follow?"
12. "My brothers," seasoned Christians, perhaps; "my sons," the newly baptized? He is address¬ ing the men only, of course. He never seems to have felt the need to speak plainly to women on the subject of chastity.
13. See Lk 9:62.
14. M reads: 'There, I'm telling you; there, I'm shouting at you, I am acquitting myself of guilt."
15. See Mt 22:45; as distinct from 25:19. 16. "We" being bishops in general. Although these actions look like "calling in debts," they are really "paying out," being performed for the benefit of those who were being corrected, etc., to prod them into changing their ways.
17. So M. RB reads: "And now, because I'm talking to you, scaring you, warning you, there is a need for God to listen to me, and do something silently in your hearts."
18. The newly baptized.
19. So RB from "I have," in the little conversation. M reads: "I have," you say. "Fine; whether you like it or not, the one who sleeps with you, besides your wife, I've already said it, is a whore. There you are, go and tell her, 'The bishop has insulted you.' You have your lawful wife, and another woman who sleeps with you. Whoever she is, I've said it already, she's a whore. But your wife is faithful to you, and she knows no other man but you alone, and is not disposed to know any other. If she's content with only one, you, why must you have two?
"But you say, 'My maid is my concubine. Am I going to another man's wife? Am I going off to a common prostitute? Or am I not allowed to do what I like in my own house?' I tell you, you are not allowed to. They go to hell, people who do this sort of thing, they will bum for ever."
Both texts are very Augustinian. But the first, in which Augustine switches inconsistently from calling the concubine a whore to supposing her to be chaste, strikes me as the more so. No doubt he recalled the unnamed woman of his youth, whose faithfulness to him he puts on record in the Confessions VII, 25, 25.
20. The bishop's cathedra, or throne. 21. Crows only speak Latin, I regret to say. 22. Baptism, confirmation, eucharist; all received during the vigil the previous night. 23. That is, the grace above all of baptism; but also of confirmation and first communion. 24. For you, the equivalent of coming down from the cross would be giving in to such tempta-