Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
First, from verse 1 to verse 12, he dissuades from excessive love and pursuit of riches. Then, second, up to verse 30, there is instruction concerning the table; namely, with how much propriety, temperance and discretion the guests should conduct themselves at it. Third, from verse 30 to the end, he treats of sobriety in the drinking of wine.
Vulgate Text: Ecclesiasticus 31:1-42
1. Wakefulness for the sake of riches will waste the flesh, and thought of them will take away sleep. 2. The thought of foreknowledge turns away understanding, and a serious illness makes the soul sober. 3. The rich man has labored in gathering his substance, and in his rest he shall be filled with his goods. 4. The poor man has labored in diminishing his food, and in the end he becomes destitute. 5. He who loves gold will not be justified: and he who pursues corruption will be filled with it. 6. Many have been given over to falls on account of gold, and their destruction was wrought by its beauty. 7. Gold is a stumbling block for those who sacrifice to it: woe to those who pursue it, and every fool shall perish by it. 8. Blessed is the rich man who is found without blemish: and who has not gone after gold, nor put his hope in money and treasures. 9. Who is this, and we shall praise him? For he has done wonderful things in his life. 10. He who has been tested in it and found perfect, to him shall be eternal glory: who could have transgressed, and has not transgressed; could have done evil, and has not done it: 11. therefore his goods are established in the Lord, and all the assembly of saints shall declare his alms. 12. Have you sat down at a great table? Do not be the first to open your mouth over it. 13. Do not say: There are many things upon it: 14. remember that an evil eye is wicked. 15. What has been created more wicked than the eye? Therefore it will weep at every sight, when it sees. 16. Do not stretch out your hand first, and stained with envy, be put to shame. 17. Do not crowd yourself at a feast. 18. Judge the feelings of your neighbor from yourself: 19. use like a frugal person those things that are set before you: lest, when you eat much, you be hated. 20. Be the first to leave off for the sake of good manners: and do not be excessive, lest you give offense. 21. And if in the midst
of many you have sat down, do not stretch out your hand before them, nor be the first to ask for drink. 22. How sufficient for a well-instructed man is a little wine, and in sleeping you will not be troubled by it, and you will feel no pain. 23. Sleeplessness, and bile, and gripes for an intemperate man: 24. healthful sleep in a moderate man; he will sleep until morning, and his soul will be delighted with him. 25. And if you have been forced to eat much, rise from the midst, vomit: and it will refresh you, and you will not bring sickness upon your body. 26. Hear me, my son, and do not despise me: and in the end you will find my words true. 27. In all your works be prompt, and no sickness will come to you. 28. The lips of many shall bless him who is generous with his bread, and the testimony of his truth is faithful. 29. Against him who is stingy with bread the city will murmur, and the testimony of his stinginess is true. 30. Do not challenge those who are fond of wine: for wine has destroyed many. 31. Fire tests hard iron: so wine drunk in drunkenness will expose the hearts of the proud. 32. Wine in sobriety is an equal life for men: if you drink it moderately, you will be sober. 33. What life is there for him who is diminished by wine? 34. What defrauds life? Death. 35. Wine was created for joy, not for drunkenness, from the beginning. 36. Wine drunk moderately is the exultation of the soul and the heart. 37. Sober drinking is health for the soul and the body. 38. Wine drunk in excess causes irritation, and anger, and many ruins. 39. Wine drunk in excess is bitterness of soul. 40. Drunkenness is the boldness of the imprudent man's offense, diminishing strength and causing wounds. 41. At a wine banquet do not rebuke your neighbor: and do not despise him in his merriment: 42. Do not speak words of reproach to him: and do not press him about repaying debts.
FIRST PART OF THE CHAPTER.
(Note that in the Roman Greek edition, everything from this chapter up to XXXVII is arranged in a different order: for what the Vulgate has in this chapter, the Roman Greek has in chapter XXXV. What the Vulgate has in chapter XXXV, the Roman edition has in chapter XXXII. What the Vulgate has in chapter XXXVI, the Roman edition has in chapter XXXVII. What the Vulgate has in chapter XXXII, the Roman edition has in chapter XXXV. What the Vulgate has in chapter XXXIII, the Roman edition has in chapter XXXVI. However, the Complutensian Greek agrees with the Vulgate in all things; therefore their order and arrangement is more apt and authoritative. From this gather that these sayings of Sirach were variously compiled and distributed by various editors. The same happened in the Proverbs of Solomon, where what the Vulgate has in chapter XXX,
the Roman Greek appends to chapter XXXV. What the Vulgate has in chapter XXXI about the valiant woman, the Roman Greek appends to chapter XXIX, and many other things are similarly exchanged and transposed.)
1. WAKEFULNESS FOR RICHES WILL WASTE THE FLESH, AND THOUGHT OF THEM WILL TAKE AWAY SLEEP.
For "riches" the Greek has πλούτου, that is, of wealth: and thus often in this book Sirach by "riches" understands wealth: for these make their possessors respectable; indeed honored in home, food, clothing, public office, etc. Again, for "thought" the Greek has μέριμνα, that is, care, anxiety, solicitude, about which he said in the preceding chapter, penultimate verse, that it brings on premature, that is, early and untimely old age.
Therefore he pursues the same topic here and teaches, says Jansenius, how harmful that care is to a person, especially that which is found in miserly lovers of money: inasmuch as it takes from the flesh its vigor and necessary sleep. And so the sense is: Excessive wakefulness, which is undertaken for acquiring riches, and nocturnal vigils, which are often endured on account of wealth, waste the flesh of a person, make the body withered and exhausted, and the care for acquiring riches often takes from a person the sleep necessary for life. Therefore by indicating the harm of miserly anxiety, he tacitly advises that the pursuit of riches should be moderated, and that anxious worry should be laid aside, and that we should be content with what we have, and entrust our affairs to God.
Second, Palacius takes "riches" here in a moral sense, namely the moral good, that is, uprightness and chastity. This letter, he says, as it stands, furnishes many beautiful lessons. The first is: the care of uprightness, especially of chastity, consumes the flesh and does not allow it to grow fat: for if the intense care of a good wife, how to please her husband, eats away her flesh, how much more will the care of how to please God consume it? The second is: The thought of uprightness takes away sleep: for intent thought keeps a pure heart from sleeping, and she said: "I sleep, and my heart is awake;" and another rises at midnight to confess to the Lord. But the Greek πλούτου signifies riches, not moral but physical, namely substance and wealth. Therefore the former is the literal sense. Hence the Tigurine version translates: The pursuit of riches wastes the body with decay, and anxiety about them drives away sleep; others: Keeping watch over riches wastes the flesh, and anxiety about them takes away sleep; the Syriac: Wakefulness wastes the flesh; of the rich man, and care takes away his sleep.
It is a metaphor from fire melting wax, as if to say: Just as fire melts and consumes wax, so the ever-watchful anxiety of acquiring, preserving and increasing wealth wastes (the Greek ἐκτήκει, that is, melts and consumes) the flesh, both on account of wakefulness and on account of worry. For, as Aristotle says, Ethics chapter I: "A waking animal always labors," either by sensing, or by moving, or by thinking, attending and applying itself to something; wakefulness therefore is labor; and labor consumes a person and every animal.
Mystically Rabanus says: "Wakefulness for riches is the cautious vigilance of the soul with the pursuit of virtues, which wastes the flesh; because in the elect of God it mortifies carnal pleasures. For the thought of it takes away sleep; because the intent solicitude which they have daily in the service of God drives away from them the weariness of sloth. Hence the Prophet, who felt himself progressing in the service of God and growing in love of Him, says: How I have loved Your law, O Lord! It is my meditation all the day. I will exercise myself in Your commandments, and I will consider Your ways. Pierce my flesh with Your fear; for I have feared Your judgments," Psalm CXVIII.
2. THE THOUGHT OF FOREKNOWLEDGE TURNS AWAY UNDERSTANDING, AND A SERIOUS ILLNESS MAKES THE SOUL SOBER.
First, Palacius and Lyranus judge that two things are proposed here which call a person away from sin, namely, God's foreknowledge and infirmity, as if to say: To think that God sees, indeed foreknows, and before they happen, foresees all our actions, turns the mind away from worldly things and the alluring pleasures of this life; in like manner "a serious illness" makes the soul that was luxurious and dissolute in luxury, temperate and "sober," which the wine of human prosperity had made drunk.
Second, Jansenius, as if to say: "The thought of foreknowledge," that is, the care and anxiety of the rich to foresee and provide for themselves with wealth and all things for the future throughout their entire life and their children's lives, "turns away" the mind of a person from what is right, from God and the thought of salvation, and as it were intoxicates and submerges it in riches; on the other hand "a serious illness makes the soul sober," as if to say: Anxiety therefore is worse than a serious illness, and so it is itself the greatest illness; because it makes the soul utterly intemperate and drunk, while illness makes it temperate and sober.
Third and genuinely, as if to say: "The thought of foreknowledge," that is, the anxious thoughts by which wealthy misers constantly think about the future outcomes of their merchandise and affairs, so that they may always increase their wealth, never content with the present but perpetually gaping after the future; these thoughts, I say, turn away the mind, namely from rest and sleep, of which the discourse has been treating; because they do not allow a person to rest and sleep, "and," that is, likewise or in similar fashion, "a serious illness makes the soul sober;" "sober," that is, wakeful and deprived of sleep. It is a metalepsis and catachresis; for sobriety and abstinence cause wakefulness and make the sick person sleepless. For he compares anxious thoughts, namely the worry of amassing wealth, with a serious illness, because just as the latter, so also the former drives away sleep and deprives a person of due rest, as if to say: The anxiety of the miserly is the most serious disease of the soul; because just as disease afflicts and eats away at a person and renders him sleepless, so likewise worry torments, gnaws and always keeps one wakeful.
That this is the sense is clear first from the preceding and following context, which all censure the anxiety of enriching oneself and amassing wealth; second, from the Greek, which clearly reads thus: Watchful anxiety will interrupt sleep, and a serious illness ἐκνίψει ὕπνον, that is, will wash away or digest, that is, will take away sleep; the Tigurine: Watchful anxiety prevents (Vatablus: refuses) slumber, and a serious illness takes away sleep.
For ἐκνίψει others read ἐκνήψει, that is, will make sleep sober and wakeful; because gnawing care makes a person, though wanting to sleep, wakeful, so that he is roused from sleep and wakes up a thousand times. Moreover, the Complutensian and Roman editions read ὕπνος instead of ὕπνον. For they have: Καὶ ἀρρώστημα βαρεῖα ἐκνήψει ὕπνος. Whence they translate: And sleep will digest or moderate a serious illness. By which is signified that the anxiety of the rich is a worse disease of the soul than a serious bodily illness; because sleep diminishes and alleviates the latter, which the anxious lack: for anxiety shakes sleep from the worried person, and thus gives him no rest, but continually pricks, afflicts, torments, eats away at and consumes him. Therefore of these two verses, the first and the second, this is the sense: Watchful care for acquiring wealth consumes the flesh, and thinking too intently and too anxiously about them takes away sleep; in like manner the "thought of foreknowledge" takes away sleep, by which, namely, they think about future events, so as to foresee and avert them if they are bad, or bring them about if they are good; just as a serious illness drives away sleep.
Mystically Rabanus says: "The thought of a person, which he has in the fear of God, foreknowing that all things which Sacred Scripture foretells about the future reward of the good and the coming punishment of the wicked are true, turns away the person's mind from every evil desire, so that he does not desire to possess them or to fulfill them in wicked longing, which he knows displeases his Creator. Similarly, a serious bodily illness makes the soul sober from sins. Hence elsewhere it is written: The bruise of a wound will cleanse away evils, and stripes in the more secret parts of the belly. For the bruise of a wound will cleanse away evils, because the pain of scourges washes away wickedness whether contemplated or perpetrated. By 'belly' the mind is usually understood; because just as the belly consumes food, so the mind by brooding works out its angers. Because the belly is called the mind, that doctrine is taught which is written: The lamp of the Lord is the breath of man, which searches all the secrets of the belly. As if to say: the illumination of the Divine light, when it comes into the mind of a person, illuminating it reveals to itself what, before the coming of the Holy Spirit, the mind could carry in the way of evil thoughts but could not weigh. The bruise of a wound therefore cleanses away evils, and stripes in the more secret parts of the belly; because we are struck outwardly when we silently and afflictedly recall our sins to memory, and bring before our eyes all the things we have done badly; and through what we suffer outwardly, we grieve more inwardly over what we have done. Whence it happens that amid the open wounds of the body, the secret wound of the belly cleanses us more fully; because it heals the wickedness of evil deeds, the hidden wound of sorrow. Hence Paul also says: When I am weak, then I am strong. For when he endured outwardly the scourges of persecutions, inwardly he grew in the gift of spiritual graces." Which Rabanus transcribed word for word from St. Gregory, Part III of the Pastoral Rule, Admonition 13, near the end.
3. THE RICH MAN HAS LABORED IN GATHERING HIS SUBSTANCE, AND IN HIS REST HE SHALL BE FILLED WITH HIS GOODS (the Greek has τρυφημάτων, that is, delights). THE POOR MAN HAS LABORED IN DIMINISHING HIS FOOD, AND IN THE END HE BECOMES DESTITUTE.
He taught that the condition of the rich and the poor is very unequal, as is the labor which each expends on gathering wealth; for "the rich man has labored," that is, he is accustomed to labor, "in," that is, for "the gathering of substance;" namely, to gather substance and wealth: but "the poor man" labors "in," that is, on account of, "the diminishing of food," namely on account of poverty, by which he is diminished and deprived of sustenance, as if to say: The poor man labors not so much to become rich as to sustain himself, and to prolong and extend his life by laboring; but the rich man does not labor to procure food, because he abounds in it, but to add greater wealth to what he has already collected, to become wealthy and splendid.
Again: "The rich man in his rest shall be filled with his goods," that is, the rich man, when he ceases to labor and accumulate wealth, and rests content with what he has acquired, "shall be filled with goods," that is, he will live sumptuously and splendidly, will enjoy luxury, and will enjoy his riches. But the poor man, when he wishes to rest, or is forced by old age or illness to cease from labor, will become destitute and be forced to beg. Hence the Greek has: The rich man labored in gathering money, and in his rest he is filled with his delights. The poor man labored in poverty of sustenance, and in his rest he becomes needy. So Lyranus, Jansenius and others. Second, the Tigurine version translates: The rich man labors over his heaped-up wealth, and in quiet he is occupied with his riches; the poor man labors in a slender life, and becomes destitute in quiet. Which Vatablus explains thus, as if to say: "Both the rich and the poor are wretched from excessive anxiety. For the latter, thinking about his poverty during the time of rest and sleep, is made even more so: the former is tormented by care for what he has acquired." For everything tends to signify the wretchedness of anxiety, which usually accompanies the gathering of wealth.
Finally, Palacius judges that it is signified here that the rich grow wealthy with little labor, while the poor with great labor can scarcely procure the necessities of life. He advises, he says, the poor man not to wish to become too rich, because the rich man is easily filled with goods through little labor; but the poor man, who (even diminishing his own food) wishes to grow rich, finally ends up destitute. A certain rich man, asked how he had become wealthy, answered excellently: When I was poor, I acquired riches with great labor; when I was rich, I prepared them with great ease. For a rich man prepares more wealth for himself by a single voyage to the Indies than a poor farmer in his whole lifetime. Here applies the saying: "It is easier to make ten asses from one as (that is, ten coins from one) than to make one as from half an as." The same applies in spiritual commerce, as is clear from St. Paul, the Apostles, and apostolic men, who by a single heroic act accomplished more than we do by very many. Hence "a poor man," says Varro, "is called so from a very small thing," or "from a little money" (or from scant means): a rich man, from divus (a god), who, like God, seems to need nothing."
Mystically, the rich are the fervent and zealous Saints who accumulate good works and merits: these grow very wealthy in virtues and merits with little labor; but the poor, that is, the lax and tepid, with great labor, which they undertake and which their own sloth and torpor often engenders, make little progress in holiness. Hence Rabanus says: "The just man labors," he says,
"in the gathering of spiritual substance, namely in meditating on the knowledge of the Sacred Scriptures, and in collecting the fruits of good virtues; for all of which after the end of the present life he will receive eternal rest. But on the contrary, one who is poor in knowledge and destitute of virtue labors daily in earthly desires, for which in the end he will not have an abundance of heavenly joy, but will endure the pains and sorrows of hell." Therefore St. Bernard wisely says, Sermon 4 On Advent: "True riches," he says, "are not wealth, but virtues, which the conscience carries with it, so as to be rich forever." And St. Gregory, Homily 15 on the Gospel: "Riches are deceptive," he says, "which cannot remain with us for long; they are deceptive, which do not banish the poverty of our mind; but the only true riches are those that make us rich in virtues. If therefore, brothers, you desire to be rich, love true riches."
5. HE WHO LOVES GOLD WILL NOT BE JUSTIFIED: AND HE WHO PURSUES CORRUPTION WILL BE FILLED WITH IT.
It is a meiosis, for little is said but much is meant: "Will not be justified," that is, so far from becoming just, he becomes unjust and wicked; for the desire for gold drives the miser to usury, fraud, and illicit contracts. Hence the common proverb: "A rich man is either unjust or the heir of an unjust man."
Second, "will not be justified" signifies not only the guilt of injustice but also its punishment. For to be justified in Hebrew, first, means to be or become just; second, to be pronounced, declared, judged, and acquitted as just. Therefore he who loves gold "will not be justified," that is, will not be declared just; but will be judged unjust, condemned and punished. Hence the Tigurine version translates: The lover of gold will not be regarded as innocent, that is, blameless, and consequently unpunished, but will be severely punished as guilty. For as he explains further: "And he who pursues corruption," in Greek διαφθοράν, that is, destruction — namely gold and perishable and corruptible wealth — will be filled with it. He who pursues corruptible wealth will be filled with things quickly perishing, and with them, indeed through them and before them, will shortly perish and die, so that he may be fully and completely filled with the corruption and corruptible thing that he loved with such ardor. He implies that wealth is the destruction of many, both because on account of it many are killed by thieves and others who gape after wealth; and because the labor and anxiety of acquiring, increasing and preserving wealth eats away at and consumes a person; and because wealth produces luxuries, extravagance, gluttony and drunkenness, which kill more than the sword. Hence the Tigurine version translates: And he who pursues destruction will be sated with it. So Palacius says: He who entirely loves gold, as if preferring it as an idol above all else, cannot be just while he loves it so. For no one can have two gods, and no one can serve God and mammon. And he who pursues these corruptible and consumable things will be filled with corruption and decay. For his soul will be subject to fire, and his flesh to worms for eternity. On the other hand, the soul that loves justice becomes just and is satisfied by it;
the soul that clings to the divine immortality becomes one spirit with it, and therefore is made entirely immortal. For He says: "He who believes in Me (as he ought) will not die forever," John XI, 26.
6. MANY HAVE BEEN GIVEN OVER TO FALLS ON ACCOUNT OF GOLD, AND THEIR DESTRUCTION WAS WROUGHT BY ITS BEAUTY.
First, Palacius takes "falls on account of gold" to mean the precipices of gold into which those who pursue it plunge. For gold, he says, is like a very difficult mountain with many precipices into which those who wish to seize gold with their hands tend to fall headlong; from afar one sees the summit of the mountain, where gold gleams with beautiful appearance; but while you run to obtain it, the body falls into the precipices, where you perish. Therefore gold has a beautiful appearance, but conceals many precipices into which you fall before you can enjoy the gold. Beautiful in appearance was the fruit that Adam ate; but before he ate it, he fell into the ruin of death. Thus the Parthians, after killing Marcus Crassus, the Roman general, mocked him: "You thirsted for gold, drink gold." Hence the miser is called quasi auri avidus (greedy for gold), because he is never satisfied with it, says St. Isidore, book X of the Etymologies, letter A.
Second and more plainly: "Many have been given over to falls on account of gold," that is, to falls and ruin because of gold, as the Greek has, as if to say: Many have fallen into serious harm of body and soul on account of gold. See what was said on I Timothy VI, 10. It is a hypallage. Moreover the Greek now reads thus: Many have been given over to a fall on account of gold, and their destruction happened before their very eyes,
as if to say: While seeing and living, and therefore groaning and raging, they were destroyed; for destruction and harm are felt less when someone perishes while sleeping, or secretly and unknowingly, not noticing, as when one is killed by ambush or poison; but it is felt more when someone perishes while awake, seeing and knowing both the destruction itself and its cause, namely that he himself created this evil for himself through his desire for gold. Hence the Tigurine version translates: Many have been brought to ruin on account of gold, and had their destruction prepared before their eyes; others: Many have been ruined for the sake of gold, and their destruction happened before their very faces.
Therefore Nazianzen wisely says in his Distichs: "Do not love those riches which time destroys; for whatever time has built, the same also overturns." St. Bernard adds further: "The insatiable love of riches," he says, "torments the soul far more by desire than it refreshes it by use; inasmuch as the acquisition of riches involves labor, their possession fear, and their loss is found to be full of sorrow." Aristotle, book X of the Ethics, asserts that excessive riches are harmful to contemplation, and therefore to the highest happiness. Certainly everyone experiences that rest is not slightly disturbed by them. Anacreon, having received two talents from Polycrates of Samos, and having not slept for two nights from the care of guarding or investing them, returned them to the giver, adding that "they were not worth as much to him as the trouble they had caused him." Horace beautifully says, Satire 1:
Or to lie awake half-dead with fear: and night and day To dread wicked thieves, fires, and slaves.
should be considered poison? For they strip the teeth from one person, gouge out the eyes of another, lay waste the brain of this one, pierce the vitals of that one, devour the genitals of these, flay another, and dock the tail of yet another. Do not the riches ingeniously gathered by imprudent men through the force of avarice lacerate their possessors with very many vices, deprave their lovers, while a boastful tongue wastes the mouth, envy the sight, laziness the head, gluttony the belly, lust the genitals, infamy the body, and the lack of virtues devastates the whole? O evil good, so hateful! O blessed poverty! O foolishly beloved evil! O unhappy opulence! As for the rest, a poor little skin is most rich for me, and a cheap one pleases me more than a costly one. I would certainly rather now be an ape without a tail than a peacock with a tail."
7. GOLD IS A STUMBLING BLOCK FOR THOSE WHO SACRIFICE TO IT: WOE TO THOSE WHO PURSUE IT, AND EVERY FOOL SHALL PERISH BY IT.
as if to say: Gold, which misers worship as their idol and deity, and to which they sacrifice with all their labor, thought, affection and care, is a piece of wood against which they stumble, strike, and fall into a thousand evils and death itself. Hence the Tigurine version translates: It is a stumbling block to those who sacrifice to it; woe to those who pursue it, every fool will be caught by it; others: It is a stumbling block or scandal to those who sacrifice to it, and every madman will be caught by it. For the phrase "woe to those who pursue it" is no longer in the Greek.
You ask, what is this "stumbling block"? First, Rabanus refers the "stumbling block" to the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which was a stumbling block and occasion of ruin for our first parents, Genesis III, as if to say: Just as that tree destroyed Adam and Eve, so gold destroys the greedy.
Second, Palacius thinks there is an allusion to the bronze serpent, Numbers XXI, as if to say: Just as this serpent was to those who looked at it an occasion and cause of health, so conversely gold is to the greedy an occasion of death. But this serpent was bronze, not wooden, nor a "stumbling block of wood," as is said here.
Third, more plainly, Jansenius takes the stumbling block to mean a piece of wood which, like a stone, is placed in a road to fortify, mark, or delimit the way, or for other often accidental reasons, against which travelers easily stumble just as against stones, unless they are watchful and provident. Therefore just as there is a stone of stumbling and a rock of scandal, so there is also a stumbling block of wood; such as especially the middle piece of wood supporting an open mousetrap, which the mouse entering overturns upon itself, and the trap closes, it is crushed and killed. Hence many think the name "scandal" is derived from this; for this piece of wood is a scandal, ruin and destruction to mice.
Fourth, Palacius again on a higher level thinks there is an allusion to idols, which formerly idolaters, especially the poor, made from wood, just as from bronze or gold, as is clear from Isaiah XLIV, 13 and Wisdom XIII, 11, as if to say:
Just as wooden idols were a scandal, stumbling block and ruin to idolaters, so too is gold to the miser; to the miser, I say, who imprudently, with blind desire, for it
gapes, and therefore blind to the hidden dangers of roads, robbers, thieves, etc., throws himself into peril, indeed rushes headlong, and therefore perishes and falls. For a moderate rich man, who cautiously and prudently pursues gold, will so far from perishing by it that through it he often escapes destruction and death, and indeed with gold he may buy off death and every evil. Hence there follows:
8. BLESSED IS THE RICH MAN WHO IS FOUND WITHOUT BLEMISH: AND WHO HAS NOT GONE AFTER GOLD, NOR PUT HIS HOPE IN MONEY AND TREASURES.
He has taught how harmful the desire for gold and wealth is, by which the greedy are afflicted; hence now conversely he teaches how fruitful and glorious is the contempt of wealth, to the point that it makes a rich man happy and blessed, as if to say: Blessed is the rich man, not who gapes for riches, nor who abounds in riches, nor who places his hopes in them and boasts and takes pride in them; but who lives in riches "without blemish" and blamelessly, who does not pursue gold, and puts his hope and trust not in it but in God. He, I say, is happy and blessed: first, because he is upright and blameless; for a good conscience, integrity and justice are the blessedness of this life. Second, because it is a great and rare good, and a gift of God, for a rich man not to set his heart on his riches, but to keep himself untouched, free and elevated above them, so that he rules over them as a master, not serving them as a slave. Third, because such a person, though rich in possessions, is nonetheless poor in spirit: and poverty of spirit is the perfection and first evangelical beatitude, according to the saying of Christ: "Blessed are the poor in spirit," that is, in mind and affection, "for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," Matthew V. "It is a great happiness of Christians," says St. Augustine, Sermon 28 On the Words of the Apostle, "to whom it is given to make poverty the price of the kingdom of heaven. Do not be displeased with your poverty, nothing richer can be found. Do you wish to know how wealthy it is? It buys heaven." Therefore those who are poor in spirit and by choice turn the poverty they have loved into abundance, as St. Salvian says. Fourth, because such a person heads straight for eternal blessedness in heaven, according to the promise of Christ already cited. "For blessed," says St. Isidore, book X of the Etymologies, letter B, "is said as if 'well increased,' namely from having what one wishes and suffering nothing that one does not wish. But he is truly blessed who both has all the good things he wishes and wishes nothing evil: for from these two things a person is made blessed."
Note: It was a heresy of the Pelagians that a rich man cannot keep God's commandments and be saved; and therefore that for him to be saved, he must renounce his riches and become poor, as St. Augustine reports, Epistle 106 to Paulinus, and book II On Original Sin, chapter XI. Indeed the sixth article of Pelagius, condemned at the Council of Diospolis, states: "That baptized rich persons, unless they renounce all things, if they appear to have done any good, it is not imputed to them, nor can they have
the kingdom of God." The same is clear from the booklet On Riches, falsely attributed to Pope Sixtus III, which is found in volume V of the Library of the Holy Fathers. That this is the work of some Pelagian is clear from its entire argument, which is to prove that all rich persons, even if they have numerous offspring, if they wish to be saved, are bound to renounce their riches and become poor. This was the error of Pelagius, as the doctors of Paris and Louvain rightly observed. Therefore Sirach here teaches the contrary, namely that a rich man can be blessed and saved while possessing riches, if he has three conditions.
The first is, if he lives "without blemish," that is, without a more serious and mortal sin; the Tigurine: without crime, that is, if he observes the laws of God, as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job and the like did.
The second, "who has not gone after gold:" the Tigurine: who has not pursued gold, but God and the kingdom of God, according to the saying of Christ: "Seek first the kingdom of God and His justice: and all these things will be added to you," Matthew VI, 33. Hence Palacius says: If gold comes to you by right, you do not go after it; but if you seek gold unjustly, you go after it. If I acquire gold by a gracious gift, by hereditary right, by a just trade, the gold comes to me; but if I seek it by fair means and foul, if for its sake I violate sacred things and divine matters, or transgress the laws of the Church, I go after gold; because I set gold before me as the guide of my way and life, and follow after it with all my love, affection and effort as a slave. Thus the Jews were said to go after foreign gods when, abandoning God, they worshipped them; in like manner the miser, when he worships gold as an idol, goes after it. If I embrace gold that comes lawfully, I do not sin; but if I seek gold by illicit means, plainly while fleeing I pursue gold; and therefore I become wretched, I who wished to be happy by seeking it, says Palacius.
The third: "Nor put his hope in money and treasures." This follows from the second; for he who, abounding in riches, does not set his heart on them, but turns the eyes of his mind away from them toward God, does not hope in them; but he hopes in them who, almost forgetful of God, places his heart, and consequently his hope, in gold. For such a person hopes that through gold he will overcome all the inconveniences of this life and obtain all its advantages, namely honors, a large household, a splendid table, the friendship of princes, victory over enemies, etc. Hence, second, by metalepsis you may explain it thus: "Nor has he hoped," that is, nor has he been proud, not exalted himself, not boasted and shown off, "in money and treasures." For the hope of great things puffs up the soul to be proud and to boast and show off. And, as St. Augustine says, Sermon 3 On the Words of the Lord: "Pride is the worm of riches;" for just as a worm grows in fruit, so pride grows in gold. Hence Christ threatens the rich with "Woe," that is, eternal damnation, Luke VI, 24. And Abraham gives the reason why the rich man feasting is in hell, saying: "Son, remember that you received good things in your life," Luke
XVI, 25. Finally Christ, Matthew XIX, 24: "It is easier," He says, "for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." Therefore St. Paul warns the rich not to hope in the uncertainty of their riches, I Timothy VI. And St. Bernard, Epistle 103: "Blessed," he says, "is he who has not gone after those things which burden when possessed, stain when loved, and torment when lost." Where in few words he summarizes three evils of wealth.
Origen notes, book I on Job, that it says: "Who has not gone after gold," but not after sheep, after cattle, after fields, as if to say: The rich man who has not gone after gold is the one who has placed his riches in livestock and the fruits of the earth, not in heaps of gold and silver; although he does not deny that he also has not gone after gold who, when he has it, does not greedily cling to it, but generously distributes it to the poor. For formerly the simple and innocent wealth of the ancients consisted in sheep, oxen, and fields, which by cultivating through their own labor they procured just sustenance for themselves and their families; as Job did, I, 3, and Abraham and Lot, Genesis XIII, 5. Innocence therefore gave birth to agriculture, but avarice to treasures of gold and silver; although even in fields and livestock there can be excess and an excessive desire to increase them, which therefore the rich man who desires to be holy and blessed cuts away from himself; as Job, Abraham, and the other Patriarchs cut it away. Therefore under "gold" understand sheep, oxen, fields, and whatever is valuable in terms of gold.
Mystically, blessed is the rich man, that is, the holy man who (as St. Ambrose says) is rich before God, who cultivates virtue and holiness, who labors like a merchant to acquire virtues, who pursues riches that will never perish, who hopes not in his own merits but in those of Christ. This rich man is then blessed when he is without blemish, that is, when he washes away even the light stains of venial sins and avoids them as much as he can. But the blessed man and the tranquil man are one and the same; therefore light stains that impair blessedness will also disturb tranquility. The holy man will therefore avoid them for his own benefit, so as to remain and persist in blessedness and tranquility.
9. WHO IS THIS, AND WE SHALL PRAISE (the Greek has ΜΑΚΑΡΙΟΥΜΕΝ, that is, we shall call blessed, we shall declare blessed, we shall proclaim blessed) HIM? FOR HE HAS DONE WONDERFUL THINGS IN HIS LIFE.
The Greek has: in his people: because rarely is a rich man without the stain of injustice, pride, gluttony, etc.; more rarely is one found who is content with gold that comes to him; most rarely of all, one who does not hope in it and turns his mind away from it; therefore, as about a rare, wonderful, and extraordinary thing he says: "Who is this, and we shall praise him?" as if to say: Such people are few and rare, but great, extraordinary, and admirable. "For he has done wonderful things in his life." For the first wonderful thing, almost a miracle, is that contrary to the common sense and custom of mankind he does not love riches inordinately; but in seeking, increasing, and preserving them he keeps his conscience without blemish, untouched and whole: for riches are the enticements of ambition, pride, gluttony, anger, and other vices: hence many rich people are proud, extravagant, irascible, domineering; while the poor are humble, frugal, gentle, submissive. "Why not," says St. Bernard, On Conversion to Clerics, chapter XXX, "should chastity be endangered in luxuries, humility in riches, piety in business, truth in much speaking, charity in this wicked world?" The same, book II On Consideration, chapter XII: "Great is he who, falling into adversity, has not fallen from wisdom or has fallen little from it: nor is he lesser for whom present prosperity, if it has smiled, has not mocked. Although you will more easily find those who retained wisdom when fortune was adverse, than those who did not lose it when it was favorable.
The second miracle is that he did not go after gold, but gold went after him. For just as a shadow follows a body, so honor follows the one who flees it, and wealth follows the one who despises it. To think little of gold, therefore, while you have it, is the mark of a great and admirable soul. Such a person is richer than any rich man who swims in gold and is never satisfied by it.
Seneca says excellently, book II On Poverty: "No one," he says, "is worthy of God unless he despises riches; this is what riches do: they puff up minds, beget pride and arrogance, attract envy, to the point of so alienating the mind that the fame of money delights us, even when it is going to harm us." And in Epistle 88, speaking against the Peripatetics, he shows that riches are evil. Therefore, in Epistle 20, he says: "Great is he who is poor amidst riches; but more secure is he who lacks riches: for riches do not even make a person good, let alone rich; because they do not extinguish avarice. But true riches are a poverty composed according to the law of nature, which alone extinguishes avarice: for it is not he who has little, but he who desires more, who is poor; for each person lacks as much as he desires: therefore the shortest road to riches is through contempt of riches." And Epicurus was accustomed to say: "If you live according to nature, you will never be poor; if according to opinion, you will never be rich: for nature desires little, opinion desires the immense." Furthermore, Boethius showed that riches are not good, book II of the Consolation, from the fact that they shine only when we distribute them; not when we accumulate them. Moreover, whoever accumulates and magnifies riches acts against nature in multiple ways: first, because nature has placed beneath our feet those things that are earthly and come from the earth: but we venerate them like idols and place them above our heads. Furthermore, because true riches were made common by nature; but by hoarding them, we strive to make them our own, and take from the needy what is common to all, contrary to nature. Moreover, whoever is engaged in accumulating riches, frequently driven by desire, does violence to their possessors. Finally, they use violence: because we are said to do violence to something when we prevent it from reaching its end: just as we do violence to heavy objects when we prevent them from tending toward the center:
but the end of riches and money is their use and distribution; when therefore we hoard them, we prevent them from reaching their end, and therefore we do violence to them. For this reason Aristotle, in Ethics I, Nicomachean III, said that the supreme good is not placed in riches, because a life devoted to money
βιαία τίς ἐστιν, that is, in a certain way it does violence, or is violent: and it is called violent for various reasons, as I have explained, and especially the last. Finally, it is the saying of Pindar: "Blessed is he who possesses both wealth and wisdom."
St. Gregory Nazianzen divinely teaches that true riches, delights and honors do not consist in their pursuit but in their contempt. This seems paradoxical, but in reality this is how things are. Hence praising monks he says: Their "riches are in poverty, their possession in pilgrimage, their glory in contempt, their power in weakness, their fruitfulness in celibacy (indeed those offspring are more excellent which exist according to God than those which derive their origin from the flesh): who count not pursuing pleasures as pleasure, who are humble for the sake of the heavenly kingdom, who have nothing in the world and exist above the world, who even in the flesh live outside the flesh, who have the Lord as their portion, who labor in poverty for the kingdom, and reign through their poverty." True riches therefore are poverty, true glory is inglorious.
The third miracle is that he does not hope in his money, as the world does, but in the living and true God: and therefore, for God's cause and love, he uses his gold for God's glory, feeding the poor, religious, ministers of God, sacred places, etc.
Two other marvels follow, about which he says: "Who has been tested," etc. "Such riches (says Origen, book I on Job) that praiseworthy Job had — chaste, clean, undefiled, uncontaminated. For about him and those like him it was said forever: Blessed is the rich man found just, who has not walked after gold, nor hoped in the hoarding of silver. For it is truly an inestimable and eternal blessedness that, when someone has become rich, he does not trust in gold, nor fix his attention on the hoarding of silver, but stores these things according to the commandment of the Most High, and gives alms to the poor, but sows and joyfully scatters them through the souls of the wretched, and through the mouths of the hungry, or through the mouths of the weak, through the destitute and miserable, according to what was said: Sow for yourselves unto justice, that you may reap the fruit of life," Hosea X, 12. Origen shows that holy Job did this, from his chapter XXXI.
10. HE WHO HAS BEEN TESTED IN IT (gold), AND IS FOUND PERFECT, SHALL HAVE ETERNAL GLORY.
Some read more forcefully: it shall be to him for eternal glory. See Franciscus Lucas here, annotation 274. The Greek has ἔσω or, as others read, ἔσαι εἰς καύχημα, that is, it shall be, or let it be for glorying, so that God, the Angels, and the just rich man himself may glory in him. "He is perfect," because trial and testing make one who is constant in it perfect. So the Roman Latin and Greek texts. Many add: he has been found perfect; the Tigurine: discovered to be upright; because the real words of the Hebrews are often to be explained by verbal or mental expressions, so that a thing is said to be such when it is discovered or declared to be such, as I showed at Jeremiah I, 10. So here he is called perfect who through the testing of gold is found to be perfect.
HE WHO COULD HAVE TRANSGRESSED, AND HAS NOT TRANSGRESSED; COULD HAVE DONE EVIL, AND HAS NOT DONE IT. — More forcefully (though the sense is the same), manuscript codices read these words and the preceding verse as a question, and therefore for "who" they read "who?" For the Greek in these three verses has τίς, that is, who?; hence they translate thus: Who has been tested by it, and has stood perfect, and let this be his glory? Who could have transgressed, and has not transgressed? and could have done evil, and has not done it? The Tigurine: Who has been tested by it and found upright? Let him be a specimen of glory. Who could have sinned, who has not sinned? Who could have acted wickedly, who has not acted wickedly? as if to say: Rare is the rich man whose virtue, tested by gold, is found whole and perfect: therefore whoever he is, he is worthy of eternal glory before God and men. Rare is he who, having not only by free will but much more by riches the enticements to every sin, and being able to transgress all laws with impunity, has nevertheless transgressed none. Hence riches are called in Greek δυνάμεις, that is, powers, potencies; and in Latin facultates,
because they provide the ability, power, and strength both for virtues and for any vices, depending on whether the rich person chooses to use them for one or the other. For as the saying goes: "Gold is the magnet of the human heart." The fourth wonderful thing, therefore, and almost a miracle, is that the rich man, tested by gold, was found perfect. Abraham was tested and tried whether he loved his son more than God: Job was tested and tried by calamities, whether on account of them he would curse God; so too the rich man is filled with riches for this purpose, to be tested whether he is captivated by trust in and love of them. It is wonderful for a young man to dwell among beautiful maidens and not be charmed by their beauty. It is likewise wonderful to dwell among gleaming coins and not be captured by their brilliance. Riches are called "a lie," they are called "the deceitfulness of riches," they are called "false vanities," they are called "the bewitching of trifles." How wonderful, therefore, to be held long among lies and not be deceived by them! To touch pitch and not be stained! The other miracle is to have been able to transgress and not to have transgressed. For the poor man can often wish to sin: but the ability is not so readily at hand. But the rich man, who can do as he wishes, and who always has the means of sinning at hand, if he never commits a crime, is that not wonderful?
Note first, that riches are a temptation and trial, as is also a beautiful woman. Whoever therefore desires to become rich desires to expose himself to danger; would that he not perish in it!
Note second, that the rich man is perfect if he lives blamelessly; for how can one be imperfect in such great
license to sin and not sin?
Note third, that riches are a power, force and faculty for sinning; they are also for doing good; but our wretchedness causes us to misuse them rather for evil. So says Palacius.
Hugo says elegantly, drawing from Rabanus and St. Bernard: "Truly voluntary poverty is a kind of martyrdom. For what is more wonderful, or what martyrdom is harder, than to hunger amid feasts, to freeze amid garments, to be pressed by poverty amid riches, which the world displays, which the evil one offers, which our appetite desires? It is wonderful to touch fire and not be burned: to gather thorns and not be pricked: to carry stones and not be injured. And riches are fire, and thorns, and stones." Therefore the Philosopher truly says: "What fire is to gold, gold is to man;" because just as fire tests the purity of gold, so gold tests the purity of the heart.
In Maximus the monk are found these sayings of the wise, Sermon 12: Xenophon's: "Poverty is in itself a learned philosophy; for what the one urges by word, the other compels by deed. Opulence is the covering of many evils;" Menander's: "Blessed is he who has both wealth and sense. For he uses them honestly and as befits;" Democritus's: "Many rich men are stewards, not masters of their money;" Isocrates's: "Be content with the present, and seek the future;" Demonax's:
There are some who do not live in this present life, but prepare with great zeal as if they were going to live another life, not this present one;
Philisthion's: "Even if you were master of ten thousand cubits of land, when dead you will be of only three or four."
HE SHALL HAVE ETERNAL GLORY: — because he has looked up to this, and for its sake has despised temporal wealth and glory. But how great is this reward? Who would not desire it, and for its sake despise all earthly and perishable things? For what is eternity and how great is eternal glory? "Eternity," says Richard of St. Victor, in his book On Eternity, "is a duration without beginning and without end, lacking all mutability." And Gilbert de la Porrée: "Eternity is one singular and individual, simple and solitary duration, in which there is neither comparison nor collection." Hence Boethius, book V of the Consolation, prose VI: "The Now (a moment or point of duration), standing still, not moving, makes itself eternity. Eternity therefore is the whole, simultaneous and perfect possession of interminable life." And St. Anselm: "Eternity belongs to that reality which is nothing other than itself, an immutable being without parts," as if to say: Eternity is the duration of God, just as aeviternity is the duration of Angels, who have a beginning but lack an end, while God lacks both beginning and end. Hence Albert the Great in his Summa, Part I, Treatise V, Question XXIII: "Eternity," he says, "is derived from ex or extra and terminus; because, namely, it is placed beyond any limit," as if to say: exterminitas or interminitas. For eternity is an interminable age, lacking all end and limit.
Others derive the name of eternity from the Greek ἀεί, that is, "always," so that eternity would be the same as sempiternity. Others derive it from "aether;" for in the aether and in heaven all things are eternal, while under the sun all things are temporal. Better still, the grammarians say: Eternity is said as if aviternitas; for aevum (age) is derived from the Greek αἰών, as if ἀεὶ ὤν, that is, always existing; and such is eternity. Hence Varro, book V: "Aevum (age)," he says, "is derived from the age of all years; hence æviternum, which has been made eternal: Chrysippus says this is αἰῶνα." And Isidore, book VII of the Etymologies, chapter I: "He is eternal (God), because
He is without time. For He has neither beginning nor end. Hence also sempiternal, because He is always eternal. By some, however, He is believed to be called eternal from aether, since heaven is considered His seat. Hence the saying: The heaven of heavens is the Lord's. And these four things signify one and the same thing; for it is one and the same thing to say that God is eternal, or immortal, or incorruptible, or immutable." Yet by reason the prior attribute is to be immutable; because God is immutable, hence He is immortal and eternal.
Finally, St. Augustine piously and learnedly describes eternity and compares it with time, book XI of the Confessions, chapter XI: "O wisdom of God, light of minds, they do not yet understand how the things that are made through You and in You come to be, and they try to savor eternal things; but still their heart flutters in the past and future movements of things, and is still vain. Who will hold it and fix it, so that it may stand still for a little while, and for a little while seize the splendor of the ever-standing eternity, and compare it with the times that never stand still, and see that it is incomparable; and see that a long time does not become long except from many passing movements which cannot be extended simultaneously; but that nothing passes in the eternal, but the whole is present? And see that all the past is driven on by the future, and all the future follows from the past; and all the past and future are created and flow forth from that which is always present? Who will hold the heart of man, so that it may stand and see how the ever-standing eternity dictates future and past times, being itself neither future nor past?" And again, chapter XIII: "Your years neither go nor come; but these years of ours both go and come, so that all may come. All Your years stand at once, because they stand; nor are those going excluded by those coming, because they do not pass; but all these years of ours will be, when they all will be no more. Your years are one day, and Your day is not daily, but today; because Your today does not give way to tomorrow, nor does it succeed yesterday. Your today is eternity; therefore You begot the Co-eternal One, to whom You said: Today I have begotten You."
11. THEREFORE HIS GOODS ARE ESTABLISHED IN THE LORD, AND ALL THE ASSEMBLY OF SAINTS SHALL DECLARE HIS ALMS.
as if to say: Therefore he will receive from God a stable and eternal glory, and from men, especially the faithful and saints, everlasting praise. For he contrasts the Church, that is, the assembly of Saints, with the assembly of the impious, who praise the rich — not the just, sober, and God-fearing, but the unjust, rapacious, gluttonous, and prodigal, so that they may enjoy their wealth. The phrase "in the Lord" means the same as "from the Lord," "with the Lord," "through the Lord," in the mind, memory, reward, appointment and decree of the Lord. Yet he says more forcefully "in the Lord" than "from the Lord," as if to say: In the very treasures of the Lord, in His very vaults, indeed in the very heart of God, these goods of the charitable rich man are kept safely, stably and faithfully. The Greek concisely reads: His goods shall be established
of him, and the Church shall declare his alms. The Hebrews call almsgiving חסד chesed, that is, piety, namely a pious work by which wealth and labor are bestowed on the poor, religious, churches and other pious causes: just as St. Gregory distributed all the wealth of the Church to the poor of Italy, indeed of the whole world. So also St. Bernard, Epistle 95, citing this saying of Sirach, recounts and celebrates the alms of the Archbishop of York.
Note: The phrase "his goods are established," or as the Greek has, "shall be established," can be taken in two ways: first, of the stability, that is, the eternity of the glory prepared for him by God in heaven, as if to say: His good works are stably preserved with God, so that after the death of Christ He may reward them with stable, indeed eternal glory. Hence the Tigurine translates: For the virtues of this man (they seem to have read ἀρεταί for ἀγαθά) shall be firmly established; and the assembly of Saints shall proclaim his good deeds; others: His good deeds shall be firm, and the Church shall recount his acts of mercy.
Second, of the stability of goods, that is, of wealth, as if to say: The goods, that is, the wealth of the rich man, shall be made stable through his holiness and almsgiving, that is, God will make them firm and stable for him: just as conversely He takes away wealth from the unjust and impious, according to the saying:
The third heir does not enjoy ill-gotten gains.
Hence learn morally here that alms and justice stabilize the wealth of the rich; while tenacity and injustice weaken, undermine, and remove it. Wise merchants know this, who insure their merchandise, ships, and profits through almsgiving and pious works. St. Paul teaches the same, II Corinthians IX: "God is able," he says, "to make all grace abound in you: so that in all things always having all sufficiency, you may abound in every good work." And shortly after: "And He who supplies seed to the sower will both provide bread for eating and will multiply your seed (of wealth and almsgiving) and increase the fruits of your justice."
Third, Palacius takes "goods" here in every sense; for he explains the first part thus, as if to say: If the rich man does not transgress, his goods will be established, namely both temporal and spiritual goods. For just as Abraham, tested regarding his son, did not lose him but received him more securely: so the rich man, tested in his riches and blameless in them, does not lose them but establishes them. For almsgiving makes intercession against all evil — therefore it will intercede so that your spiritual and temporal goods do not slip away from you, but are made stable.
In the second part the Author teaches us many things: first, that the proper function of a holy rich man is to give alms, so that it is wonderful that the rich man causes his riches to flow continually from himself; while God makes them stable, and as it were leads the waters of the Jordan back to their channel; second, we are taught that the alms of a pious rich man do not reach only one or another person; but the whole Church, which praises the benefits conferred upon it: therefore, if possible, let alms reach all,
let the alms of the rich man reach all, just as God rains upon all; third, the Author teaches that alms should especially be given to the saints: "Let the Church of saints praise," he says, just as God confers His benefits especially upon the pious; fourth, he teaches what is the duty of the one who receives a benefit, namely, to praise and recount the benefit received. So says Palacius.
An illustrious example is found in St. Gregory Nazianzen, who in Oration 19, on the funeral of his father, which the whole Church attended, celebrates the generous alms both of his father and of his mother: "Who," he says, "was more compassionate in soul toward the poor — that is, toward a nature endowed with equal honor — or more generous of hand? For thus without doubt, regarding his own goods as if he were the steward of another's property, he relieved the poverty of the poor as much as he could; spending not only what was superfluous, but also what was necessary, which is the clearest proof of a man most lovingly disposed toward the poor." In harmony with this are the things he adds about his mother Nonna: "For doing good to all," he says, "she was so eager and ready that she could never be satisfied in this regard, who in the end considered not only all her wealth, which she either had at first or afterward acquired, to be less than her desire, but would have promptly and willingly sold even herself, if it were possible, and her children, as I often heard from her, so that the proceeds might be spent for the needs of the poor." Many examples of this kind exist, as of St. Martin in Sulpitius, of Paula the Roman in St. Jerome, Epistle 27, of St. Paulinus in St. Gregory, book III of the Dialogues, of St. Benedict, John of Alexandria, and others.
St. Ambrose says excellently, book II of the Offices, chapter XXVIII: "This is the greatest incentive to mercy, that we should sympathize with the calamities of others, help the needs of others as much as we can, and sometimes more than we can; for it is better to provide the grounds for mercy or to endure envy than to pretend severity." Ambrose both said and did this; for he ordered all his own possessions and the sacred vessels of the Church to be melted down and distributed to the needy.
"All the Church" — that is, all the faithful of the Church, indeed all parts of the Church, as if to say: He generously gives alms to all; therefore by all he will be celebrated as generous. What then is this "Church," if not the churches they build and adorn? the monasteries and hospitals they found? the Religious they support? the widows, orphans and wards they care for? the sick they visit and tenderly assist? the naked they clothe? the hungry they feed? and all the needy they help? For their house and fortune is like the bosom of Abraham on earth, where all the poor find their rest.
SECOND PART OF THE CHAPTER — GIVING TABLE PRECEPTS.
12. HAVE YOU SAT DOWN AT A GREAT TABLE? DO NOT BE THE FIRST TO OPEN YOUR MOUTH OVER IT.
He passes from riches to luxuries, as things akin and neighboring; for from riches one proceeds to luxuries. Just as therefore until now he has taught that the appetite for riches must be moderated: so now he teaches that the desire for luxuries must be restrained through temperance; for intemperance harms health, propriety, reputation and conscience. First, therefore, he gives this precept of propriety and temperance to be observed at table, saying: "At (that is, beside, near) a great table," that is, a magnificent and splendid one, "have you sat down? Do not be the first to open your mouth over it," so as to display your gluttony with gaping throat, by which from an ungovernable craving for food and delicacies you immediately before the others, even your seniors and betters, fall headlong upon the dishes, snatch the food, carve it, tear it and throw it into your gaping jaws: for this is both unseemly, immodest, uncivil, and boorish; and a sign of an intemperate soul and of gluttony; but wait until he who presides at the table, or those more worthy than you, unfold the napkins, divide the food, and distribute to you your portion.
For the order of propriety, reverence for elders, and temperance in food require that you show yourself to be master of your gluttony, to reverence your elders, and to observe proper de-
corum. Understand these things, unless you yourself are the presider or the most worthy at the table: the word "open your mouth" therefore denotes gluttony; while "first" denotes the pride of the guest. Now the word "first" is not in the Greek; for the Complutensian edition reads: When you have sat at a great table, do not open your throat over it. Therefore eat in such a way that you suppress your greediness, do not lose your serenity, restrain your hunger; eat in such a way that by the very speed and haste of eating the mind is not distracted, nor entirely occupied with the dishes, but gives part of its attention to reading or pious reflection; eat in such a way that those standing by notice nothing immoderate in you, see nothing base, observe nothing sordid; eat in such a way that you are mindful of your guardian, namely your guardian Angel in attendance, and of the presence of God.
Mystically Rabanus says: "He teaches us to be provident and cautious in the meditation of God's law. The great table is the abundance of the divine Scriptures; sitting at which we should not be bold, so as to rashly seize anything without a teacher or guide; but rather, following the well-trodden life of the Saints and instructed by their teachings, we should hold to the rule of truth." Again, St. Augustine, Sermon 45 On the Saints, reads thus: "Have you sat at a great table?
know that you ought to prepare such things." And he applies this to the Martyrs: "What is the great table," he says, "except that from which we receive the Body and Blood of Christ? What does 'know that you ought to prepare such things' mean, except what the Blessed John explains, Epistle I, chapter III: As Christ laid down His life for us, so we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. In the same way you may mystically apply the other precepts about the table that follow to the spiritual table of the Eucharist, of doctrine, and of Sacred Scripture: although it is more likely that St. Augustine in the cited passage is rather quoting Proverbs chapter XXIII, verses 1 and 2, according to the Septuagint: for there the phrase 'know that you ought to prepare such things' is found; which is not mentioned here at all.
13 and 14. DO NOT SAY: THERE ARE MANY THINGS UPON IT: REMEMBER THAT AN EVIL EYE IS WICKED.
So it is to be read with the Roman and Greek editions. Therefore Rabanus and Dionysius wrongly read simulata ("feigned") instead of sic multa, and explain it thus, as if to say: Do not speak disparagingly of the host and the banquet: What is set on the table here is feigned and fictitious; not genuine and costly as they pretend to be, for example, the pheasants and swans displayed here are not real but fake: the meat pies, which are boasted to be of boar or venison, are really of pork or beef, etc. Mystically: do not say that some things in Sacred Scripture are fictitious, false, or doubtful.
Again Lyranus and others commonly misread si instead of sic; which first Lyranus explains thus, as if to say: If many dishes are set on the table, beware lest you murmur and blame the host for luxury and ostentation, because he has set too magnificent a table, but rather accept with a grateful and modest spirit what is set before you.
Second, Palacius, reading as a question: "Are there many things upon it?" explains it thus, as if to say: When you sit at the table, do not ask whether many foods are to be placed on the table? Remember that the eye of your host, which is irritable even at a banquet, will be ill-disposed and will be irritated against you as a boor who does not know how to use little; for nothing has been created more tender, more irritable, or more impatient than the eye, and therefore "it will weep from its face," that is, from its gaze, when it sees you asking whether there are many foods, when perhaps he has few. Do not therefore ask whether the foods are many, lest you irritate an eye already irritable in itself, and compel to weep him whom you ought to have cheered. So says Palacius.
Third, better still, Jansenius explains the word si as siquidem ("indeed"), so that it would be a confirmatory particle corresponding to the enclitic γε, which is in the Greek, as if to say: Do not say: Indeed there are many things upon it, therefore I must eat much. But instead of si, one should read sic with the Roman edition. The Greek agrees, which reads thus: Do not say: Many indeed are the things upon it; supply: Therefore I will devour much and stuff myself with them. For the preceding and following words pertain to gluttony and voracity. Hence the Tigurine version, connecting this verse to the preceding one, clearly translates,
if you have reclined at a magnificent table, do not gape at it with your jaws, saying that many things have been set before you; but remember how evil a wicked eye is, as if to say: If the multitude of dishes entices you to voracity, suppress it by the memory of disgrace and envy. For "a wicked eye" is the eye of the miser and the envious person, according to chapter XIV, verse 8: "The eye of the envious is wicked." For the miser grieves when he sees and envies his guests eating and consuming much of his dishes, or carving and dividing them, which he would want to keep whole and untouched, so that from them he might set other banquets for new guests. For misers often serve the same dishes to various guests, to display their magnificence, and therefore leave them untouched, so as to preserve them whole for other banquets. See what was said at chapter XIV, verse 8. Exaggerating this envy and jealousy of the miser, he adds: "More wicked than the eye," etc. Lyranus takes this differently, applying it to the eye of the glutton; for this is bad and wicked: "For it is greater," he says, "than the stomach; because it frequently desires more than the stomach can receive." So children's eyes are bigger than their stomachs; because they want to have everything they see.
15. WHAT HAS BEEN CREATED MORE WICKED THAN THE (evil and envious) EYE? THEREFORE IT WILL WEEP AT EVERY SIGHT, WHEN IT SEES.
Some again with Lyranus explain this as about gluttony, as if to say: Gluttony should not be indulged, because the eye, that is, the desire of the soul, which is excited by the sight and appearance of pleasant and delightful things (whence we say "to cast the eyes of desire upon something") is depraved, and once aroused cannot easily be restrained and suppressed again. "It will weep at every face," that is, it will bear it ill if the dishes are prepared less delicately than appetite desires: therefore restrain the eye to restrain the palate. Here our Pineda agrees, Ecclesiastes chapter II, verse 10, number 4, who explains thus: "What has been created more wicked than the eye? Therefore it will weep at every sight, when it sees," as if to say: Whatever strikes the face and the eyes immediately demands the heart, and the eyes are consumed; unless you immediately grant it, they grieve heavily and continually weep. But since it cannot be in human affairs that it is as easy to obtain what you see as to look at it, it is necessary (as Diogenes elegantly said, quoted by Dio Chrysostom, Oration 4 On Kingship), "that he who is agitated by various desires more frequently and constantly both rejoices and suffers distresses than hunters who have caught or lost their prey." Others better understand this of envy and avarice. Hence Jansenius, reading sic for sua, explains it thus, as if to say: Among created things nothing is worse than an evil and envious eye; and therefore because of its great malice it will even shed tears, and will be severely tormented at every sight you present to it. But all other codices, even those corrected at Rome, read sua not tua. Moreover the Greek has neither word; and for "face" reads πρόσωπον, which means both person and face. Hence Hugo explains it thus, as if to say: "At every
face," that is, before all men and Angels, "he will weep" on the day of judgment. Others more genuinely, as if to say: The eye of the miser who sees and envies his guests consuming much of his provisions weeps and is tormented by any person whatsoever, even the most beloved, and by every face of his guest. For if he sees the guest abstaining and sad, he is afflicted by this sadness: but if he sees him eating generously and cheerfully, he is tormented by avarice and envy. Hence the Tigurine translates: for what has been created more wicked than the eye? since for whatever reason (Vatablus: over anything offered; others: in every way) it weeps.
This sense can easily be fitted to our Latin Vulgate. For "face" here, as often elsewhere, is not taken actively, as belonging to the miserly host who looks; but passively, as belonging to the guests who are looked at by the host. And consequently the pronoun "his" is also taken not actively but passively: "his" therefore means what is set before him, what strikes his face and his envious eyes, what tortures his avarice, as if to say: The miser, the envious man, is tormented by every face of the guests set before him; for every appearance of things strikes and tortures his avarice and envy. So in Leviticus XIII, 55 and Numbers XI, 6, it says: "If the leprosy has changed עינו eno, that is, "its eye, or its face;" that is, as our Vulgate translates, "its color." It is a metonymy; for the faculty is taken for the object, namely the eye for the color that is seen by the eye. St. Ambrose provides a humorous example, in his book On Naboth, chapter IV: "I discovered a man's trustworthiness," he says, "when an egg was set before him, he would complain that a chick had been killed; for he would say: a chick could have been hatched.
Second, "face" can be taken properly and actively, as belonging to the miser himself who looks, as if to say: The miser, by envy and grief, while he sees much of his being consumed, is so tormented and grieved that he sheds copious tears which irrigate his entire, that is, his whole face. The miser is utterly saddened when he has seen his guests rejoicing and eating pleasantly. Or "at every face of his," that is, at every turning of his face, that is, wherever he turns his face, he is tormented and weeps when he sees his things and those dear to him being consumed. This sense amounts to nearly the same as the previous one. And the Roman-corrected Greek texts indicate that this last is the genuine sense, which for what follows: "When he sees, do not stretch out your hand," read: Wherever he looks (although the Complutensian reads: wherever you look), do not stretch out your hand, as if to say: To whatever dish he turns his face, and whatever he inspects more intently, take care that you do not touch, carve, or divide it; because this gaze is a sign that he loves it above the rest; for where the eye is, there also is the heart and the love: therefore he will grieve that it is eaten and snatched from him, and so he will be tormented and will weep.
Note here: The phrase "when he sees" most Bibles, following Rabanus, Lyranus, Hugo and Dionysius, join with "he will weep at every face;" the Greek
however, and some manuscripts, which Franciscus Lucas cites in his Notes on this passage, with Jansenius refer it to what follows: "Do not stretch out your hand." But the Bibles corrected at Rome indicate that it can be referred to either; for they read and punctuate these two verses thus: What has been created more wicked than the eye? Therefore at every sight it will weep, when it sees, do not stretch out your hand first. Whence it is clear that "when it sees" can be referred both to "it will weep" and to "do not stretch out," according to the senses already given.
Morally, learn here how wicked the eye of the miser is, that is, malicious, envious, and spiteful. St. John Chrysostom graphically depicts the same thing, Homily 10 on I Corinthians: "And what," he says, "is more shameless than those eyes? What more impudent? Do not look at his face and eyes thinking they are a man's: for human eyes do not look that way. The miser does not look at people as people, does not look at the sky as the sky, nor does he look up to the Lord; but thinks everything is money. Human eyes are accustomed to look upon afflicted people and to grieve and feel compassion; but these robbers see the poor and are made savage. Human eyes do not look upon others' things as if they were their own, but even their own things as if they belonged to others, and do not desire what has been given to others, but pour out their own things upon others as well: but these cannot bear it unless they have seized the goods of all; for they have not a human, but a bestial sight. Human eyes cannot bear to see their own body naked; for what pertains to the person is theirs, even if it belongs to others; but these are never satisfied unless they have stripped everyone bare and stored everything at home: indeed they are never filled." The same, Homily 64 on John: "Avarice," he says, "is a serious disease; it blinds the eyes and stops the ears, and makes people more savage than any beast." Moreover, that avarice is envious and envy is avaricious, I will show shortly at Proverbs XXVIII, 22.
Finally, to the question "what has been created more wicked than the eye?" belongs the problem about the best and worst, proposed by Rabbi Yochanan to his five disciples. For he asked: "What thing seems to you the best?" First, Rabbi Eliezer, the son of Hyrcanus, answered: "A good eye;" second, Rabbi Joshua said: "A good companion;" third, Rabbi Joseph said: "A faithful neighbor;" fourth, Rabbi Simeon judged that nothing is more beneficial to a person than "to consider the outcome of a matter;" fifth, Rabbi Eliezer, the son of Arach: "To me," he said, "the best thing seems to be a good heart;" and the master Rabbi Yochanan gave the palm to this one. Then he asked the same question: "What thing seems to you the worst, and most to be avoided?" First, Rabbi Eliezer, son of Hyrcanus, answered: "A wicked eye is the worst thing, or certainly the messenger of the worst thing;" second, Rabbi Joshua: "I judge," he said, "that what is attributed to the wicked eye should be attributed to a treacherous companion;" third, Rabbi Joseph declared "an unfaithful neighbor the worst thing;" fourth, Rabbi Si-
meon asserted: "The worst thing is not to repay a loan when you have received it," according to the Psalm: "The sinner shall borrow and not repay; but the just man shows mercy and gives;" fifth, Rabbi Eliezer, son of Arach: "The worst thing," he said, "is a wicked and depraved heart." Agreeing with him, the master Rabbi Yochanan said: "Eliezer has hit the nail on the head; for whatever the others have said, he has encompassed as briefly as wisely." So it is reported in the Pirke Avoth, that is, in the Sayings of the Hebrew Fathers, chapter II. In the same place Rabbi Joshua says: "A wicked eye, perverse thinking, and hatred conceived against others lead a person to destruction." This is the second table precept or admonition; the third follows:
16. DO NOT STRETCH OUT YOUR HAND FIRST, AND (that is, lest) STAINED WITH ENVY YOU BE PUT TO SHAME.
He commanded that no one should first, like a wolf, open his jaws over the dishes; here consequently he commands that no one should first stretch out his hand to them: for the latter usually follows from the former, just as external gluttony follows from internal (whose sign is a gaping throat). He adds the reason: Lest you arouse and provoke against yourself the avarice and envy of the miserly and envious host, by which he may mark and stain you with some disgrace; namely, by striking you with his gaze, or lashing you with words as a glutton, shameless, bold, common, etc., and therefore you may be embarrassed and blush before the other guests. Here applies that saying of the Comedian: "It befits the one who feeds at another's table to be modest."
Morally, learn here how great an evil envy is, so that nothing is more wicked than it. See St. Basil, Homily On Anger and Envy, and Oration 10 On Envy and Hatred, where aptly and elegantly he compares the envious, first, to vultures and flies: "And indeed," he says, "just as vultures are carried with greater force toward what smells bad, flying past many meadows and many pleasant and fragrant places; and as flies, neglecting the healthy parts of the body, rush toward the sores: so also the envious do not even look at the splendor of life and the greatness of upright deeds, but are marvelously attracted to what is withered." Second, he compares the same to rust,
the demon, and the viper: "For just as blight," he says, "is the particular disease of grain, so envy is of friendship. And as it is the part of the good man to envy no one, so envy is the particular attribute of the demon; and just as rust consumes iron, so envy consumes the soul that labors under it; indeed even more so. For as they say the viper is born by eating through its mother's womb, so also malevolence is accustomed to destroy the soul that gives birth to it. The envious person looks for only one recreation from his evil, namely, if he can see someone among those whose goods make him grieve, falling. This is the aim of hatred: to see someone who is happy become unhappy, someone who is blessed become miserable." Third, he compares the same to the panther, a most savage beast: "Panthers," he says, "have a certain natural anger against man, and are especially accustomed to
spring at the eyes. Hence those who mock that insane beast hold up an image made of paper as if it were a man; and the beast, with excessive force and no consideration, thinks it is a man, tears the paper as if it were a man, and thereby shows how great is its hatred against man: so also the demon shows by an image how great his hatred against God is, since he cannot touch God Himself."
Moreover, I have indicated elsewhere the methods of overcoming envy; now learn them from the single example of St. Mechtild: "Mechtild, greater than all envy, overcame the envious with charity, confounded them with virtue, overwhelmed them with authority, prostrated them with humility, as if she had done it to herself, if anyone plotted anything against her," says Engelhardus in her Life, chapter V.
17. DO NOT CROWD YOURSELF AT A FEAST.
The Complutensian edition and Lyranus add: with wine; others: of wine, as if to say: Do not burden and weigh down your stomach with too much wine; but both the Roman and Greek codices delete this. For he will treat of excess in wine at verse 30 and following. Hence Jansenius judges that this is about excess of food, as if to say: Do not gorge yourself with too much food so as to oppress your stomach. But the Greek has an elegant paronomasia, μὴ συνθλίβου αὐτῷ ἐν τρυβλίῳ, that is, do not crowd yourself with him in the dish; others: do not collide with him in the dish; the Tigurine: do not stretch out your hand wherever he has looked, nor thrust it into the dish together with him; for τρυβλίον means a dish, plate, small pot, or sauce-cup. The reason is that propriety and comfort of eating at a feast require that one guest not crowd another, especially the host, in a smaller dish while he is taking food from it, but should wait for his turn, so that when the host has taken his portion from it, the others then take theirs, each in his proper order. Those who do otherwise imitate pigs, which being gluttonous, while devouring and slurping from the same trough, crowd each other so as to snatch food from the others; whence it happens not infrequently that they overturn the trough and deprive both themselves and their companions of food. Finally, in general, "do not crowd yourself at a feast," namely by wanting to sit in some more honorable or more comfortable place, where you both crowd others and are in turn crowded by them. For this is both unseemly and troublesome to you as well as to others, and takes away or hinders the pleasure and delight that could have been drawn from the banquet. For that common saying is true:
He who sits well has half his meal.
Therefore the table rule is: "Let the host take care that the guests not sit too tightly and narrowly, and therefore not invite more than the dining space can hold." The reason is, both because tight seating is very troublesome for guests; and because from it a foul odor arises, which afflicts the guests, according to Horace, Epistle 5 to Torquatus:
But too tight a feast presses with the smell of rank goats,
that is (as Lambinus interprets) you may bring more companions with you; but there is reason to fear that from the crowd of guests sitting tightly together a heavy and foul odor may arise, especially when well
fed, each person exhales the heavy odors of wine and food. For by the name of goat a foul odor is understood: for goats and billy-goats, going in herds to pasture, crowd each other, and from this, being smelly, they breathe out a foul and goatish odor. This is the fourth table precept; the fifth follows:
18. JUDGE THE FEELINGS OF YOUR NEIGHBOR FROM YOURSELF.
as if to say: Know and measure the feelings of the soul and the wishes of your neighbor from your own feelings and wishes: therefore just as you are pained and tormented if someone at your table is insolent and bold, carving all the dishes, wanting to criticize everyone and to domineer over all, even the host himself: so likewise know that your neighbor is pained and tormented if you or others do the same or similar at his table. Therefore just as you would want others at your table to be proper, temperate and modest: so likewise be such yourself at another's table. The Greek inculcates the same at greater length; for it reads: Consider what belongs to another from yourself, and think about every matter; the Tigurine: Judge another's feelings from your own, and weigh every matter.
Second, this saying could more remotely be referred to envy and the wicked eye, about which he treated in verse 15, as if to say: Do you wish to know whether your neighbor, for example, the one who invited you to the banquet, inwardly harbors envy and hatred against you, or rather love and goodwill? Examine your own mind, namely, whether you have a benevolent or hostile and malevolent disposition toward him: if you discover that your disposition toward him is benevolent and that you wish him well, know that he in turn is benevolent toward you and wishes you well: but if you feel that you are hostile toward him and hate him, know that he likewise is hostile to you and hates you. For just as love is the magnet of love, and love begets love: so in turn hatred is the magnet of hatred, and hatred begets hatred; for it cannot happen that these feelings of love and hatred are so concealed in the soul that they do not sometimes betray themselves through external signs, and thus become known to others: whence it happens that they excite a similar reciprocal feeling in the other person. The counsel of the wise therefore is: "Do you wish to be loved by all? Be the first to love all. Do you wish that no one be hostile to you and pursue you with hatred? Be the first neither to be hostile nor to hate." Hear the Poet:
That I may show myself a Pylades, let someone show me an Orestes. This is not done with words: Marcus, to be loved, love.
But the first sense is more appropriate, and therefore genuine, and what follows indicates it:
19. USE LIKE A FRUGAL PERSON THOSE THINGS THAT ARE SET BEFORE YOU: LEST, WHEN YOU EAT MUCH, YOU BE HATED.
The word "frugal" is no longer in the Greek, which reads: use as a man those things set before you, and do not devour, lest you be hated, as if to say: Eat as a human being, honestly, modestly and soberly; and do not dishonestly, immodestly and intemperately devour like a wolf or beast. The Tigurine: eat what is set (Vatablus: proposed) before you as a man, and do not gorge yourself, lest you come into the hatred both of the host and of the other guests. This is the sixth table precept, commanding frugality, namely that one should use the dishes frugally, and not carve, distribute and devour everything, but only a little, enough for a sober refreshment: let the rest be spared, so the host can use them for other purposes.
Note the phrase "those things that are set before you:" for by this he advises, first, that we should not fly upon everything set before us with our hands and try to snatch it from others: then that we should not take what is placed before another, but what is before us; moreover that we should not thrust our hand into the dish in every direction so as to pick out the daintiest morsels for ourselves. Here applies that rule of table manners: "Do not choose from the whole dish, as dainty eaters do, but take what happens to be placed before you." And that saying of Homer: "If that too is especially elegant, let it pass to another, and take what is nearest." Therefore just as it is the part of the intemperate to thrust the hand into every region of the dish, so it is hardly becoming to turn the dish so that the choicer portions come to you. If someone else offers you a more elegant morsel, accept it with a brief word of thanks, but having cut off a small portion for yourself, offer the rest to the one who offered it, or share it with the one sitting next to you. In all things, therefore, foods should be taken and handled decently and with a certain reverence. So you will eat as a human being: for devouring is bestial and foreign to the nature of man, who among all living creatures shares in reason, order, propriety, modesty, courtesy, benevolence, and temperance.
Musonius says excellently, as quoted by Stobaeus: "Since excess in no matter is not vicious, in food especially it reveals its nature, when the love of delicacies transforms dainty eaters and gluttons from human beings into pigs or dogs with regard to voracity, forgetful of all propriety in their hands, sight, and eating — so great is the madness that the love of dainties begets in them. But what is more shameful than to conduct oneself at table in such a way as to be the image of a brute animal rather than of a prudent man?"
Among philosophers, Socrates was an outstanding practitioner and advocate of this frugality, whose maxims about it are found in Laertius, book II, chapter V: "Those who live frugally have far more pleasure and fewer torments than those who indulge their appetites. He is most like the gods who needs the fewest things: since the gods need nothing. The best seasoning for food is hunger, since it best sweetens the dishes and costs nothing." Therefore when he himself was preparing a frugal meal for his guests, while his wife was worried about providing something better, he said: "Be of good cheer; for if the guests are frugal and temperate, this will satisfy them: if not, we should have no concern for such people. Others live to eat; I eat to live."
20. BE THE FIRST TO LEAVE OFF FOR THE SAKE OF GOOD MANNERS: AND DO NOT BE EXCESSIVE, LEST YOU GIVE OFFENSE.
This is the seventh admonition, namely, that the guest should take care not to be the last in eating, but rather be the first to stop eating, and this "for the sake of good manners," that is, of propriety, modesty and decency, which discipline teaches; namely, to show that he is well instructed and properly raised and mannered. For at banquets, good or bad upbringing is most clearly shown through self-control or gluttony, and through civil or uncivil manners and gestures. The reason for the precept is: because if one is too much and too prolonged in eating, he will offend the host and the guests, and sometimes even God and the angels. In Greek: μὴ ἀπληστεύου, that is, do not be insatiable. Hence the Tigurine: for the sake of modesty be the first to stop, and do not show yourself insatiable, lest you give some offense.
Here belong the golden precepts of self-control which St. Martin, Bishop of Dumium, wrote in his booklet to Miro, King of Galicia: "Eat short of indigestion, drink short of drunkenness. You will not cling to present delicacies, nor desire absent ones. Let your food be simple: approach it not for pleasure but for nourishment. Let hunger excite your palate, not flavors. Satisfy your desires at little cost, you who need only take care that they cease; and as if composed after the divine pattern, hasten to bring yourself back from the body to the spirit, as much as you can." Here applies that saying of Ovid:
Do not presume upon feasts too long, but stop short, And take a little less than you desire.
Thus "Blessed Posthumius never left the table with a full stomach, nor ever quenched his thirst, saying it was not worthy if the desire of the flesh were fulfilled," says the author of his Life, which is found in the Lives of the Fathers, book I. Here applies the Arabic proverb: "Eat turn after turn (that is, little but often) and you will grow fat." Which the French say:
To eat often and little makes a man grow fat.
St. Jerome gives this precept to Eustochium (in the Letter On the Custody of Virginity): "Let your food be moderate, and your stomach never full. For there are many who, while sober with wine, are drunk with excess of food." And shortly after: "Let your fasts be daily, and your refreshment avoid satiety. It is of no use, after two or three days have passed, to carry an empty stomach if it is then overwhelmed, and if the fast is going to be compensated: immediately the full mind grows sluggish, and the watered soil sprouts the thorns of lust."
21. AND IF IN THE MIDST OF MANY YOU HAVE SAT DOWN, DO NOT STRETCH OUT YOUR HAND BEFORE THEM, NOR BE THE FIRST TO ASK FOR DRINK.
He commanded that one be the first to stop eating; here he commands that one not be the first to start, as if to say: At a feast, begin eating after others and stop before others, so that in beginning you are last, in finishing you are first, and you complete your refreshment quickly. Therefore be first neither in eating nor in drinking; for at the table, eating usually comes first, then drinking follows: for drink is taken as a vehicle for food, namely to carry and convey the food through the veins and the individual limbs. Therefore physicians teach that it is conducive to health that a person should not drink at the beginning of the meal, but eat well; so that in the stomach he may lay a solid foundation of food,
22. HOW SUFFICIENT FOR A WELL-INSTRUCTED MAN IS A LITTLE WINE, AND IN SLEEPING YOU WILL NOT BE TROUBLED BY IT, AND YOU WILL FEEL NO PAIN.
which he then moistens by drinking: just as in a ship, ballast is laid underneath as the ship's foundation and balance. Yet the same authorities advise that for easy passage of food and loosening of the bowels, the meal should begin with more liquid foods. Therefore in ancient times supper (which for the ancients took the place of lunch: for they did not eat twice, but once a day, namely they dined in the evening; therefore they did not take lunch, as is clear from Athenaeus, in the Banquets of the Wise) began with eggs and ended with apples. Hence the proverb: From the egg to the apples, as if to say: Through the whole feast, the whole conversation, the whole matter. For this reason, at the banquets of the respectable, the host at the beginning carves and distributes the dishes to each person; when these are eaten, he himself first requests drink and drinks before the guests, and then drink is brought to each in order by the servants: for propriety, modesty, and proper order require this. See Clement of Alexandria, book II of the Pedagogue, chapter 1, where he gives many precepts about how one ought to conduct oneself regarding food, and teaches that not only voracity and gluttony, as most alien to all divine and human reason, but also all uncivil, unbecoming, ungentlemanly, boorish, and bestial motions and gestures of the members of the body in taking food are to be avoided.
The Greek no longer has the word "wine" nor "pain;" for it reads: how sufficient for a well-instructed man is a little, and on his bed he will not pant, that is, as the Complutensian: he does not pant; the Roman: he does not suffer from asthma; the Tigurine: for a little suffices for a temperate man, so that he does not pant in his bed, nor feel pain. For "well-instructed," the Greek πεπαιδευμένον, he calls a person well-trained, well-mannered, sober and temperate. He commends sobriety both in food and more in drink (because in drink, especially tasty and delicate drink, excess is easier than in food) from its effect, namely health, which it preserves and increases, as if to say: A moderate amount of food and drink suffices for a person, indeed is beneficial for a healthy and pleasant life: for it produces an easy and comfortable sleep, which restores all the body's strength and spirits. Conversely, too much and excessive food and drink, especially in the evening (for in ancient times they only had supper, as I said shortly before) does not allow a person to sleep and rest at night; but he "labors," that is, is tormented, distressed and suffers in stomach and head, so that the excessive burden of food weighing down both, and from it — but more from drink — vapors and fumes rising to the brain, may be relieved, digested and consumed. So Rabanus says: "It is manifest that a sparing and light diet is beneficial to both body and soul, and conversely that excessive food or drink generates illness and diminishes the sense of the soul." Sobriety therefore is the mother of health as well as of holiness, of chastity as well as of wisdom: just as conversely gluttony and drunkenness are the mother of diseases and vices, of lust and
of that most pestilent mouse, at whose smallest bite no sensation was felt, because the mass of fat permitted neither sensation to be experienced nor movement to come to aid. Does not the corpulence of hunters cause them to suffer a lethal blow without feeling it? To this the fox added a maxim of ancient wisdom: 'Cursed be such fatness, which stupefies the senses, dissolves movement, is full of filth, burdened with painful weight, deprived of the joy of generation, and robbed of the delight of life. For very many things are suffocated by fatness and deprived of their generative power. I rejoice now, being conscious of myself, and my experience of myself is very dear to me.' Whence, drawing the moral of abstinence, she added: 'Henceforth I shall serve moderation according to the wise man's saying, which is the great mother of health for many and is content with little. Nor shall I obey the intemperance of gluttony, which is the source of infirmity, the punishment of lust, the path of folly, the gate of death, and is never content with any feasts. For since food was ordained by natural law for health and life, the fool uses it immoderately for his own destruction and death. Therefore the disciple, instructed by such a master, bade her farewell.'
"Happier therefore is always sparing temperance than lavish luxury," says St. Leo, Sermon 8 On the Fast of the Seventh Month. Wherefore the same author wisely concludes from what has been said elsewhere: "What will become a burden must be taken away from pleasure," about which Sirach adds: "Sleeplessness, bile, and torment for the intemperate man." Horace writes beautifully, Odes II, 16:
One lives well on little, whose father's salt-cellar Shines on a modest table: Neither fear nor sordid desire Robs him of light sleep.
Mystically, for a man passing through this life, "a little wine," that is, few temporal goods suffice. These, taken in moderation and accepted for use without attachment of the soul, do not disturb the mind at the time of sleep or death, nor do they trouble it with the thorn of a bad conscience or the pain of sin. This therefore is what the perfect do in life — they exercise and prepare themselves, I say, for taking sleep, in which whatever is mortal may perish, whatever is weak and harmful may fail, so that what is strong and beautiful may rise to glory. They do this to prepare themselves for the journey, and they send ahead all they can to the eternal city, so that they may find there riches and delights that will never perish.
23. SLEEPLESSNESS, BILE, AND TORMENT FOR THE INTEMPERATE MAN.
In Greek, aplestou, that is, insatiable, never satisfied, a glutton who gorges himself and takes in more than he can digest. Robert Holcot, on Wisdom, chapter 18, lecture 203, near the end: All these things, he says, gluttony brings upon the intemperate man. He is called 'infrunitus' as if 'without frumen,' that is, without taste: for 'frumen' is that part of the throat which perceives flavor. But the glutton swallows morsels without taste, devouring in the manner of a wolf: or he is called 'infrunitus' as if without 'frunum,' which is a preparation with which hides are treated: or the word is derived from 'frenesis' (frenzy), or from 'frons' (forehead), or from 'frenum' (bridle). Hence the verse:
'Frons, frenesis, frumen, frumia, frena dabis.'
But concerning the etymology of 'infrunitus' I spoke at chapter 23, verse 6. The counterpart of this maxim is the following:
'Hunger costs little, satiety costs much. For how great a disgust will rich tables bring you! Small courses banish prolonged hunger.'
See St. John Chrysostom, Homily 13 on 1 Timothy, on the words: "She who lives in pleasures is dead while living," where he vividly depicts the harms of intemperance.
Cyril illustrates this maxim with an apt fable of the fox and the pig, in Book IV of his Moral Apologues, chapter 4. A lean fox, he says, seeking to fatten her skin, was looking for a teacher. She encountered a fat and plump pig, but one disfigured in its hindquarters by a vile opening in the skin; and she said to him: 'What is it, brother, that I see you not only fouled with filth, but also so corroded in your hindquarters? Certainly the skin is wonderful for its fullness, but no less so for its sore or ulcer.' But he, his face flushed with shame, replied: 'Indeed, dearest one, this is the crime
24. HEALTHY SLEEP BELONGS TO THE TEMPERATE MAN: HE SHALL SLEEP UNTIL MORNING, AND HIS SOUL SHALL DELIGHT IN HIM.
The Greek transposes these, putting the former verse after the latter, in this way: healthy sleep in a moderate stomach; he rose early (the Complutensian reads 'in the morning,' for the Greek is proi) and his soul with him; toil, sleeplessness, bile, and torments accompany the insatiable man; others render: wakeful toil and bile and pains accompany the insatiable man; the Zurich Bible clearly: the bowels of the temperate man enjoy healthy sleep; he rises in the morning the same man and in possession of his mind; but wakeful toil and bile and torments afflict the insatiable man; the Arabic: sleeplessness and toil and disturbance (perturbation) of the bowels with the man devoted to his belly; healthy sleep with the continent man.
He contrasts the benefits of temperance and the temperate man with the harms of intemperance and the intemperate man: that through these, first, it produces sleeplessness; both because the burden of food, under which the intemperate man is weighed down, does not allow him to sleep and rest; and because the undigested vapors and fumes continuously rising from it and striking the brain impede his falling asleep. Second, that it produces bile; both because sweet foods are turned into bile, as physicians teach; and because the abundance of foods and wines inflames the heat and blood, which, once inflamed, inflames the food and turns it into bile; for bile is an inflammation of the blood and chyle. And bile, being sharp and burning, violently stings, tortures, and inflames the body, and creates burning fevers, and incites quarrels in disputes and fights and killings. Third, that it produces torment, that is, gripes — namely, distension of the belly, flatulence, and phlegm: for undigested food is turned into these, because the natural heat is not sufficient to properly process and digest such a great abundance of food.
and digesting it. In which matter let gluttons observe that there is already being fulfilled in them the execution of that judgment which we read decreed in Revelation 18 against that Babylon, their mother: 'As much as she glorified herself and lived in luxury, so much give her torment and mourning.' For the foods which the throat swallowed with pleasure during the day, the stomach at night cannot digest so as to convert them into chyle and blood; therefore it turns them into flatulence and phlegm, which create belching, distension, asthma, colic, catarrhs, and other diseases. Therefore when you dine in the evening, be sober; remembering that, if you do otherwise, you will pay for the brief and slight pleasure of gluttony with the long and harsh torture and rack of the whole night.
St. Ambrose, in his book On Elijah and Fasting, chapter 8, takes this as the torment of hell which the rich glutton underwent after death, buried in the underworld, where his gluttonous tongue was tormented in flame; likewise as the torment of anxieties which those who prepare banquets endure, and he vividly depicts these. The Hebrew proverb in the Gemara is relevant here: 'A full belly is every kind of evil.' For those whose craft is fattening can neither live long nor be healthy, and their mind, wrapped as if in mud by excessive blood and fat, while awake thinks of nothing refined, nothing heavenly, but always of the gluttony of the belly: thus when he is sunk in sleep, stupefied by immoderate eating and drinking, he is tossed by absurd dreams, so that he rightly lacks human reason; while on the contrary, the dreams of one who lives sparingly, continently, severely, and soberly are usually pleasant, so that, when awakened, he remembers them, and even during sleep, as the Wise Man says: 'His soul delights in him.'
There is an elegant fable in Aesop about the flies and the harm of gluttony: 'In a certain cellar,' he says, 'when honey had been spilled, flies flew to it and ate; but their feet being stuck, they could not fly away. And as they were suffocating, they said: Wretched are we, because we perish for a little food.' The fable signifies that for many, gluttony is the cause of many evils. It is a precept of the School of Medicine at Salerno:
'From a long supper the stomach gets the greatest punishment: If you would be light at night, let your supper be brief.'
Horace, Satires II, 2:
'The other (living frugally), when sleep more quickly than expected has given rest to his tended limbs, rises vigorous for his appointed duties.'
Epictetus: 'Consider this while feasting,' he says, 'that you have two guests to entertain: the body and the soul. Then consider that whatever is given to the body will quickly flow away, but what is given to the soul is to be kept forever.' Clement of Alexandria: 'Pleasure,' he says, 'has often brought harm and trouble to men: and excessive abundance of food produces in the soul grievous passions, forgetfulness, and foolishness.' Musonius, Book I On Food: 'The foundation of wisdom,' he says, 'is continence regarding food and drink.'
On the contrary, as Horace says in the passage cited above:
'A body burdened With yesterday's vices weighs down the soul as well, And pins to the ground that particle of the divine breath.' (Lambinus reads 'affligit' [strikes down].)
Climachus says admirably in Antonius' Melissa, Part I, chapter 14: 'He who is devoted to his belly,' he says, 'and tries to overcome the spirit of fornication, is like one trying to extinguish a fire with oil.' The same, ibid., chapter 39: 'When the belly is burdened, the heart is depressed; but if regard is had for it, the mind rejoices.'
And St. John Chrysostom, ibid.: 'A fat belly,' he says, 'does not produce a subtle mind. To devour much belongs to the leopard, the bear, and the lion: pains of the feet, heaviness of the head, dullness of the eyes, ailments of the hands, tremors, paralysis, jaundice, and long and dreadful fevers are usually produced by voracity and repletion. For the sons of physicians declare that not being satiated with food is health. Let poverty and hunger be your condiment. The sensation of seasonings ends at the palate, and after that it makes no difference what is ingested, since nature alters everything until it becomes foul.'
Likewise Philo: 'Health and strength,' he says, 'follow upon continence; but upon incontinence follow infirmity and sickness close to death.' Likewise, chapter 38, St. Basil: 'The insolence of demons,' he says, 'dares nothing against the one who fasts, and the guardian angels of our life remain more eagerly with those who have been purified through fasting.' Finally the Comic poet: 'The chamber of virtue,' he says, 'is temperance.' I shall say more on this matter in the next work on Proverbs 23:3, near the end.
Therefore a sober and sparing supper procures, first, easy and pleasant sleep, free from grim, horrible, and deadly dreams that an excess of food produces;
Second, a balance of humors, so that neither bile, nor melancholy, nor phlegm, nor blood predominates; but each of these four humors maintains its due proportion and balance with the others, in which the health and proper condition of the body consists;
Third, quiet of the stomach and intestines (and consequently quiet and delight of the soul), because these properly digest and distribute a moderate amount of food, and therefore are not troubled by flatulence and gripes. This is what he says: 'Healthy sleep (that is, sound, preserving and increasing health) shall be in the temperate man,' that is, the frugal and sober man. Therefore such a man 'shall sleep until morning,' because food will not burden him or wake him so that he is forced to rise before his time; and when he has been awakened at the appointed hour, 'his soul shall delight in him,' that is, he shall rejoice within himself that at the banquet and supper of the previous evening he has preserved by his sobriety the health both of body, and of mind and judgment, which drunkards lose; and of conscience, because he has not injured it through gluttony and intemperance. Therefore, being at once well-disposed, joyful, and cheerful, he will rise to perform his customary prayers, studies, and business in full possession of himself,
vigorous and happy. To sleeplessness therefore he opposes sleep, to bile he opposes health, to torment he opposes delight. He says beautifully: 'His soul shall delight in him,' because, just as a harpist delights in seeing and playing a well-tuned harp, for it produces a harmonious sound, but grieves and is saddened if he sees it out of tune, for then it produces a harsh and discordant sound: so likewise the soul, while it has a well-tempered body, rejoices and delights, because through it she is able to sing, read, pray, study, etc., properly; but she grieves and is afflicted if the body is disordered by wine and excess, and therefore unfit for the offices of the mind. For the body is like a harp, and the soul is like a harpist.
Moreover, so great is the usefulness of sleep for digesting food, restoring strength, diminishing cares, and soothing illness, that the pagans did not hesitate to ascribe divinity to it, for they worshipped as gods whatever things brought them benefit. Among them Ovid thus sang in Metamorphoses II:
'Sleep, rest of all things, most gentle sleep of the gods, Peace of the mind from which care flees, you who soothe bodies Wearied by hard labors, and restore them for toil.'
And Orpheus calls sleep the king of the blessed gods and of all mortals, men and animals. Thus Seneca sings in the Hercules Furens:
'And you, O sleep, tamer of woes, Repose of the mind, the better part of human life.'
Tertullian writes in On the Soul, chapter 43, that sleep is the recreation of bodies, the restorer of strength, the tester of health, the pacifier of works, the healer of labors; to which, for its lawful enjoyment, the day yields and the night makes a law, taking away even the color of things. 'Sleep seems to be,' says Cicero, 'the refuge from all labors and anxieties,' De Divinatione I.
Hear Francisco Valles in his Sacred Philosophy, chapter 73: 'To the intemperate man,' he says, 'will come sleeplessness, bile, and torment; but healthy sleep to the temperate man.' Nothing is better known from experience than that he who has filled himself with food to the point of satiety cannot sleep, but either lies awake the whole night tossing this way and that, unable to stay in one place; or sleeps a heavy sleep with many dreadful nightmares — and this not a long sleep, but one frequently interrupted, and sometimes with bile and torment, that is, with anxiety of the stomach and vomiting of spoiled food, or with nausea and foul-smelling belching (this condition is called by Hippocrates 'dry cholera') and with gripes of the intestines: the former on account of spoiled food still in the stomach; the latter on account of food that has descended into the intestines. But he who has dined sparingly or below the point of satiety sleeps until morning, and his soul delights in him, that is, he takes great pleasure from sleep and wakes up cheerful and alert; which indeed is a sign of an excellently performed digestion, and therefore of good health.
For these reasons therefore he commands us to be sparing, and moreover to be swift in all our works. The same author a little earlier teaches from Hippocrates that the chief method of preserving health consists in diet, that is, in moderation of food and drink. For no error in diet is committed that does not equally harm both parts of man. For just as drunkenness weighs down the head, so it injures the mind; just as excessive ingestion of food and drink fills the body with crude matter, so it makes a man lustful; idleness makes the body full of waste matter, and the mind soft and sluggish; excessive abstinence from food wastes and weakens the body, and makes the spirit timid; drinking wine (when water was needed) causes many fluxions and brings irritability; drinking water (when wine was needed) produces indigestion and sadness.
If therefore, just as the humors must be balanced to preserve bodily health, so must the passions for the health of the soul; and any error in diet disturbs both in some way; then it is clear that a proper regimen of living is necessary for the health of the whole man — of the body, I say, and of the soul. Especially since not only does such an error disturb both in themselves, but also each through the other. For however the bodily fluids are disturbed, the passions come to be disturbed; and however the passions are disturbed, so too are the humors. Wherefore it was most truly said by Galen that a part of medicine is moral philosophy — not only that which pertains to the constitution of the state, but that which adapts itself to the ordering of individual characters. For this is what tempers the passions, which is indeed one part (and not the greatest) of the whole regimen; since this, as all physicians agree, consists of six things: food and drink, movement and rest, sleep and wakefulness, air, the passions of the soul, and the excretion or retention of certain matters. So says Valles.
Finally, the aphorism of Hippocrates must be impressed upon us, Book I, chapter 17: 'When food is taken beyond what is natural,' that is, more than is right, 'it produces disease.' For it has never been beneficial to eat to the point of satiety, but often to eat below it: for thus digestion becomes better and fewer waste products are generated. The same, Epidemics VI, Part V, aphorism 20: 'The pursuit of health,' he says, 'is not to be satiated with food, and to be diligent in labors.' The same author asserts that want is the mother of health. Hence in the Decretals, last distinction of De Consecratione, we read that certain persons suffering from gout and joint disease, reduced to a simple table and poor food, recovered. It is established that those who use the cheapest foods are the more robust, healthier, and more vigorous, as are farmers, craftsmen, and servants. St. Jerome: 'Lavishness of feasts,' he says, 'breaks both body and soul.' Democritus used to say that 'a dry soul,' that is, a sober one, 'is the wisest.' He also said 'it is better to die than to cloud the soul through intemperance.'
Learn here morally how great is the intemperance and harm of gluttony. St. Basil says admirably, Homily 1 On Fasting: 'The belly,' he says, 'is a glutton that never stops demanding. When it is stuffed with food, it discourses on temperance; but when it has dispelled its bloating, it is seized by forgetfulness of its own principles.' The same, On Reading Pagan Books: 'Gluttons,' he says, 'pay penalties no lighter than those who are tortured in hell, in that they openly beat the fire and carry water in a sieve and pour it into a leaky barrel, and never make an end of their labors.'
Hence also St. Gregory Nazianzen, in his poem On the Different Kinds of Life, calls a belly satiated with food a sepulcher. For he who carries around a body distended and overwhelmed with food and wine carries a living tomb. The same, in his Tetrastichs:
'Wine, lust, envy, and the devil are equals: They deprive of reason those whom they hold. Cure them with prayer, with tears poured forth, with fasting.'
The same, in his Distichs: 'The parent of insult and insolence,' he says, 'is satiety.' Wherefore St. Jerome wisely admonishes St. Paulinus, Epistle 13: 'Flee banquets,' he says, 'as you would certain chains of pleasures.' See more in Damascene, Parallels I, chapter 77.
Again, St. Bernard, On the Interior House, chapter 46: 'No tax collector is so relentless as the belly.' The same, in his letter to his nephew Robert: 'Honeyed wine and rich foods serve the body, not the spirit. Pepper, ginger, cumin, sage, and a thousand kinds of sauces delight the palate indeed, but kindle lust. For one who lives prudently and soberly, salt with hunger is sufficient for every condiment.' The same, On Enduring Persecution, chapter 12: 'The pleasure of the throat, which is so highly valued today, occupies scarcely the width of two fingers; and what great care is spent to procure so small a delight of so tiny a part, and how great a trouble it then produces!' The same, Sermon 1 On Advent: 'Fullness,' he says, 'and abundance of temporal things produce forgetfulness and want of eternal things.'
25. AND IF YOU HAVE BEEN COMPELLED (BURDENED) TO EAT MUCH, RISE FROM THE MIDST, VOMIT: AND IT WILL REFRESH YOU, AND YOU WILL NOT BRING SICKNESS UPON YOUR BODY.
So read the Roman and Complutensian editions, although the Greek corrected at Rome deletes 'evome' (vomit), as if it only advises rising and walking about to digest the food. For 'rise from the midst,' the Greek has 'anasta mesoporon,' which the Complutensian translates: rise through the middle (of tables and guests, passing through); the Roman reading with alpha and accent on the penultimate 'mesoporon,' translates: rise in the middle of the fruit course, namely at the end of the meal when fruits and desserts are served, meaning: Rise without waiting for the end of the second course; others: rise as if leaving in the middle of supper; the Zurich Bible: If foods distress you, rise, walk about, vomit so that you may rest, and do not contract disease for your body.
He does not advise vomiting as something absolutely good, but conditionally — namely, if you have filled yourself too much with food, in order to avoid the greater evil of plethora and repletion. Hence Jansenius rightly says: He does not counsel, he says, that one should gorge himself in order to provoke vomiting, as some advise with little piety, but that if, by the shamelessness and pressure of others, one has greatly burdened himself, he should rise in time — from the table, lest he suffer something unseemly at the table, or excessive repletion afflict and harm the body for a long time; and thus in a secret place, without offense to others, he should rather vomit up the excess than have the stomach afflicted for a long time with the danger of ensuing disease. By which counsel he sufficiently indicates how much excess eating must be guarded against, seeing that for its cure so foul and unworthy a remedy, positively canine, must be employed. For it is more disgraceful to provide the cause of this disgrace than to admit this disgrace upon oneself in order to avoid a great evil.
And thereby it is sufficiently implied how grievously those sin who, after they feel themselves burdened, rise from the table and vomit up the excess, so that they may soon return to the table and gorge themselves anew with food and drink.
The same is advised by Hippocrates, Galen, and the other physicians. Hear Francisco Valles, Sacred Philosophy, chapter 73, at the end: If ever, he says, you are compelled, as happens at banquets (although a temperate and strong man, who does not suffer from rustic bashfulness, ought not to allow this) to eat much, the wisest course is first to put down the bulk of food, then to go to sleep so that the remainder may be digested, and afterwards to exercise so that waste may be expelled. The best method of emptying the stomach is by vomiting; the second best, by purging. For vomiting ejects matter from the very mouth of the stomach before the food has descended, and brings relief very quickly and effectively, without harm to other parts; purging expels from the intestines what has already descended. Therefore one should use vomiting immediately, if one can manage it; but if one is among those who vomit with the greatest difficulty, one should use purging some time later, namely when one begins to feel gripes or distension of the lower belly.
Most excellently therefore, and in accordance with the precepts of Hippocrates and Galen (as may be seen in Book VII of the Method of Healing), Ecclesiasticus commands: 'If you have been compelled to eat much, rise from the midst (by these words he signifies that this must be done immediately, before the abundance of food brings any harm), and vomit, and it will refresh you (that is, relieve you), and you will not bring sickness upon your body.'
Sirach therefore suggests four remedies for excessive repletion: first, to rise; second, to walk; third, to vomit; fourth, to exercise the body. For one may see certain people so attached to the table and their cups that they cannot move from their place or rise; or, when they have risen, they immediately fall back, stagger this way and that and stumble, so that they are a laughingstock to everyone. Others, fully fattened like full sacks, or like logs and stumps, are carried and transported from the table. Of whom Cicero says, De Finibus II: 'The profligates,' he says, 'who vomit at the table, and who are carried away from banquets,
and who, still suffering from indigestion, gorge themselves again the next day, who never see the sun, as they say, either setting or rising, who have consumed their estates and are destitute.' Therefore when vomiting is decent and when indecent and unseemly, see the discussion in Plutarch's book On Health. The same author in his Symposiacs, saying that one should philosophize at banquets, recommends vomiting to one who wishes to live wisely, provided wine has affected the head; and he thinks that Agur is called by Solomon 'the son of one who vomits,' Proverbs 30:1, because having relieved his head by vomiting and cleared it, he sprang up to speak; so our Salazar judges in that passage.
Furthermore, Celsus, Book I, chapter 3, from Asclepiades: Vomiting, he says, is more useful in winter than in summer; for then there is more phlegm and greater heaviness of the head. It is useless for thin persons and those with weak stomachs; it is useful for all who are full and bilious, if they have either overfilled themselves or poorly digested their food. Therefore when there are bitter belchings with pain and heaviness of the chest, this remedy must be resorted to.
Tropologically, Rabanus says: If you have committed many sins and heaped them up in the stomach of your mind, vomit them out through confession, and so you will relieve and heal your conscience. So also Origen, Homily 2 on Psalm 37: 'See,' he says, 'what divine Scripture teaches us: that sin must not be concealed within. For perhaps, just as those who have undigested food enclosed within, or a humor of phlegm pressing heavily and troublesomely on the stomach, are relieved if they vomit; so also those who have sinned, if they conceal and retain sin within themselves, are pressed from within and nearly suffocated by the phlegm or humor of sin; but if the sinner himself becomes his own accuser, while he accuses himself and confesses his sin, he simultaneously vomits out the offense and digests every cause of the disease.'
Second, Palacius mystically applies this to the rich, to whom a notable counsel is given here: that if they have devoured much wealth, they should vomit it out upon the poor; thus the rich man's soul, he says, will rest from scruples, and will escape the punishments destined for the avaricious.
26. HEAR ME, MY SON, AND DO NOT DESPISE ME: AND IN THE END YOU WILL FIND MY WORDS TRUE.
That is, as the Zurich Bible puts it: for what I say, you will at length experience. He wins attention for the precept that follows, which has great importance for preserving health, and which he adds, saying:
27. IN ALL YOUR WORKS BE SWIFT, AND NO SICKNESS WILL BEFALL YOU.
'All not' in Hebrew idiom is the same as 'no.' For 'swift' the Greek has 'entreches,' that is, diligent, vigorous, keen, swift, running (for 'trecho' means 'I run'), also dexterous, skillful, circumspect, industrious, and acute.
First, Palacius refers this admonition to verse 25, meaning: In every work be swift, that is, nimble, diligent, vigorous, so that you know how to easily rise, walk, vomit, and thus be freed from the sickness that will befall you unless you vomit. But, as he himself admits, this precept, though spoken on the occasion of banquets, is in itself general and pertains to all works. Hence
Second, Francisco Valles, Sacred Philosophy, chapter 73, takes 'swiftness' to mean bodily exercise, which helps greatly in preserving health: 'And no sickness will befall you.' Which should not be understood as though one could never at all be seized by any disease, but that one will not be very susceptible to diseases; rather, one will rarely and mildly be troubled by them, unless accidentally harmed by causes which physicians call 'non-necessary,' such as the sword, fire, a thrown stone, the collapse of a building, or contagion. The meaning therefore is: If you are swift and exercise your body, you will rarely be seriously ill.
Hippocrates agrees with Sirach, Epidemics VI, section 4, saying: 'Exercise for health is to take food below the point of satiety, and to be diligent in labors.' For to be sparing, as Sirach says — what else would you interpret this as, than to use food below the point of satiety? To be swift in undertaking labors — what else than to be diligent in labors? Understand exercise as not excessive, but moderate and proportioned to each person's constitution and strength, as well as to their eating. For, as the aphorism says: 'Neither satiety, nor hunger, nor anything else that exceeds the measure of nature, is good.' Therefore, just as in food, so also in movement and exercise, the limit is exceeded by many.
Moreover, just as idleness harms the body, so does exhaustion; forbidding which, Hippocrates wrote: 'When the body begins to tire, to rest immediately is the remedy.' Therefore 'swift' here means not one who is hasty, but one who is ready, diligent, and cheerful. For this cheerfulness, and the swiftness consequent upon it, sharpens, enlivens, and vivifies both the mind and the body; for it arouses the vital spirits and swiftly diffuses them throughout the whole body, which invigorate and strengthen each limb; and thus they exclude from them all weakness and infirmity, so that such persons seem not so much to move and walk as to fly like birds or Angels, as may be seen in young Italians.
Valles adds: For otherwise Hippocrates' aphorism says: 'Where there is hunger, one must not labor.' Whence it is permissible to convert it thus: Where one must labor, hunger must not be endured, but food must be taken. And by the same reasoning you may gather: Where there is idleness, food must not be taken except very sparingly; and where much food must be taken, a man must exercise not just in any way, but vigorously; because, as the same author says in his book On Regimen, a man who eats and does not labor cannot be healthy. And he set down there the cause of all the things we have said, in these words: For foods and labors have contrary powers to one another. But mixed together they contribute to health; for labors consume what is present in the body, while food and drink replenish what has been evacuated. Therefore the rule is that each must be adjusted to the other; because since they have contrary
powers, neither must surpass the other, neither food at any time nor labor; for they mutually correct each other: the one by replenishing, the other by emptying. Therefore if one must necessarily labor, more food than usual must be added; if one must eat more, one must also exercise more. Therefore, lest you need too much exertion, it is more advisable to use food sparingly. Yet not always, when you have increased the usual amount of food, is it sufficient to increase exercise, especially not when the satiety has been great; because, although food and labor are contraries, neither is conveniently applied after the other; but (as Hippocrates says) labor must precede food, not follow it. Nothing is more dangerous than to exercise vigorously on a full stomach, or when the whole body is full or impure, before a large portion of the abundance or bad humors has been eliminated by manifest evacuation; because exercise draws through the body's constitution what lies hidden within the cavities and interior parts. From a full stomach therefore it draws crude matter into all other parts; wherefore it causes obstructions and many fluxions of the head, lungs, liver, and all the viscera into those very parts, into the bladder, into the joints, and the whole body; whence innumerable diseases arise. Therefore the first and greatest care must be taken never to take food except sparingly, so that from it you may sleep peacefully and long, and having awakened cheerfully from sleep, exercise diligently, so that you may escape all infirmity. Thus far Valles from Hippocrates.
The same opinion about labor and exercise is shared by all wise men. Hence Plutarch, in his book On Health: 'Health is not purchased,' he says, 'by idleness and inertia, which are the two greatest of the evils that accompany diseases; and if anyone thinks he will acquire good health through rest and abstention from activity, he does the same as if one were to decide to preserve the eyes by never looking at anything, or the voice by never speaking.' And a little later: 'Thus Cyrus, according to Xenophon, says that he works off his food,
Third, for 'swift' others translate 'circumspect,' so that, namely, in all your works you should be circumspect and cautious, lest you do anything that offends and harms; 'and no sickness will befall you,' that is, you will not easily fall into disease. So Palacius. This foresight and circumspection takes care lest one burden oneself too much with food, drink, or exercise, or run into things that are harmful to health, through which one contracts infirmity. Adam had this foresight in paradise: and through it he would have escaped all diseases, and would have led a healthy, pleasant, and long life.
The same precept has been handed down by the philosophers, whose axiom is: 'Deliberate maturely, execute swiftly.' Indeed, the greatest affairs, and especially the most serious wars, are most easily accomplished by speed. Famous is the saying of Julius Caesar, when he had conquered Pharnaces at the first encounter: 'I came, I saw, I conquered'; which Charles V adapted when, by speed, he concluded the dangerous German war and vanquished the heretics, changing it thus: 'I came, I saw, Christ conquered.' The same Julius used to say that deeds which are dangerous and great should be carried out immediately; and that there should be no deliberation about them, because speed is of the greatest value for accomplishing such things. So Plutarch in his Roman Apophthegms. The precept of Aristotle in Nicomachean Ethics III is relevant here: 'We should deliberate slowly,
Fourth, for 'swift' the Greek has 'entreches,' which others translate as skillful, cautious, provident, circumspect, watchful. For this foresight and circumspection takes care lest one burden oneself excessively with food, drink, or exercise, or run into things harmful to health, by which one might contract infirmity. Adam had this foresight in paradise: and through it he would have escaped all diseases and would have led a healthy, pleasant, and long life.
He therefore admonishes that in all things that need to be done, a man should not be sluggish, lazy, and negligent, but diligent and vigorous; and he promises that if so, no sickness will easily befall him, signifying that most diseases arise from and are nourished by sloth. For sloth nourishes melancholy and weakens the forces of the body; while, on the contrary, diligence in action, which is joined to readiness and cheerfulness of spirit, drives away sorrow and preserves health. The meaning therefore is: 'Be swift,' that is, diligent and cheerful in your works, and no sickness will befall you; because diligence, labor, and exercise protect health; while torpor, idleness, and sloth generate diseases.
he will stand before kings and will not be among the lowly.' He therefore admonishes that in all things that need to be done, a man should not be sluggish, lazy, and negligent, but diligent and vigorous; and he promises that it shall come to pass that no sickness will easily befall him, signifying that most diseases arise from and are nourished by sloth.
am snatched from hell, and shall I ask for a truce? I have hidden fire in my bosom, and with my side already scorched, must I long deliberate whether to wake up, whether to shake it off, whether to throw it away?' See more in Jerome Platus, On the Good of the Religious State. Here is relevant the saying of Tertullian, On Penance, chapter 4: 'I consider it audacity,' he says, 'to debate whether a divine precept is good. For it is not because it is good that we should obey; but because God has commanded it. For the display of obedience, the majesty of divine power comes first; the authority of Him who commands comes before the advantage of him who serves.'
Ponder and weigh that passage of Isaiah, chapter 40, verse 31: 'But those who hope in the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.' See what was said there. There is an old saying: 'In virtue be a dolphin,' so that just as the dolphin is the swiftest in swimming and by its speed outstrips all other fish, so likewise you should be the swiftest in carrying out the purpose of virtue, so that at a given opportunity you immediately accomplish it in deed.
Hence of the Bridegroom Christ the Lord it is said, Song of Songs 2:8: 'Behold, He comes leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills; my Beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag.' In whom therefore Habakkuk exults, chapter 3, verse 18: 'I will rejoice in the Lord,' he says, 'and exult in God my Jesus. The Lord God is my strength; and He will make my feet like those of deer, and upon my heights He will lead me, the conqueror, singing in psalms.' See what I noted there. So the Blessed Virgin, having received through the Angel the tidings of the Incarnation of the Word, leaping up, 'went into the hill country with haste, and greeted Elizabeth,' Luke chapter 1, verse 39. Where St. Ambrose says: 'The grace of the Holy Spirit knows no slow undertakings.'
St. Bernard, Epistle 233 to Guarin: 'The spirit overcomes the years,' he says, 'and when the body is already growing cold, a holy desire burns in the body, and though the limbs are failing, the vigor of resolution endures unimpaired, nor does the willing spirit feel the weaknesses of the wrinkled flesh. For why should one fear the ruins of one's veteran dwelling, who sees the spiritual building rising higher day by day, advancing into eternity?' He therefore who wishes to be strong in spirit and to escape its failings and diseases, let him be 'entreches,' that is, a swift runner, so that like a deer he may run forward to every good, and say with the Bride, Song of Songs 1:4: 'We will run after You in the fragrance of Your ointments.' For Christ 'rejoiced as a giant to run His course,' Psalm 18:6.
Whence of the Apostles and the heralds of the Gospel, Christ's followers, Isaiah says, chapter 60, verse 8: 'Who are these that fly like clouds?' And Paul: 'I run,' he says, 'not as one who runs aimlessly.' And: 'So run that you may obtain,' 1 Corinthians chapter 9, verses 25 and 26.
This swiftness is required both in other things and especially in God's calling to the perfect life, for example, to the religious state, so that he who is called should quickly obey God who calls; because if he delays, the devil, parents, companions, and others will strive to divert him from this intention. Hence St. Ambrose, On Penance I, chapter 16: 'Every zeal,' he says, 'grows sluggish by delay, and therefore the Lord, so that the devotion of the disciples might be enriched by present fruits, said: that whoever had left all his possessions and followed God would receive a hundredfold, both here and in the future. He first promised here, to take away the weariness of delay.'
But St. Bernard spurs more sharply to this swiftness in his Declamations: 'How many,' he says, 'does the accursed wisdom of the world trip up! Do not act hastily, it says; consider for a long time, look more carefully. What you propose is great, and you need much deliberation. Test what you can do; consult friends, lest it happen that you repent after the deed. This is the wisdom of the world — earthly, accursed, animal, diabolical, the enemy of salvation, the strangler of life, the mother of lukewarmness, which is wont to provoke God to vomiting. When you do not doubt that the word is from God, what need is there of deliberation? The Angel of Great Counsel calls — why do you wait for the counsels of others? From the mouth of the pit
28. THE LIPS OF MANY WILL BLESS HIM WHO IS GENEROUS WITH HIS BREAD, AND THE TESTIMONY OF HIS TRUTHFULNESS IS RELIABLE. (He alludes to, indeed he cites, Proverbs chapter 22, verse 9: 'He who is inclined to mercy will be blessed; for he has given of his bread to the poor'; where in the next volume, God willing, I shall say more on this matter.) 29. AGAINST ONE WHO IS STINGY WITH BREAD THE CITY WILL MURMUR, AND THE TESTIMONY OF HIS WICKEDNESS IS TRUE.
So read the Roman and Greek editions; therefore Jansenius and others incorrectly read 'in nequissimo pane' (in the worst bread).
After the convivial precepts he adds these two maxims in praise of generosity, namely that the generous man, who liberally distributes his bread and possessions to others, especially to the poor, is blessed and praised by all; while the miser and the sordid man is reproached by all, so that by this reasoning he may attract all to generosity and avert them from sordid avarice. Therefore he calls 'generous with his bread' the beneficent and liberal man who liberally and cheerfully shares his bread, that is, his food, with others; whom therefore the lips of many bless and celebrate as such: 'And the testimony of his truthfulness is reliable,' that is, 'the testimony' which they bear to his truth, that is, to his true virtue, probity, honesty, and liberality (in Greek 'kallone,' that is, beauty, meaning his beautiful munificence, which makes him beautiful and splendid).
St. Ambrose, in his book On Naboth, chapter 4, reads 'goodness,' that is, 'generosity') the citizens bear is 'reliable,' that is, true, certain, stable, enduring, and lasting, so that it cannot be erased and abolished except by contrary acts of avarice continued for a long time. Against this he sets 'the most stingy with his bread,' that is, the miser in giving bread, who shares his possessions sparingly and meanly, both with guests and with the poor; against whom therefore 'the whole city will murmur, and the testimony' which the citizens, especially the poor, bear to his 'wickedness,' that is, his avarice and sordid tenacity,
is true'; in Greek 'akribes,' that is, diligent, exact, certain, stable, and enduring, so that it cannot be erased and extinguished except by many acts of liberality repeated over a long time. Whence the Zurich Bible translates: The lips will proclaim the one who distributes bread, and the testimony of his honor is certain; over stingy bread the city will rage, which is a true testimony of his meanness; others: He who is splendid in food — the lips of men bless him, and the testimony of his honesty is reliable; he who is stingy in food — the city murmurs against him, and the testimony of his wickedness is precise.
An illustrious example of the former is in the Life of St. John the Almsgiver, whom God, Angels, and men blessed for his liberality. An example of the latter is found in the same place, in Peter the Tax-Collector, whom all the poor reviled for his avarice, until, corrected by God through a vision, he changed his ways and from a miser became generous.
Furthermore, Palacius explains it thus: The eighth precept is that if you have received someone at a banquet, you should receive him splendidly and lavishly: thus it will come about that the lips of many praise you; and this praise of your truthfulness is faithful and firm. On the contrary, if you receive guests meanly and sparingly, the city will murmur against you, and this reproach is truly a reproach. 'Bread,' for the Hebrews, signifies the entire banquet, as is shown by the example of Joseph's brothers, who had heard they would eat bread there, Genesis 43:25. Hence 'generous with bread' means one who prepares a banquet lavishly and splendidly — understand this according to the dignity of the guest; conversely, 'most stingy with bread' means the most sparing and sordid.
Note very carefully the word 'the testimony of his truthfulness.' Plainly all the offices of virtue are worthy of praise; but the office of charity is the office of 'truth,' and its 'testimony' is reliable, not deceitful, not deceptive. For charity is the true virtue, without which no virtue is complete. Therefore he who splendidly prepares a banquet for a pious friend shows charity; for the discourse is about banquets of the pious, such as Tobias used to prepare for his friends. This charity at banquets is truth, demonstrating that a man is truly pious. You now understand, from the contrary sense, how reprehensible it is to receive pious persons meanly at a banquet out of sordid parsimony. How great therefore is charity, which even amid feasts pours out the rays of its benignity! So says Palacius.
In connection with this, St. Thomas, Summa Theologica II-II, Question 117, article 4, teaches that it belongs to the liberal and splendid man to give much but to receive little; and in support of this he cites that verse of the Poet:
'If anyone in this world wishes to be held dear by many, Let him give, receive, seek: very much, very little, nothing.'
Moreover, this splendor of magnificence is most fitting for a king and prince, who on earth is as it were a sun of beneficence. Hence Agapetus the Deacon, Admonition to the Emperor Justinian, number 51: 'It is indeed the role of the sun,' he says, 'to illuminate the world with its rays; but the virtue of a prince is to have mercy on the poor. Indeed, more brilliant than these is an emperor who is pious. For the one (the sun) yields to the night that succeeds it, but the other (the pious emperor) does not yield or grant anything to the rapacity of the wicked, but with the light of truth exposes the hidden things of iniquity.' And number 53: 'As much as you surpass others in power, so much strive to shine before others also in deeds. For be most firmly persuaded that there is demanded of you a performance of honorable works that corresponds in proportion to the greatness of your power. Therefore, that you may be declared the victor by God as by a herald, with the crown of an unconquered empire placed upon your head, acquire also a crown by serving the poor.'
Mystically, Rabanus says: 'This sentence,' he says, 'seems according to the historical sense to exhort us to generosity in almsgiving; since, according to the apostle Paul: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly; and he who sows in blessings will also reap from blessings eternal life, 2 Corinthians 9; for God loves a cheerful giver. But spiritually, he who faithfully distributes the bread of the word of God to his neighbors, and does not hide the testimony of truth before well-disposed hearers, will receive from many the praise of blessing, and from the Lord Himself will draw the grace of an everlasting reward. Hence also in Proverbs it is written: From the fruit of a man's mouth his belly will be filled, and the produce of his lips will satisfy him, Proverbs 18.
On the contrary, let us hear what follows from the perverse doctrine of heretics: Against one stingy with bread the city will murmur, and the testimony of his wickedness is true. In the most wicked doctrine, then, of heretics, who adulterating the word of God feed not on the bread of life but on the bread of falsehood, whatever their pestilential speech produces — since the testimony is true which is written about them: A false witness will not go unpunished; and he who speaks lies will perish.'
THIRD PART OF THE CHAPTER. — ON SOBRIETY IN THE DRINKING OF WINE.
(Aptly and in fitting order, Sirach passes from banquets to wine; because wine is the glory or disgrace of a banquet and its guests, and drinking together is frequent at banquets; for which reason a banquet is called by the Hebrews 'mishteh,' and by the Greeks 'symposion,' that is, a drinking-together.)
30. DO NOT PROVOKE THOSE WHO ARE DEVOTED TO WINE: FOR WINE HAS DESTROYED MANY.
The word 'diligentes' (devoted) can be taken in two ways: first, as a participle from the verb 'diligo' (to love), meaning one who loves. Hence Rabanus reads 'delighting in wine.' Now 'devoted to wine,' that is, those who love wine: this is a Hebraism,
For the Hebrews construct verbs of contact, whether real or mental — such as 'diligo' (to love), for the one who loves as it were touches the beloved with his affection — with the preposition 'beth,' meaning 'in.'
Second, and more probably, 'diligentes' can be taken as a noun meaning zealous, assiduous, energetic, meaning: Those who are zealous and energetic in drinking wine, who are constantly devoted to draining cups, who apply their vigorous labor not to books but to emptying goblets — do not provoke them to drink, nor contend with them and compete with cups as to who can drink more, as drinkers do; but rather call them away from wine, distract and hinder them, so as not to add oil but rather to remove fuel from the fire.
The Greek supports this meaning, which reads: 'en oino me andrizou' (one manuscript reads 'me sophizou,' that is, do not be wise in wine: that is, do not show yourself skilled in drinking and Bacchic matters, or do not during drinking show yourself to be learned and erudite), that is, as the Complutensian: Do not act manfully in wine; the Roman: Do not play the strong man in wine; the Zurich Bible: Do not prove yourself a man in wine. For many are men in wine, but women in war and work — to whom Isaiah pronounces woe, chapter 5, verse 11: 'Woe to you who rise early in the morning to pursue drunkenness, and to drink until evening, that you may burn with wine!' And verse 22: 'Woe to you who are mighty at drinking wine, and strong men at mixing drunkenness!'
FOR WINE HAS DESTROYED MANY — that is: Drunkenness has ruined many, for it diminishes the senses, arouses anger, quarrels, and killings, inflames lust, and through fury or love strips bare the secrets of the soul, says Rabanus. The Hebrew proverb is relevant here: 'Wine enters, the secret exits.' For wine has no key; and what is in the mind of the sober man, that floats on the tongue of the drunkard. And that saying: 'ba-kis, ba-kos, ba-ka'as,' that is, in purses, in cups, in anger — namely, the mind and disposition of a man is revealed. For if you entrust purses swollen with gold to someone, you will test his faithfulness; but in cups and wine there is truth. For, as Euripides says: 'Bronze is the mirror of form, wine of the mind.' Finally, about the hearth-fires of anger, the Poet says:
'Anger too has often laid bare the hidden mind of men.'
31. FIRE TESTS (and by testing bends and ignites — this is a metalepsis) HARD IRON: SO WINE WILL CONVICT THE HEARTS OF THE PROUD, DRUNK IN EXCESS.
St. Ambrose, On Elijah, chapter 12, reads: 'Just as fire softens hard iron, so by the burning of wine even the hearts of the proud melt.' The meaning is, says Rabanus: 'Just as fire with its heat softens the hardness of iron and makes it glow; so wine drunk in excess dissolves the hearts of the proud from their constancy, and inflaming them with its heat suddenly provokes them to perpetrate crime, and grants greater audacity to their proud intention for the commission of evil,' meaning: Just as there is no iron so hard that it cannot be tamed and inflamed by fire; so there is no heart so strong and proud that immoderate wine does not reveal the damages of its drunkenness, says Palacius.
A clear example is in the proud Holofernes who, loosened and inflamed by wine, was slain by Judith.
Moreover, the Greek adds some things, and these are vigorous, for it reads: 'kaminos dokimazei stomoma en baphe, houtos oinos kardias en mache' (the Complutensian and Zurich Bible read 'en methe,' that is, in drunkenness) 'hyperephanon.' Which the Complutensian translates: The furnace tests (and by testing produces) the tempering of steel in the dipping; so wine in the heart of the proud in drunkenness; that is, says Palacius: Iron becomes harder if, when heated, it is more often plunged into water; so the heart of the proud becomes prouder if it is more often soaked and swimming in wine.
The Roman edition: The furnace tests the edge of iron in the dipping; so wine tests the hearts of the proud in contention; for 'stomoma' is iron tempered and strengthened with an edge (which the French call 'acier') or steel, that is, the edge, sharpness, and strength of iron; for such is steel. See Pliny, Book 34, chapter 14. The Italians call it 'la tempora,' that is, the strong tempering of iron, as of a knife, sword, axe, etc., meaning: Just as fire tests and produces the tempering of iron, so wine tests and produces a hard tempering of the heart, and therefore one that is contentious and combative. The Zurich Bible: As the furnace tests the hardness of a blade when it is plunged; so wine tests the hearts of the proud in their contest.
Jansenius explains this and adapts it to the Latin Vulgate as follows: It seems, he says, that the Wise Man had in view the fact that, when the edge of a blade is being prepared, the iron or steel is dipped several times in water, and thus is hardened, tempered, and sharpened; and therefore through the dipping of iron in water, fire tests, reveals, and presents to men a sharp sword and hard iron: which, if it were not dipped in water, would not have such hardness. So also wine reveals and presents to men the hearts of the proud, while those hearts are soaked through drunkenness and as it were plunged in wine. For those hearts, heated by wine and soaked by drunkenness, become far harder than they were before, and more ready to harm and injure; just as iron, though hard by nature, becomes harder if, when heated, it is plunged into water; and the heated edge of a sword, if dipped in water, becomes sharper and more apt for wounding.
From these things therefore one may understand the aptness of the comparison, because wine, which inflames men and sets their spirits on fire, is compared to fire that inflames and kindles. The hearts of the proud, which are hard and sharp for wounding, and which become harder through wine and more apt for anger and injury, are compared to hard and sharp iron. Drunkenness, through which the hearts of men are soaked and overwhelmed, is compared to the water in which iron is dipped. In the Greek there is a beautiful paronomasia: for 'baphe' (dipping/dyeing) is set opposite 'methe' (drunkenness), or, as others read, 'mache' (contention). The Vulgate translator therefore either did not read 'en baphe,' or, if he did, he understood it as referring to the immersion of iron
not in water, but in fire; for in fire it is dipped, turns red, and is colored. For the baptism of iron is fire (just as mystically Christ and the Holy Spirit baptize the iron hearts of men with fire, Matthew 3:11); hence he translated: 'Fire tests hard iron,' making no mention of immersion in water, according to the meaning given at the beginning.
32. WINE IN SOBRIETY IS AN EVEN LIFE FOR MEN; IF YOU DRINK IT MODERATELY, YOU WILL BE SOBER.
The meaning is: Wine, taken soberly, brings to man an even and comfortable life; and you will take wine soberly if you take it moderately. Or: 'If you drink it moderately, you will be sober,' that is, in possession of your mind, mentally sound, vigorous, keen, and sharp. For wine taken in moderation sharpens the intellect.
Somewhat differently Palacius: If you lack wine, he says, you will live a sad life; if you use immoderate wine, your life will be immoderately merry. Therefore, to live an even life, that is, neither sad nor excessively merry, use wine moderately. Hence at symposia the 'modimperator,' or president of the symposium, would prescribe a fixed measure for drinking, for example, four or five cups, which it was not permitted to exceed. The maximum measure, which was occasionally allowed to heavy drinkers, was ten cups, according to the Greek drinking song: 'Drink five, and three, and half of four.' For these added together make a total of ten cups. So says Turnebus, Adversaria IV, chapter 30, and others.
The Greek, as usual more briefly, reads thus: 'Epison zoes oinos anthropo, ean pines auton en metro autou.' Which the Complutensian translates: Wine is an addition to the life of man (meaning: wine adds to, increases, and prolongs man's life), if you drink it in its measure; the Roman: Wine is equal to life for a man (meaning: wine equals, is equivalent to, is on par with the life of man, because it preserves it), if you drink it in its measure; the Zurich Bible: Wine is suited to human life when it is drunk temperately; others: Wine is the equal of life for man, if you drink it in measure; because wine vivifies and gladdens a man, just as life itself does.
Differently, indeed contrarily, St. Ambrose reads, On Elijah, chapter 12: 'Equal is life for men,' he says, 'with wine in drunkenness; drink it moderately, that you may be sober.' And he explains it thus: 'All,' he says, 'seem equal to themselves in wine, none inferior. The poor man does not yield to the rich, inasmuch as he does not know he is poor. The weak does not yield to the strong, for whom all strength lies in drinking. The beggar does not yield to the wealthy, nor the lowborn to the honored; but when they drink, they hold him as king who has surpassed the rest in drinking.' But the Vulgate reading must be retained, and the Greek agrees with it, as does what follows.
Furthermore, Hippocrates, Galen, Dioscorides, and all other natural philosophers and physicians unanimously teach that wine wonderfully benefits human life. For wine, they say, both strengthens and nourishes most quickly, because to be assimilated it requires the least change; wine moistens and warms the solid parts, strengthens the powers of the body, improves the quality of the fluids and heat, aids the digestion and distribution of food, promotes urine and sweat, warms the bodily constitution, and is the supreme remedy against the hardness and coldness of old age. For just as iron is softened by fire, so the bodies of the elderly are softened and tempered by wine. Hence wine is called 'the milk of the elderly.'
In addition, it procures sleep, nourishes the spirits and blood, mitigates and breaks the sharpness of bitter bile, kindles and preserves the natural heat, adds strength to the limbs, stops vomiting, resists putrefaction, and is the best antidote against hemlock and poison. Indeed it also sharpens and cheers and elevates the mind and intellect, whence the saying: 'Wine is the great horse of the Poet.' And:
'The Muse inspires the genius of drinking Poets: And they sing songs With wine making their genius.'
And:
'Whom have fruitful cups not made eloquent?'
See Plutarch, Symposiacs VII, problems 9 and 10.
There is this riddle about wine, which is relevant here:
'I give strength and take it away, and the origin of my name is from "vis" (force): I sharpen the intellect, I free hearts from fear. The earth begets me; the sun ripens me with glowing fire; Then potbellied barrels conceal me, and wine-presses disgorge me.'
33 and 34. WHAT LIFE IS THERE FOR HIM WHO IS DIMINISHED BY WINE? WHAT DEFRAUDS LIFE? DEATH.
So the Roman edition. First, Lyranus and others explain this of the intemperate drunkard, meaning: How miserable is the life of the drunkard, who shortens and diminishes it by constantly drinking wine, and to such an extent takes away from himself the use of reason that for the greater part of the day — during which he either sleeps or is drunk — he is not in possession of his mind or himself. Meaning: Such a life is not human but swinish and bestial, and therefore is death rather than life; because he brings upon himself death of nature, of grace, and of glory. 'For the death of nature defrauds the life of nature, the death of sin defrauds the life of grace, the death of hell defrauds the life of glory,' says Lyranus; whence the Zurich Bible translates: What kind of life is that of one who is vanquished by wine?
The exposition of Rabanus is close to this, for he does not place the mark of the second question before 'death' but after it. For he reads: 'Why does death defraud life?' And he explains it thus: Why is drunkenness and excessive wine-drinking committed, by which, as if by death, life is defrauded, that is, diminished and shortened? 'Wine,' he says, 'calls death — that is, drunkenness, the killer of life — because the vitality of the senses is diminished by it, and sickness of the body is produced by it.' For it is as if, rebuking death itself, he asks why it defrauds life; because he condemns excessive drinking as the deceiver of man.
Second, you may take this simply and genuinely as referring to the abstainer, and to one who lacks wine either through poverty, or through parsimony, or some other cause, meaning: How wretched is he who lacks and is deprived of wine, so that he cannot use it soberly for health and joy, and thus for prolonging life! How miserable is a life that is spent without wine! Indeed this seems to be death rather than life; for it is a defrauding and diminishing of life and health, and consequently is a kind of slow death;
for just as by death life is snatched away, so through the lack and absence of wine a healthy and happy life is cheated and snatched away — which is equal to death. That this is the meaning is clear from what preceded: 'Wine in sobriety is an even life for men'; and from what follows: 'Wine was created for joy, the exultation of soul and heart,' etc. Whence the Greek connects these more briefly with those words and reads thus: What would life be if wine were lacking? It was created for men for joy. So Jansenius, Palacius, Emmanuel Sa, and others.
St. John Chrysostom says admirably, Homily 1 to the People: 'Wine,' he says, 'is the best medicine when it has the best proportion.' And in Homily 71: 'Wine,' he says, 'was given so that we might delight, not that we might be disgraced; so that we might laugh, not that we might be laughed at; so that we might be well, not that we might be sick; so that we might correct the health of the body, not that we might overthrow the virtue of the soul. Why do you bring disgrace upon yourself through immoderation? Hear Paul saying: Use a little wine,' etc.
Pseudo-Augustine, in the book On Saving Instructions: 'Wine,' he says, 'God gave us for the joy of the heart, not for drunkenness. Let us therefore drink not as much as gluttony demands, but as much as necessity requires, lest what was granted for the healing of our body we assign to its destruction.' But most perfectly in the Homily On Chastity and Sobriety: 'Moderate wine,' he says, 'restores the weak stomach, repairs failing strength, warms one who is cold, heals wounds when applied, works salvation when combined with antidotes and various medicines, removes sadness, destroys languors of the soul, pours in joy, and makes guests engage in honorable conversation. But taken a little more than this, it is in a certain way converted into poison.'
And below: 'Rustic indeed, but a sound saying: The medicine of wine, taken beyond what is right, is known to be poison.' This is what Solomon says, Proverbs chapter 31, verse 6: 'Give strong drink to those who are mourning, and wine to those who are bitter in soul. Let them drink and forget their poverty, and remember their sorrow no more.' Where I shall say more on this matter in the next work.
Mystically, if these things are true of bodily wine, they are certainly more true of spiritual and heavenly wine, namely the Eucharist; for he who lacks it, lacks spiritual life and joy, according to the words of Christ: 'Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day,' John 6:54. Whence Zechariah, exulting in it, chapter 9, verse 17, says: 'For what is His good, and what is His beauty, but the grain of the elect and the wine that makes virgins flourish?' See what was said there.
Likewise in the wine of doctrine, illumination, charity, fervor, and divine consolation, which Wisdom, that is Christ, mingles for His own, Proverbs 9:2; to which Isaiah invites the faithful, chapter 55, verse 1: 'Come,' he says, 'buy without money and without any exchange, wine and milk.' Of which also the Psalmist, Psalm 35:9: 'They shall be inebriated,' he says, 'from the abundance of Your house, and You shall give them to drink from the torrent of Your pleasure.'
35. WINE WAS CREATED FOR JOY, AND NOT FOR DRUNKENNESS, FROM THE BEGINNING.
The Zurich Bible: Wine was created to cheer men, not to intoxicate them. He teaches two things: The first is that wine is a creature of God, and therefore a good thing. For the Manicheans erred, teaching that wine was produced by the devil. Similarly the Encratites or Severians, whose founder was Tatian, the disciple of St. Justin Martyr, taught that one should abstain from wine, because the vine had germinated it from Satan and the earth, according to St. Augustine, On Heresies, heresy 24; the Catharists, that is, the purifiers, although they ate grapes, nevertheless did not drink wine, saying that 'wine is the gall of the devil,' according to Philastrius in his account of their heresy.
Following these, Muhammad in the Quran forbade the drinking of wine to all his followers. Refuting all of these, St. John Chrysostom, Homily 1 to the People, says: 'Wine is God's; but drunkenness is the work of the devil. Wine does not produce drunkenness — do not accuse God's creature — but condemn the madness of your fellow servant.'
The second point is what the use and purpose of wine is — namely, that it was created to cheer men who through sin have fallen into so many miseries and sorrows, not that men should gorge themselves on it and become drunk. From the fact that he says wine was created from the beginning, Jansenius thinks wine was produced before the Flood, from the origin of the world. But it is more true that the use of wine began with Noah after the Flood; for he is the first recorded to have gathered vines into a vineyard, cultivated them, and pressed wine from grapes, so that he might soothe and strengthen the afflictions, sorrows, labors, and infirmities of himself and other men after the Flood (whence at that time the life of men decreased by five hundred years; for men before the Flood lived nine hundred years, but after it only four hundred), and restore, refresh, and cheer the powers of an aging and failing nature, as I said on Genesis 9:19.
Whence learned men think Noah was called by the pagans Janus the two-faced; because he saw and joined two ages: Janus, because he discovered wine; for 'iain' and 'ien,' from which 'Janus,' is in Hebrew the same as the Greek 'oinos,' Latin 'vinum' (wine). Whence this name passed into other languages. But Athenaeus, Book 2, thinks 'oinos' derives from 'onein,' that is, to help, to be useful, as if 'oinos' were 'onesis,' that is, wine is a great benefit; or, as Eustathius, Iliad I, and Plato in the Cratylus say, 'oinos' is named from 'oiesthai ton noun,' meaning that it fills the mind and supplies it with great opinions, ideas, and hopes, according to the Comic poet's saying: 'The mind is irrigated by wine, so that it may produce something felicitous or opportune.'
Whence also Plato, Laws I: 'The more abundantly one has drawn it,' he says, 'the more he is filled with hope, the more boldly he thinks of himself, and he is filled as it were with a certain confidence and liberality as if he were wise; all fear is driven away, so that he fearlessly says and does whatever he pleases.' Wherefore Athenaeus, Book 2, said that wine is the best gift of the gods, if they use it rightly; but if not, it is the greatest evil.
Famous is that saying of Anacreon: 'When I drink wine, cares sleep'; and that of Zeno: 'Just as the most bitter lupins, steeped in frequent sprinkling of water, become sweet; so sad and bitter spirits, watered with wine, are softened and become mild.' Clement of Alexandria, Paedagogus II, chapter 2, permitting a more liberal drink of wine to elderly Christians, adds that wine is used by some in place of medicine solely for health, but by others so that they may relax and cheer themselves. For wine disperses the clouds of the mind, and makes him who drinks it, to be sure, fair and gentle to himself, then agreeable to his fellow guests, milder to his servants, and more pleasant to his friends. So says Clement. Finally the Poet:
'Wines prepare the spirits and make them apt for warmth, Care flees and is dissolved with much unmixed wine. Then come laughter; then the poor man takes on horns; Then sorrow and cares and the wrinkle of the brow depart. Then that simplicity, so rare in our age, opens minds, As God shakes off our artifices.'
Whence Plato in the Alcibiades calls truth 'the daughter of wine'; others call wine 'the mirror of the mind, disposition, and intellect.' Hence at supper the first cup is drunk for health, the second for cheerfulness, the third for sleep.
Finally, Zerubbabel proposed to his companions this problem: what is the strongest thing? And the first answered: 'Wine is strong'; the second: 'The king is stronger'; the third: 'Women are stronger; but above all things truth conquers' — to whom King Darius gave the laurel, 3 Esdras chapter 3, verse 11 and following. Wherefore the Psalmist, Psalm 104:15: 'That You may bring forth bread from the earth,' he says, 'and wine may gladden the heart of man.' Finally, in the fable of the trees, Judges 9:13, the vine, when she was being chosen as king by the other trees, said: 'Shall I abandon my wine, which gladdens God and men, and go to be promoted among the other trees?'
From which Solomon, Ecclesiastes 10:19, concluded: 'They make bread for laughter, and wine that the living may feast.' Aristotle observes something remarkable about wine: 'Wine,' he says, 'is the most useful of foods and drinks, the sweetest of medicines, and of all provisions the most pleasing to our appetites, if on occasion it is well tempered even more than water. If water is mixed with wine, it is beneficial; and water drunk pure between uses of diluted wine renders the diluted wine itself less harmful. And so in our daily diet we should accustom ourselves to drinking two or three cups of water. This will both soften the use of wine and make the drinking of water familiar to the body, so that when we must drink it, we are not offended by the unfamiliarity of the thing and refuse it.'
He then adds the cases in which water should be drunk, not wine, as the common people wrongly suppose and do: 'For there are those who, at the very time when water should especially be drunk, turn to wine: such as when they have been scorched by the heat of the sun, when they have shivered, when they have spoken too vehemently, when they have thought about something with greater mental effort. Indeed, from fatigue and exertion they think wine should be drunk, because nature itself seems to demand some good disposition for the body, and a change after labors. But it is not pleasure (if you wish to understand this as a good disposition) that nature requires, but a change that places one in the middle between pleasure and pain. Therefore in these cases something of food must be subtracted, and wine must either be abstained from entirely or used diluted with much water in the meantime.
For since wine is by nature violent and sharp, it intensifies and aggravates the disturbances of the body and irritates the affected parts, which desire soothing and relief. Water can accomplish this admirably. For indeed if we drink tepid water even when not thirsty, after fatigue, exertion, and heat, we feel the internal parts relax and be soothed. For the moisture of water is gentle and calm; while the moisture of wine has great force, and a power by no means friendly or fair to recent afflictions.' Then he adds: 'But there is no body so strong that, when disturbed and inflamed, the application of wine does not bring some harm.'
St. Isidore, Etymologies XX, chapter 3: 'Wine (vinum) is so called, he says, because its drinking quickly fills the veins with blood. This others call Lyaeus (for "lyein" means to loosen), because it loosens cares. The ancients called wine "venenum" (poison). Hence St. Jerome, On Preserving Virginity, said that young women should flee wine as they would poison, lest they drink in the burning heat of their age and perish. Hence it is that among the ancient Romans women did not use wine, except for sacred purposes on certain days.'
Furthermore, St. Ambrose, On Elijah, chapter 12, reads and connects thus: 'It is the exultation of soul and heart, if you drink moderately; but immoderate drinking stirs up anger and produces many disasters. For (as he says a little earlier), just as continence is the mother of faith, so drunkenness is the mother of treachery. Into what crime does it not plunge men? People sitting at the doors of taverns, having neither a tunic nor the means for the next day, pass judgment on emperors and rulers; indeed they think they reign and command armies. Through drunkenness the destitute become rich, who are in truth paupers. They bestow gold, distribute money to the people, build cities — they who do not have enough to pay the tavern-keeper the price of their drink. For wine boils in them, and they do not know what they say. They are rich while they are drunk; but soon, when they have digested the wine, they see that they are beggars.
In one day they drink the labors of many days.' He then adds the greater damages of quarrels and fights: 'From drunkenness they rise to arms; weapons succeed cups. Blood is shed for wine, and wine has shed blood itself. How strong men think themselves in wine, how wise, how eloquent, how handsome and comely — when they cannot even stand! The mind staggers, the tongue stammers, a bloodless pallor suffuses their faces, the stench of drunkenness becomes a horror. Barbarians rush to the sword, the common people to brawls; if any of them has been struck with a fist, you may see the faces of the wounded shedding the tears of wine, chanting miserable epilogues.' Hence, in chapter 14, he infers that the power of wine is greater than that of poison. See the same, chapter 16, where among other things he says: 'Drunkards lose their voices, change in color, their eyes blaze, they gasp with their mouths, snort through their nostrils, burn with fury, lose their senses.' And presently: 'While awake they dream, while sleeping they quarrel. Life for them is a dream, sleep for them is death.'
36 and 37. THE EXULTATION OF SOUL AND HEART IS WINE MODERATELY DRUNK. A SOBER DRINK IS HEALTH FOR SOUL AND BODY.
'Exultation' — not formally, but causally, meaning: Wine causes the soul and heart to exult, and through them the whole body, refreshing, strengthening, and cheering the body and through the body the soul. He adds: 'A sober drink is health for soul and body,' because a sober drink of true or substitute wine confers health on soul and body. For many nations, especially the northern ones, because of the coldness of their region, lack true wine; but these use beer or a similar drink, as a kind of imitation and domestic wine. For beer is, as it were, the wine of Ceres — of wheat and barley. Similarly the Indians and Brazilians drink wine pressed from palm trees or other trees besides the vine; others press drinks from apples, cherries, and other fruits, whose sweetness and charm are much the same as those of wine. Among the Orientals, indeed, most sweet and delicate drinks are made from palm dates as well as from other fruits, which the Hebrews call by the general name 'shekar' (strong drink), because they have the intoxicating power of wine.
The Greek reads: The exultation of the heart and joy of the soul is wine drunk at the right time, as much as is sufficient; the Zurich Bible: A just and opportune drink of wine produces joy of soul and cheerfulness; a sober drink produces health of soul and body alike. For the Greek adds two words which the Latin lacks, namely 'en kairo autarkes,' that is, wine sufficient at the right time. By which he signifies that two things are required for a sober drink of wine: first, that it be drunk at its proper time, that is, opportunely — namely, at lunch and supper, not at an untimely hour, as those did whom Isaiah rebukes, chapter 5, verse 11: 'Woe to you who rise early in the morning to pursue drunkenness!' Second, that it be drunk in a quantity sufficient for the body and health, not so as to fill and over-
In the Epistle to the Ephesians, he fashions from our body a sweet-sounding harp, and compares the four qualities or humors of which it consists with the four strings of a single harp. And he adds that wine produces the harmony of this harp; for if it is taken moderately and soberly, it composes the discords of the humors and renders the soul fit for divine things and the praises of God.
'it comes,' he says, 'from vinum (wine), and that from vis (force); hence vindemia (vintage), which is the demia (gathering) of wine or of the vine.' Although others perhaps better derive vinum from the Greek oinos, and both from the Hebrew 'iain' or 'ien,' as I said above. And St. Isidore, Etymologies XX, chapter 3: 'He says vinum is so called because its drinking quickly fills the veins with blood. Others call it Lyaeus (for lyein means to loosen), because it loosens cares. The ancients called wine venenum (poison). Hence St. Jerome, On Preserving Virginity, said that young women should flee wine as they would poison, lest they drink in the burning heat of their age and perish. Hence it is that among the ancient Romans women did not use wine, except for sacred purposes on certain days.'
Furthermore, St. Ambrose, On Elijah, chapter 12, reads and connects thus: 'It is the exultation of soul and heart, if you drink moderately; but immoderate drinking stirs up anger and produces many disasters. For (as he says a little earlier), just as continence is the mother of faith, so drunkenness is the mother of treachery. Into what crime does it not plunge men? People sitting at the doors of taverns, having neither a tunic nor the means for the next day, pass judgment on emperors and rulers; indeed they think they reign and command armies. Through drunkenness the destitute become rich, who are in truth paupers. They bestow gold, distribute money to the people, build cities — they who do not have enough to pay the tavern-keeper the price of their drink. For wine boils in them, and they do not know what they say. They are rich while they are drunk; but soon, when they have digested the wine, they see that they are beggars. In one day they drink the labors of many days.'
He then adds the greater damages of quarrels and fights: 'From drunkenness they rise to arms; weapons succeed cups. Blood is shed for wine, and wine itself has shed blood. How strong men think themselves in wine, how wise, how eloquent, how even handsome and comely — when they cannot stand! The mind staggers, the tongue stammers, a bloodless pallor suffuses their faces, the stench of drunkenness becomes a horror. Barbarians rush to the sword, the common people to brawls; if any of them has been struck with a fist, you may see the faces of the wounded shedding the tears of wine, chanting miserable epilogues.' Hence, in chapter 14, he infers that the power of wine is greater than that of poison. See the same, chapter 16, where among other things he says: 'Drunkards lose their voices, change in color, their eyes blaze, they gasp with their mouths, snort through their nostrils, burn with fury, lose their senses.' And presently: 'While awake they dream, while sleeping they quarrel. Life for them is a dream, sleep for them is death.'
St. Augustine, or whoever the author is (for it is clear from the style that it is not St. Augustine), in the treatise On Sobriety and Virginity, which is found in volume 9, cites this passage in the way our Vulgate edition has it, and then recounts the damages of drunkenness, and among other things in chapter 1: 'Drunkenness,' he says, 'is the mother of all crimes, the matter of faults, the root of offenses, the origin of all vices, the disturbance of the head, the overthrow of the senses, the tempest
38 and 39. MUCH WINE DRUNK PRODUCES IRRITATION, AND ANGER, AND MANY DISASTERS. WINE DRUNK IN GREAT QUANTITY IS BITTERNESS OF SOUL.
'Bitterness,' namely causal, because it causes bitterness when it burdens, stings, afflicts, tortures, irritates, and exasperates the head and brain, which is the workshop and, as it were, the pottery of the soul, with thick, crude, and bilious vapors; for bile is bitter, that is, sharp and biting. Hence it happens that the drunkard, burning with wine and irritated and inflamed with bile, provokes, exasperates, and irritates others to quarrels and fights. Hence the Greek reads only: Bitterness of soul is much wine drunk in irritation and contention, or disaster; for the Greek word 'antiptomati' signifies both. The Zurich Bible: Wine drunk copiously creates bitterness of soul with quarrels and insolence.
Wherefore some claim that vinum in Latin is named from vis (force), because it does violence to the mind and thence to others; or because its power for good and for evil is great, depending on its different use. Varro says: 'Vi-
of the tongue, the storm of the body, the shipwreck of chastity. Drunkenness is the loss of time, voluntary infamy, ignominious languor, the weakening of a sound mind, the disgrace of morals, the dishonor of life, the infamy of decency, the corruption of the soul.' And at last concluding he says: 'The medicine of wine, taken beyond what is right, is known to be poison.'
St. John Chrysostom, Homily 1 to the People: 'A drunkard,' he says, 'is a living dead man, a voluntary demon; a disease that admits no pardon, a fall that has no excuse, a common disgrace of our race; heaven becomes invisible to drunkards.'
St. Basil, Homily On Drunkenness: 'Drunkenness,' he says, 'is a voluntary demon, placed in our souls through pleasure. Drunkenness is the mother of malice, the enemy of virtue; it makes the brave man cowardly, the temperate man wanton; it knows not justice, it extinguishes prudence. For just as water is opposed to fire, so immoderate wine suppresses reason.' And below: 'Drunkenness is the destruction of reason, the ruin of courage, premature old age, momentary death. What, I ask, are drunkards but the idols of the nations? They have eyes and do not see; they have ears and do not hear; they have hands afflicted with paralysis, weak and easily stumbling feet, etc. Tell me, what chariot of untamed horses rushes so headlong, throwing off its master? What ship, so deprived of its helmsman, so tossed and battered by the waves, that it is not safer than a drunkard?'
The same, Admonition to a Spiritual Son: 'Drunkenness is nothing other than a most manifest demon. What is a drunkard considered less than a demoniac? When he thinks he is drinking, he is being drunk. For just as a fish, when with greedy jaws it hastens to swallow the bait, suddenly finds an enemy between its jaws; so the drunkard receives within himself wine as an enemy, which drives him to every most foul deed.' According to the Poet's saying:
'And Venus was in wines, fire was in fire.'
For wine is the fuel of lust. See the same in his Ascetical Works, Oration 18, which is on gluttony and drunkenness.
40. THE BOLDNESS OF DRUNKENNESS IS THE STUMBLING OF THE IMPRUDENT, DIMINISHING STRENGTH AND PRODUCING WOUNDS.
Meaning: The boldness and audacity which drunkenness produces causes the imprudent drunkard to stumble and fall into many obstacles, slips, dangers, quarrels, etc. The same diminishes a man's strength and produces wounds and slaughter. Hence the Greek reads more clearly: 'plethynei thymon morou eis proskomma, elatton ischyn, kai prospoion traumata,' that is, drunkenness multiplies the fury of the fool into stumbling, diminishing strength and acquiring wounds; the Zurich Bible: Drunkenness increases the spirit of the fool until he stumbles, weakens his strength, and produces wounds. According to the Poet's saying:
'Hope makes men think their dreams fulfilled, and thrusts the unarmed into battle.'
And that Greek proverb, 'koros hybrin tekein,' that is, satiety
begets ferocity. And the saying of Anacharsis in Laertius: 'On the vine three clusters are born: the first of pleasure, the second of drunkenness, the third of madness, fury, and violence.'
Note here five effects and harms of drunkenness. The first is boldness and aggression, because it fills the head with fumes, the veins with blood, the liver with bile. The second is imprudence, because it takes away reason, mind, and prudence from a man, so that a wise and prudent man becomes foolish, imprudent, indeed irrational, like a beast, and even worse and more brutish than a beast, says St. Basil in the passage cited above. The third is stumbling: for he who is imprudent does not watch for the dangers of falling, and therefore, being unprepared, stumbles into them and falls. The fourth is that it weakens a man, because it burdens and overwhelms the stomach, the head, and the natural heat. The fifth is that it produces quarrels, blows, and wounds, and especially that it causes the drunkard, boldly provoking others to fight, but weighed down by excess and deprived of strength, to be harmed, wounded, or killed by those whom he has provoked.
Therefore wine taken in moderation makes one strong, prudent, cheerful, prevents one from stumbling, adds strength, and thereby averts wounds: wine taken immoderately produces all the opposites, so that the very thing that was given to man for joy becomes a scourge and torment; and (as Rabanus says) 'what was given to him for the nourishment of life becomes for him a detriment to health.'
Where note morally that it is a just decree and judgment of God that the goods which He created for our benefit, if we abuse them, are turned into evils and scourges for us, so that those things become our torturers which we have set up for ourselves as idols. Such is wine, wealth, honors, wife, children, and the rest, says Palacius. Furthermore, Plutarch in his Symposiacs writes that bread mixed with honey is especially effective for allaying drunkenness, because the vapors that ascend from the stomach into the head and disturb it are suppressed by this food.
41. AT A WINE BANQUET DO NOT REPROACH YOUR NEIGHBOR: AND DO NOT DESPISE HIM IN HIS JOY.
Meaning: At a banquet where wine is drunk abundantly, do not censure your neighbor, nor despise him so as to speak or act contemptuously about him or with him, when he is in his joy, that is, happy and cheerful; because if you do so, you will take away from him this joy, which is appropriate to such a place and time, and turn it into bitterness and anger, so that he quarrels with you and descends from words to blows; especially because wine inflames the blood and anger, while it diminishes reason and prudence. Therefore no one easily endures being reproached at a banquet, but repays in kind.
In Greek it reads: 'en symposio,' that is, at a drinking-together of wine do not reprove your neighbor, and do not despise him in his joy. For the Greeks call a banquet 'symposion,' that is, a drinking-together; because at most banquets more is drunk than eaten. The Zurich Bible: Do not reproach another at a wine-drinking gathering,
nor reproach anyone in his joy. For then is the time for gladness, honor, praise, and exultation; from which therefore sadness, reproof, contempt, reproach, and injury should be absent. Thus Ham despised and mocked his father Noah when he was drunk and naked, and for that reason was cursed by him; but Shem and Japheth, because they covered his nakedness, were blessed by the same, Genesis 9.
42. DO NOT SPEAK WORDS OF REPROACH TO HIM: AND DO NOT PRESS HIM IN DEMANDING REPAYMENT.
by exacting and demanding the debt he owes you; for in such a place and time it is importunate. Or 'do not press him' by toasting him repeatedly to equal draughts, forcing him to repeat the emptying of the cup, as is the bad custom of heavy drinkers, who are bitter torturers of themselves and others in drinking. The translator reads 'ex anaitesisin,' that is, 'in demanding repayment,' and thus read the Roman Greek texts. Hence some translate: Do not speak a word of insult to him, and do not press him by demanding repayment.
The Complutensian and Zurich Bible, however, read 'en eukairia autou,' that is, 'in his encounter.' Hence the Complutensian translates: Do not press him in his encounter, that is, in meeting and contradicting him; the Zurich Bible: Do not assail him with a reproachful word, nor press him when he approaches you; namely when he meets and approaches you, as drunkards are wont to do from the impudence that wine and drunkenness produce; for from that impudence they attack, push, press, and harass everyone they meet, like insolent calves and charging bulls.
Wherefore Chilon, in Plutarch's Banquet of the Seven Sages: 'When invited to dinner he would not accept until he knew the names of the guests; for he used to say that those with whom one must necessarily sail or serve in the army, one must also endure their troublesome company and companionship. But to willingly mingle with guests of any sort whatsoever is not the part of a sane man.' Indeed David too, Psalm 100:5: 'With one who has a proud eye,' he says, 'and an insatiable heart, with such a one I would not eat. My eyes are upon the faithful of the earth, that they may sit with me.' And St. Augustine, according to the testimony of Possidius, kept detractors away from his table.