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| Of Martyrs, and Their Intercession on Behalf of Scandalous Offenders.
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Chapter XXII.—Of
Martyrs, and Their Intercession on Behalf of Scandalous
Offenders.
But you go so far as to lavish this
“power” upon martyrs withal! No sooner has any one,
acting on a preconceived arrangement, put on the bonds—(bonds),
moreover, which, in the nominal custody now in vogue,986
| 986 Comp. de Je., c.
xii. |
are soft ones—than adulterers beset him, fornicators gain access
to him; instantly prayers echo around him; instantly pools of tears
(from the eyes) of all the polluted surround him; nor are there any who
are more diligent in purchasing entrance into the prison than they who
have lost (the fellowship of) the Church! Men and women are
violated in the darkness with which the habitual indulgence of lusts
has plainly familiarized them; and they seek peace at the hands of
those who are risking their own! Others betake them to the mines,
and return, in the character of communicants, from thence, where by
this time another “martyrdom” is necessary for sins
committed after “martyrdom.” “Well, who
on earth and in the flesh is faultless?” What
“martyr” (continues to be) an inhabitant of the
world987
supplicating? pence in hand? subject to
physician and usurer? Suppose, now, (your “martyr”)
beneath the glaive, with head already steadily poised; suppose him on
the cross, with body already outstretched; suppose him at the stake,
with the lion already let loose; suppose him on the axle, with the fire
already heaped; in the very certainty, I say, and possession of
martyrdom: who permits man to condone (offences) which are
to be reserved for God, by whom those (offences) have been
condemned without discharge, which not even apostles (so far as I
know)—martyrs withal themselves—have judged
condonable? In short, Paul had already “fought with beasts
at Ephesus,” when he decreed “destruction” to the
incestuous person.988
Let it suffice
to the martyr to have purged his own sins: it is the part of
ingratitude or of pride to lavish upon others also what one has
obtained at a high price.989
Who has
redeemed another’s death by his own, but the Son of God
alone? For even in His very passion He set the robber
free.990
For to this end had He come, that,
being Himself pure from sin,991
and in all respects
holy,992
He might undergo death on behalf of
sinners.993
Similarly, you
who emulate Him in condoning sins, if you yourself have done no sin,
plainly suffer in my stead. If, however, you are a sinner, how
will the oil of your puny torch be able to suffice for you and for
me?994
I have, even now, a test whereby to prove (the
presence of) Christ (in you). If Christ is in the martyr for this
reason, that the martyr may absolve adulterers and fornicators, let Him
tell publicly the secrets of the heart, that He may thus concede
(pardon to) sins; and He is Christ. For thus it was that the Lord
Jesus Christ showed His power: “Why think ye evil in your
hearts? For which is easier, to say to the paralytic, Thy sins
are remitted thee; or, Rise and walk? Therefore, that ye may know
the Son of man to have the power upon earth of remitting sins, I say to
thee, paralytic, Rise, and walk.”995
If the Lord set so much store by the proof of His power as to reveal
thoughts, and so impart health by His command, lest He should not be
believed to have the power of remitting sins; it is not lawful for me
to believe the same power (to reside) in any one, whoever he be,
without the same proofs. In the act, however, of urgently
entreating from a martyr pardon for adulterers and fornicators, you
yourself confess that crimes of that nature are not to be washed away
except by the martyrdom of the criminal himself, while you presume
(they can be washed away) by another’s. If this is so, then
martyrdom will be another baptism. For “I have
withal,” saith He, “another baptism.”996
Whence, too, it was that there flowed
out of the wound in the Lord’s side water and blood, the
materials of either baptism.997
I ought, then,
by the first baptism too to (have the right of) setting another
free if I can by the second: and we must necessarily force
upon the mind (of our opponents this conclusion): Whatever
authority, whatever reason, restores ecclesiastical peace to the
adulterer and fornicator, the same will be bound to come to the aid of
the murderer and idolater in their repentance,—at all events, of
the apostate, and of course of him whom, in the battle of his
confession, after hard struggling with torments, savagery has
overthrown. Besides, it were unworthy of God and of His mercy,
who prefers the repentance of a sinner to his death, that they should
have easier return into (the bosom of) the Church who have fallen in
heat of passion, than they who have fallen in
hand-to-hand
combat.998
| 998 Comp. de Monog.,
c. xv. | Indignation urges us to speak.
Contaminated bodies you will recall rather than gory ones! Which
repentance is more pitiable—that which prostrates tickled flesh,
or lacerated? Which pardon is, in all causes, more justly
concessible—that which a voluntary, or that which an involuntary,
sinner implores? No one is compelled with his will to
apostatize; no one against his will commits fornication.
Lust is exposed to no violence, except itself: it knows no
coercion whatever. Apostasy, on the contrary, what ingenuities of
butchery and tribes of penal inflictions enforce! Which has more
truly apostatized—he who has lost Christ amid agonies, or (he who
has done so) amid delights? he who when losing Him grieved, or he who
when losing Him sported? And yet those scars graven on the
Christian combatant—scars, of course, enviable in the eyes of
Christ, because they yearned after Conquest, and thus also glorious,
because failing to conquer they yielded; (scars) after which even the
devil himself yet sighs; (scars) with an infelicity of their own, but a
chaste one, with a repentance that mourns, but blushes not, to the Lord
for pardon—will anew be remitted to such, because their apostasy
was expiable! In their case alone is the “flesh
weak.” Nay, no flesh so strong as that which crushes out
the Spirit!E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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