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| Of accusations against doctors.
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II.
(Of accusations against doctors.)
Moreover, let no one take up an accusation against
a doctor (teacher), because it is not right for sons to find
fault with fathers, nor for slaves to wound their masters. Now,
all those whom they instruct are sons of doctors; and as sons ought to
love their fathers after the flesh, so ought they to love their
spiritual fathers. For he does not live rightly who does not
believe rightly, or who reprehends fathers, or calumniates
them. Doctors therefore, who
are also called fathers, are rather to be borne with than reprehended,
unless they err from the true faith. Let no one, consequently,
accuse a doctor by writing (per scripta); neither let him
answer to any accuser, unless he be one who is trustworthy and
recognised by law, and who leads also a life and conversation free from
reproach. For it is a thing unworthy that a doctor should reply
to a foolish and ignorant person, and one who leads a reprehensible
life, according to the man’s folly; as Scripture says, Answer not
a fool according to his folly.2728
He
does not live rightly who does not believe rightly. He means
nothing evil who is faithful. If anyone is faithful (a
believer), let him see to it that he make no false allegations, nor
lay a snare for any man. The faithful man acts always in faith;
and the unfaithful man plots cunningly, and strives to work the ruin of
those who are faithful, and who live in piety and righteousness,
because like seeks like. The unfaithful man is one dead in the
living body. And on the other hand, the discourse of the man of
faith guards the life of his hearers. For as the Catholic doctor,
and especially the priest of the Lord, ought to be involved in no
error, so ought he to be wronged by no machination or passion.
Holy Scripture indeed says, Go not after thy lusts, but refrain thyself
from thine appetites;2729
and we must
resist many allurements of this world, and many vanities, in order that
the integrity of a true continence may be obtained, whereof the first
blemish is pride, the beginning of transgression and the origin of sin;
for the mind with lustful will knows neither to abstain nor to give
itself to piety. No good man has an enemy except in the wicked,
who are permitted to be such only in order that the good man may be
corrected or exercised through their means. Whatever, therefore,
is faultless is defended by the Church Catholic. Neither for
prince, nor for any one who observes piety, is it lawful to venture
anything contrary to the divine injunctions. Consequently an
unjust judgment, or an unjust decision
(diffinitio), instituted or enforced by judges
under the fear or by the command of a prince, or any bishop or person
of influence, cannot be valid. The religious man ought not to
hold it enough merely to refrain from entering into the enmities of
others, or increasing them by evil speech, unless he also make it his
study to extinguish them by good speech.2730
| 2730 See
Augustine’s Confessions, book ix. ch. ix. | Better is a humble confession in
evil deeds, than a proud boasting in good deeds.2731
Moreover, all who live the
blessed life, choose rather to run that course in the proper estate of
peace and righteousness, than to involve themselves in the avenging
pains of our sins.2732
For I
am mindful that I preside over the Church under the name of him whose
confession was honoured by our Lord Jesus Christ, and whose faith ever
destroys all errors. And I understand that I am not at liberty to
act otherwise than to expend all my efforts on that cause in which the
well-being of the universal Church is at stake
(infestatur). I hope, too, that the mercy of
God will so favour us, that, with the help of His clemency, every
deadly disease may be removed, God Himself expelling it, and that
whatever may be done wholesomely, under His inspiration and help, may
be accomplished to the praise of thy faith and devotion. For all
things cannot otherwise be safe, unless, as far as pertains to the
service of the divine office, sacerdotal authority upholds them.
Given on the 21st day of November in the consulship of the most
illustrious Antoninus and Alexander.2733
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