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De Fuga in Persecutione

XI.

[1] Haec sentire et facere omnem servum dei oportet, etiam minoris loci, ut maioris fieri possit, si quem gradum in persecutionis tolerantia ascenderit. Sed cum ipsi auctores, id est ipsi diaconi et presbyteri et episcopi fugiunt, quomodo laicus intelligere poterit, qua ratione dictum: Fugite de civitate in civitatem? Itaque cum duces fugiunt, quis de gregario numero sustinebit ad gradum in acie figendum suadere? [2] Certe quidem bonus pastor animam pro pecoribus ponit, ut Moyses non domino adhuc Christo revelato et iam in se figurato ait: Si perdis hunc populum, inquit, et me pariter cum eo disperde. Ceteram Christo confirmante figuras suas malus pastor est, qui viso lupo fugit et pecora diripienda derelinquit; proicietur de villa pastor huiusmodi, detinebuntur illi mercedes missionis suae in compensatione, immo et de priore peculio eius exigetur detrimenti dominici restitutio: Etenim qui habet, dabitur ei, ab eo autem, qui non habet, etiam quod videtur habere, auferetur. [3] Sic Zacharias comminatur: Exurge, rhomphaea, in pastores et evellite oves et superducam manum meam in pastores. In quos et Ezechiel et Hieremias isdem minis perorant, quod non tantum de pecoribus improbe vescantur pascentes potius semetipsos, verum et dispersam gregem faciant et in praedam esse omnibus bestiis agri, dum non est pastor illis. Quod numquam magis fit, quam cum in persecutione ecclesia destituitur a clero. Si et Spiritum quis agnoverit, audiet fugitivos denotantem. [4] Porro si eos, qui gregi praesunt, fugere, cum lupi irruunt, nec decet, immo nec licet ---- qui enim talem pastorem malum pronuntiavit, utique damnavit; omne autem quod damnatur, illicitum factum est sine dubio ----, ideo praepositos ecclesiae in persecutione fugere non oportebit. Ceterum si grex fugere deberet, non debere praepositos gregis stare, sine causa staturos ad tutelam gregis, quam grex non desiderat, scilicet ex licentia fugae.

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De Fuga in Persecutione

11.

Thus ought every servant of God to feel and act, even one in an inferior place, that he may come to have a more important one, if he has made some upward step by his endurance of persecution. But when persons in authority themselves--I mean the very deacons, and presbyters, and bishops--take to flight, how will a layman be able to see with what view it was said, Flee from city to city? Thus, too, with the leaders turning their backs, who of the common rank will hope to persuade men to stand firm in the battle? Most assuredly a good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep, according to the word of Moses, when the Lord Christ had not as yet been revealed, but was already shadowed forth in himself: "If you destroy this people," he says, "destroy me also along with it." ¹ But Christ, confirming these foreshadowings Himself, adds: "The bad shepherd is he who, on seeing the wolf, flees, and leaves the sheep to be torn in pieces." ² Why, a shepherd like this will be turned off from the farm; the wages to have been given him at the time of his discharge will be kept from him as compensation; nay, even from his former savings a restoration of the master's loss will be required; for "to him who hath shall be given, but from him who hath not shall be taken away even that which he seemeth to have." ³ Thus Zechariah threatens: "Arise, O sword, against the shepherds, and pluck ye out the sheep; and I will turn my hand against the shepherds." ⁴ And against them both Ezekiel and Jeremiah declaim with kindred threatenings, for their not only wickedly eating of the Sheep,--they feeding themselves rather than those committed to their charge,--but also scattering the flock, and giving it over, shepherdless, a prey to all the beasts of the field. And this never happens more than when in persecution the Church is abandoned by the clergy. If any one recognises the Spirit also, he will hear him branding the runaways. But if it does not become the keepers of the flock to flee when the wolves invade it--nay, if that is absolutely unlawful (for He who has declared a shepherd of this sort a bad one has certainly condemned him; and whatever is condemned has, without doubt, become unlawful)--on this ground it will not be the duty of those who have been set over the Church to flee in the time of persecution. But otherwise, if the flock should flee, the overseer of the flock would have no call to hold his ground, as his doing so in that case would be, without good reason, to give to the flock protection, which it would not require in consequence of its liberty, forsooth, to flee.