Edition Hide
Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

70.

Ut interim omittam, quod, cum percussisset Aegyptium, quamquam illi deus non praeceperit, in persona tamen prophetica ad hoc divinitus fieri permissum est, ut futurum aliquid praesignaret, unde nunc non ago, p. 666,18 sed omnino tamquam nihil significaverint facta illa discutio consultaque illa aeterna lege reperio non debuisse hominem ab illo, qui nullam ordinatam potestatem gerebat, quamvis iniuriosum et improbum occidi. Verumtamen animae virtutis capaces ac fertiles praemittunt saepe vitia, quibus hoc ipsum indicent, cui virtuti sint potissimum accomodatae, si fuerint praeceptis excultae. Sicut enim et agricolae quam terram viderint quamvis inutiles, tamen ingentes herbas progignere, frumentis aptam esse pronuntiant, et ubi filicem aspexerint, licet eradicandam sciant, validis vitibus habilem intellegunt, p. 667,3 et quem montem oleastris silvescere aspexerint, oleis esse utilem cultura accedente non dubitant, sic ille animi motus, quo Moyses peregrinum fratrem a cive improbo iniuriam perpetientem non observato ordine potestatis inultum esse non pertulit, non virtutum fructibus inutilis erat, sed adhuc incultus vitiosa quidem, sed magnae fertilitatis signa fundebat. Ipse denique per angelum suum divinis Moysen vocibus evocavit in monte Sina, per quem liberaretur ex Aegypto populus Israhel, eumque miraculo visionis in rubo flammante et non ardente verbisque dominicis ad frugem oboedientiae praeparavit, qui etiam Saulum ecclesiam persequentem de caelo vocavit, prostravit, erexit, implevit, tamquam percussit, amputavit, inseruit, fecundavit. p. 667,15 Illa namque Pauli saevitia, cum secundum aemulationem paternarum traditionum persequebatur ecclesiam, putans officium deo se facere, tamquam silvestre erat vitium, sed magnae feracitatis indicium. Hinc erat illud Petri, cum evaginato gladio volens defendere dominum aurem persecutoris abscidit, quod factum dominus satis minaciter cohibuit dicens: Reconde gladium; qui enim gladio usus fuerit, gladio cadet. Ille autem utitur gladio, qui nulla superiore ac legitima potestate vel iubente vel concedente in sanguinem alicuius armatur. Nam utique dominus iusserat, ut ferrum discipuli eius ferrent, sed non iusserat, ut ferirent. Quid ergo incongruum, si Petrus post hoc peccatum factus est pastor ecclesiae, sicut Moyses post percussum Aegyptium factus est rector illius synagogae? p. 668,2 Uterque enim non detestabili immanitate, sed emendabili animositate iustitiae regulam excessit, uterque odio improbitatis alienae, sed ille fraterno, iste dominico, licet adhuc carnali, tamen amore peccavit. Resecandum hoc vitium vel eradicandum, sed tamen tam magnum cor tamquam terra frugibus, ita ferendis virtutibus excolendum.

Translation Hide
Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

70.

It might be shown that, though Moses slew the Egyptian, without being commanded by God, the action was divinely permitted, as, from the prophetic character of Moses, it prefigured something in the future. Now however, I do not use this argument, but view the action as having no symbolical meaning. In the light, then, of the eternal law, it was wrong for one who had no legal authority to kill the man, even though he was a bad character, besides being the aggressor. But in minds where great virtue is to come, there is often an early crop of vices, in which we may still discern a disposition for some particular virtue, which will come when the mind is duly cultivated. For as farmers, when they see land bringing forth huge crops, though of weeds, pronounce it good for corn; or when they see wild creepers, which have to be rooted out, still consider the land good for useful vines; and when they see a hill covered with wild olives, conclude that with culture it will produce good fruit: so the disposition of mind which led Moses to take the law into his own hands, to prevent the wrong done to his brother, living among strangers, by a wicked citizen of the country from being unrequited, was not unfit for the production of virtue, but from want of culture gave signs of its productiveness in an unjustifiable manner. He who afterwards, by His angel, called Moses on Mount Sinai, with the divine commission to liberate the people of Israel from Egypt, and who trained him to obedience by the miraculous appearance in the bush burning but not consumed, and by instructing him in his ministry, was the same who, by the call addressed from heaven to Saul when persecuting the Church, humbled him, raised him up, and animated him; or in figurative words, by this stroke He cut off the branch, grafted it, and made it fruitful. For the fierce energy of Paul, when in his zeal for hereditary traditions he persecuted the Church, thinking that he was doing God service, was like a crop of weeds showing great signs of productiveness. It was the same in Peter, when he took his sword out of its sheath to defend the Lord, and cut off the right ear of an assailant, when the Lord rebuked him with something like a threat, saying, "Put up thy sword into its sheath; for he that taketh the sword shall perish by the sword." ¹ To take the sword is to use weapons against a man's life, without the sanction of the constituted authority. The Lord, indeed, had told His disciples to carry a sword; but He did not tell them to use it. But that after this sin Peter should become a pastor of the Church was no more improper than that Moses, after smiting the Egyptian, should become the leader of the congregation. In both cases the trespass originated not in inveterate cruelty, but in a hasty zeal which admitted of correction. In both cases there was resentment against injury, accompanied in one case by love for a brother, and in the other by love, though still carnal, of the Lord. Here was evil to be subdued or rooted out; but the heart with such capacities needed only, like good soil, to be cultivated to make it fruitful in virtue.