OF THE EVIL REPORT OF HIS INIQUITY
Before long all those who dwelt thereabouts began to censure me
roundly, complaining that I paid far less attention to their needs
than I might and should have done, and that at least I could do
something for them through my preaching. As a result, I returned
thither frequently, to be of service to them in whatsoever way I
could. Regarding this there was no lack of hateful murmuring, and
the thing which sincere charity induced me to do was seized upon by
the wickedness of my detractors as the subject of shameless outcry.
They declared that I, who of old could scarcely endure to be parted
from her I loved, was still swayed by the delights of fleshly lust.
Many times I thought of the complaint of St. Jerome in his letter
to Asella regarding those women whom he was falsely accused of
loving, when he said (Epist. xcix): "I am charged with nothing save
the fact of my sex, and this charge is made only because Paula is
setting forth to Jerusalem." And again: "Before I became intimate
in the household of the saintly Paula, the whole city was loud in
my praise, and nearly every one deemed me deserving of the highest
honours of priesthood. But I know that my way to the kingdom of
Heaven lies through good and evil report alike."
When I pondered over the injury which slander had done to so great
a man as this, I was not a little consoled thereby. If my rivals, I
told myself, could but find an equal cause for suspicion against
me, with what accusations would they persecute me! But how is it
possible for such suspicion to continue in my case, seeing that
divine mercy has freed me therefrom by depriving me of all power to
enact such baseness? How shameless is this latest accusation! In
truth that which had happened to me so completely removes all
suspicion of this iniquity among all men that those who wish to
have their women kept under close guard employ eunuchs for that
purpose, even as sacred history tells regarding Esther and the
other damsels of King Ahasuerus (Esther ii, 5). We read, too, of
that eunuch of great authority under Queen Candace who had charge
of all her treasure, him to whose conversion and baptism the
apostle Philip was directed by an angel (Acts viii, 27). Such men,
in truth, are enabled to have far more importance and intimacy
among modest and upright women by the fact that they are free from
any suspicion of lust.
The sixth book of the Ecclesiastical History tells us that the
greatest of all Christian philosophers, Origen, inflicted a like
injury on himself with his own hand, in order that all suspicion of
this nature might be completely done away with in his instruction
of women in sacred doctrine. In this respect, I thought, God's
mercy had been kinder to me than to him, for it was judged that he
had acted most rashly and had exposed himself to no slight censure,
whereas the thing had been done to me through the crime of another,
thus preparing me for a task similar to his own. Moreover, it had
been accomplished with much less pain, being so quick and sudden,
for I was heavy with sleep when they laid hands on me, and felt
scarcely any pain at all.
But alas, I thought, the less I then suffered from the wound, the
greater is my punishment now through slander, and I am tormented
far more by the loss of my reputation than I was by that of part of
my body. For thus is it written: "A good name is rather to be
chosen than great riches" (Prov. xxii, 1). And as St. Augustine
tells us in a sermon of his on the life and conduct of the clergy,
"He is cruel who, trusting in his conscience, neglects his
reputation." Again he says: "Let us provide those things that are
good, as the apostle bids us (Rom. xii, 17), not alone in the eyes
of God, but likewise in the eyes of men. Within himself each one's
conscience suffices, but for our own sakes our reputations ought
not to be tarnished, but to flourish. Conscience and reputation are
different matters: conscience is for yourself, reputation for your
neighbour." Methinks the spite of such men as these my enemies
would have accused the very Christ Himself, or those belonging to
Him, prophets and apostles, or the other holy fathers, if such
spite had existed in their time, seeing that they associated in
such familiar intercourse with women, and this though they were
whole of body. On this point St. Augustine, in his book on the duty
of monks, proves that women followed our Lord Jesus Christ and the
apostles as inseparable companions, even accompanying them when
they preached (Chap. 4). "Faithful women," he says, "who were
possessed of worldly wealth went with them, and ministered to them
out of their wealth, so that they might lack none of those things
which belong to the substance of life." And if any one does not
believe that the apostles thus permitted saintly women to go about
with them wheresoever they preached the Gospel, let him listen to
the Gospel itself, and learn therefrom that in so doing they
followed the example of the Lord. For in the Gospel it is written
thus: "And it came to pass afterward, that He went throughout every
city and village, preaching and showing the glad tidings of the
kingdom of God: and the twelve were with Him, and certain women,
which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called
Magdalene, and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and
Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto Him of their
substance" (Luke viii, i-3).
Leo the Ninth, furthermore, in his reply to the letter of
Parmenianus concerning monastic zeal, says: "We unequivocally
declare that it is not permissible for a bishop, priest, deacon or
subdeacon to cast off all responsibility for his own wife on the
grounds of religious duty, so that he no longer provides her with
food and clothing; albeit he may not have carnal intercourse with
her. We read that thus did the holy apostles act, for St. Paul
says: 'Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as
other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?' (I
Cor. ix, 5). Observe, foolish man, that he does not say: 'have we
not power to embrace a sister, a wife,' but he says 'to lead
about,' meaning thereby that such women may lawfully be supported
by them out of the wages of their preaching, but that there must be
no carnal bond between them."
Certainly that Pharisee who spoke within himself of the Lord,
saying: "This man, if He were a prophet, would have known who and
what manner of woman this is that toucheth Him: for she is a
sinner" (Luke vii, 39), might much more reasonably have suspected
baseness of the Lord, considering the matter from a purely human
standpoint, than my enemies could suspect it of me. One who had
seen the mother of Our Lord entrusted to the care of the young man
(John xix, 27), or who had beheld the prophets dwelling and
sojourning with widows (I Kings xvii, 10), would likewise have had
a far more logical ground for suspicion. And what would my
calumniators have said if they had but seen Malchus, that captive
monk of whom St. Jerome writes, living in the same but with his
wife? Doubtless they would have regarded it as criminal in the
famous scholar to have highly commended what he thus saw, saying
thereof: "There was a certain old man named Malchus, a native of
this region, and his wife with him in his hut. Both of them were
earnestly religious, and they so often passed the threshold of the
church that you might have thought them the Zacharias and Elisabeth
of the Gospel, saving only that John was not with them."
Why, finally, do such men refrain from slandering the holy fathers,
of whom we frequently read, nay, and have even seen with our own
eyes, founding convents for women and making provision for their
maintenance, thereby following the example of the seven deacons
whom the apostles sent before them to secure food and take care of
the women? (Acts vi, 5). For the weaker sex needs the help of the
stronger one to such an extent that the apostle proclaimed that the
head of the woman is ever the man (I Cor. xi, 3), and in sign
thereof he bade her ever wear her head covered (ib. 5). For this
reason I marvel greatly at the customs which have crept into
monasteries, whereby, even as abbots are placed in charge of the
men, abbesses now are given authority over the women, and the women
bind themselves in their vows to accept the same rules as the men.
Yet in these rules there are many things which cannot possibly be
carried out by women, either as superiors or in the lower orders.
In many places we may even behold an inversion of the natural order
of things, whereby the abbesses and nuns have authority over the
clergy, and even over those who are themselves in charge of the
people. The more power such women exercise over men, the more
easily can they lead them into iniquitous desires, and in this way
can lay a very heavy yoke upon their shoulders. It was with such
things in mind that the satirist said:
"There is nothing more intolerable than a rich woman."
(Juvenal, Sat. VI, v, 459).