and the wolf catcheth, and scattereth the sheep.[1] I have also pondered over another passage in Matt. x.: When they shall persecute you in this city, flee unto another.[2] This, then, is the precept or promise of Christ. I am in a strait betwixt two, and know not how I ought to act.
I have pondered over the epistle of the blessed Augustine to Bishop Honoratus,[3] who sought guidance in a similar case. Here is the reply and conclusion of Augustine: Whosoever fleeth so that his flight doth not leave the Church without the necessary ministry, is acting according to the Lord’s precept or promise. But he that fleeth so as to withdraw from Christ's flock the nourishment which supports its spiritual life, is an hireling, who seeth the wolf coming and flieth, because he cared not for the sheep. Seeing, beloved brother, that you have consulted me, this is my genuine opinion and the answer which true love[4] moves me to send: but I do not restrict you to this view, if you can find a better. Nevertheless, we cannot find out any better how to act in these difficulties than by praying to our Lord God to pity us: for we[5] have obtained the power both to will and to do this very thing, to wit, that all the wise and holy men of God should not forsake the churches: and in the teeth of opposition we have not fallen away from our own purpose. Thus Augustine.
- ↑ John x. 11–12.
- ↑ Matt. x. 23.
- ↑ Ed. Maur, Ep. 228 (vol. ii. p. 830–35). Written during the irruption of the Vandals in 428 or 429 A.D. The unusual accuracy of the quotations in this letter would lend me to the conjecture that the editors of the Monumenta (1558), where alone it is found, did a little “editing” of the MS. after their wont.
- ↑ Mon.: recta caritate. Ed. Maur: et certa.
- ↑ Mon.: qui id iptum ut scilicet ecclesias non desererent . . . meruerunt. Ed. Maur: quod ipsum, ut scilicet Dei ecclesias non deferent, Dei dono . . . meruerunt.
