He said the sheep is like one who has gone astray. And also in the Gospel he said, The Son of man came to search for and save the lost.^[1] And also in the parable only one is lost out of the hundred that the shepherd who dwelled with them came to find, who also, after laying it on his shoulders, returned it to the ninety-nine.^[2] For we are all one body and one sheep. He who is the feet and the head and the rest is the shepherd who, after he came, brought together bone with bone and joint with joint, and after he united them, he took them up to his country. And the unity arises through love and truth and the choice of good. Thus to his own Word he united all. But if some who are disobedient have appeared, they have acquired an incurable condition. Thus every Israelite is one according to the true relationship. For we are all one body and one loaf of bread, and we partake of one spirit. But a sheep that goes astray is one who in word and practice does not join the hunt of what is proper, either by not seeking or by not finding. And the one who knows and does what concerns knowledge does not go astray. But the one who goes astray is driven out by lions. For your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.^[3] And also already young lions roaring to seize and seek from God food for themselves lay snares for the righteous.

Then he likens them to lost sheep. He ascribes the cause for the destruction of the sheep to the shepherds. He calls shepherds not only their kings but also their priests. And he saw how they prepared them to wander: They drove them to the mountains and made them wander; they have gone from mountain to hill and have forgotten their fold. He calls the shrines of the idols hills and mountains for in them they worshiped the idols. And he calls the temple of God a fold because they had there the enjoyment of good things. This wandering handed them over to the enemy inasmuch as they sinned against the Lord.

Listen to the same prophet: At that time, the Lord says, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for and there shall be none, and the sin of Judah and there shall be none found.

If you take precautions to save your daughter from the bite of a viper, why are you not equally careful to shield her from the hammer of the whole earth? Or to prevent her from drinking of the golden cup of Babylon? Or keep her from going out with Dinah to see the daughters of a strange land? Or save her from the tripping dance and from the trailing robe? No one administers poison until he has rubbed the rim of the cup with honey; so the better to deceive us, vice puts on the mien and the semblance of virtue.

To the same extent that God’s gift of a dowry is more generous, just so is his love more immense. For he deeply loves the one whom he espoused with his own blood. And for this, he preferred to have his body opened by wounds through the thrust of a sword, that he might buy your purity for himself and consecrate your chastity. He loved equally all humankind, so that, just as his death is our life and his humility is the curing of our pride, so our integrity was bought with his wounds, for he wished to be struck himself rather than to permit us to be struck by the hammer of the whole earth.^[1] You have been bought with a price, says the apostle; do not become the slaves of people.^[2] Why should you, a virgin, wish to give a man a body already redeemed by Christ? One has redeemed you, and you wish to marry another? Do you enjoy liberty at the cost of another’s freedom and condemn yourself to voluntary servitude? If the whole world is inscribed as a dowry, what is more precious than the blood of Christ by which the world was redeemed? Weigh the reward and the cost, that you may know that he who redeemed is worth more than that which he redeemed. THE TRAINING OF NUNS. PROLOGUE.

Let us trample Satan under foot. Let us raise the shout of victory over him now that he is thrown and fallen. Let us exult over the crafty reptile, caught in an inextricable snare. Let us, too, say of him in the words of the prophet Jeremiah, How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! You are found and also caught because you have stood against the Lord. Long ago, that is, before the time of the advent of Christ the Savior of all, the universal enemy had somewhat grand and terrible notions about himself. . . . Therefore, as I said, human nature, as victorious in him, wins the crown. And this in ancient times the Son proclaimed, where, by one of the holy prophets, he thus addresses Satan, Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, says the Lord, that destroys all the earth.^[1]

Now had you been truly desirous of learning, you would have heard from him the things that lead on to eternal life; but as you wickedly tempted him, you will hear nothing more than those commands only that were given to them of old time by Moses. For what, said he, is written in the law? How do you read it? And on the lawyer’s repeating what is enacted in the law, as if to punish his wickedness and reprove his malicious purpose, Christ, as knowing all things, said, You have answered rightly; do this, and you shall live.^[1] The lawyer has missed his prey; he has shot wide of the mark, his wickedness is unsuccessful, the sting of envy has ceased, the net of deceit is torn asunder, his sowing bears no fruit, his toil gains no profit; and like some ship that misfortune has overwhelmed, he has suffered a bitter wreck. Let us, therefore, cry out against him in the words of Jeremiah, You are found and caught, because you have stood up against the Lord.

I am to speak against persons who pride themselves on their eloquence; so, to begin with a text of Scripture, Behold, I am against you, O proud one, not only in your system of teaching but also in your hearing and in your tone of mind. For there are certain persons who have not only their ears and their tongues but even, as I now perceive, their hands too, itching for our words; who delight in profane babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so-called and arguments about words that tend to no profit;^[1] for so Paul, the preacher and establisher of the Word cut short,^[2] the disciple and teacher of the fishermen, calls all that is excessive or superfluous in discourse. But as to those to whom we refer, would that they, whose tongue is so verbose and clever in applying itself to noble and approved language, would likewise pay some attention to actions. For then perhaps in a little while they would become less sophistical and less absurd and strange acrobats of words, if I may use a ridiculous expression about a ridiculous subject.