No envy hindered the progress of these affairs that advanced gradually and grew and increased day by day. Nor could any evil demon slander them or hinder them through human counsels, so long as the divine and heavenly hand watched over and guarded his people as worthy.

But on account of the abundant freedom, we fell into laxity and sloth. We envied and reviled each other and were almost, as it were, taking up arms against one another. Rulers assailed rulers with words like spears, and people forming parties against people and monstrous hypocrisy and dissimulation rising to the greatest height of wickedness, the divine judgment with forbearance, as is its pleasure, while the multitudes yet continued to assemble, gently and moderately harassed the episcopacy.

This persecution began with the brothers in the army. But as if without sensibility, we were not eager to make the Deity favorable and propitious; and some, like atheists, thought that our affairs were unheeded and ungoverned; and thus we added one wickedness to another. And those esteemed our shepherds, casting aside the bond of piety, were excited to conflicts with one another and did nothing else than heap up fights and threats and jealousy and enmity and hatred toward each other, like tyrants eagerly endeavoring to assert their power. Then, truly, according to the word of Jeremiah, The Lord in his wrath darkened the daughter of Zion, and cast down the glory of Israel from heaven to earth and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger. The Lord also overwhelmed all the beautiful things of Israel and threw down all his strongholds.

And according to what was foretold in the Psalms, He has made void the covenant of his servant, and profaned his sanctuary to the earth—in the destruction of the churches—and has thrown down all his strongholds and has made his fortresses cowardice. All that pass by have plundered the multitude of the people; and he has also become a reproach to his neighbors. For he has exalted the right hand of his enemies, and has turned back the help of his sword and has not taken his part in the war. But he has deprived him of purification and has cast his throne to the ground. He has shortened the days of his time, and besides all, has poured out shame on him.^[1]

All these things were fulfilled in us when we saw with our own eyes the houses of prayer thrown down to the very foundations. We saw the divine and sacred Scriptures committed to the flames in the midst of the marketplaces and the shepherds of the churches basely hidden here and there, and some of them were captured ignominiously and mocked by their enemies. When also, according to another prophetic word, Contempt was poured out on rulers, and he caused them to wander in an untrodden and pathless way.^[2]

The ruler should be discreet in keeping silence, profitable in speech, lest he either utter what ought to be suppressed or suppress what he ought to utter. For, as incautious speaking leads into error, so indiscreet silence leaves in error those who might have been instructed. For often improvident rulers, fearing to lose human favor, shrink timidly from speaking freely the things that are right, and, according to the voice of the Truth,^[1] serve to the custody of the flock by no means with the zeal of shepherds but in the way of hirelings; since they fly when the wolf comes if they hide themselves under silence. For hence it is that the Lord through the prophet upbraids them, calling them, Dumb dogs that cannot bark.^[2] Hence again he complains, saying, You have not gone up against the enemy, neither opposed a wall for the house of Israel, to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord.^[3] Now to go up against the enemy is to go with free voice against the powers of this world for defense of the flock; and to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord is out of love of justice to resist bad people when they contend against us. For a shepherd to have feared to say what is right, what else is it but to have turned his back in keeping silence? But surely, if he puts himself in front for the flock, he opposes a wall against the enemy for the house of Israel. Hence again to the sinful people it is said, Your prophets have seen false and foolish things for you: neither did they discover your iniquity, to provoke you to repentance. For in sacred language, teachers are sometimes called prophets, in that, by pointing out how fleeting present things are, they point out the things that are to come. And these are the ones the divine discourse convinces of seeing false things, because, while fearing to reprove faults, they vainly flatter evildoers by promising security; neither do they discover the iniquity of sinners, since they refrain their voice from chiding. For the language of reproof is the key of discovery, because by chiding it discloses the fault of which even he who has committed it is often himself unaware.

Think how great that weeping must be that deserves to be compared with a flood of waters. Whoever so weeps and says with the prophet Jeremiah, let not the apple of my eye cease, shall straightway find the words fulfilled of him: mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.^[1] If righteousness and truth terrify him, mercy and peace may encourage him to seek salvation.

The Savior also wept over the city of Jerusalem because its inhabitants had not repented;^[1] and Peter washed out his triple denial with bitter tears,^[2] thus fulfilling the words of the prophet: rivers of waters run down my eyes.^[3] Jeremiah too laments over his impenitent people, saying, O that my head were waters and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for . . . my people!^[4] And farther on he gives a reason for his lamentation: do not weep for the dead, he writes, neither bemoan him, but weep bitterly for him that goes away, for he shall return no more.^[5] The Jew and the Gentile therefore are not to be bemoaned, for they have never been in the church and have died once for all (it is of these that the Savior says, Let the dead bury their dead^[6]); weep rather for those who by reason of their crimes and sins go away from the church and who, suffering condemnation for their faults, shall no more return to it. It is in this sense that the prophet speaks to ministers of the church, calling them its walls and towers and saying to each in turn, O wall, let tears run down. In this way, it is prophetically implied, you will fulfill the apostolic precept: Rejoice with them that rejoice and weep with them that weep.^[7] By your tears you will melt the hard hearts of sinners until they too weep. However, if they persist in evildoing they will find these words applied to them: I . . . planted for you a noble vine, wholly a right seed; how then are you turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine to me?^[8] He says again, saying to a stock, you are my father; and to a stone, you have brought me forth; for they have turned their back to me, and not their face.^[9] He means they would not turn toward God in penitence but in the hardness of their hearts turned their backs on him to insult him. Wherefore also the Lord says to Jeremiah, Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? She is gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree and there has played the harlot. And I said after she had played the harlot and had done all these things, Turn to me, but she returned not.^[10]

How hardhearted we are, and how merciful God is! Even after our many sins, he urges us to seek salvation. Yet not even so are we willing to turn to better things.

Not every kind of shedding of tears is produced by one feeling or one virtue. For in one way does that weeping originate that is caused by the pricks of our sins striking our heart, of which we read, I have labored in my groaning, every night I will wash my bed; I will water my couch with my tears.^[1] And again, Let tears run down like a torrent day and night; give yourself no rest, and do not let the apple of your eye cease. In another, that which arises from the contemplation of eternal good things and the desire of that future glory, owing to which even richer well-springs of tears burst forth from uncontrollable delights and boundless exultation, while our soul is thirsty for the mighty living God, saying, When shall I come and appear before the presence of God? My tears have been my meat day and night,^[2] declaring with daily crying and lamentation, Woe is me that my sojourning is prolonged, and, Too long has my soul been a sojourner.^[3]

In another way do the tears flow forth, which without any conscience of deadly sin yet still proceed from the fear of hell and the recollection of that terrible judgment, with the terror of which the prophet was smitten and prayed to God, saying, Enter not into judgment with your servant, for in your sight shall no one living be justified.^[4] There is too another kind of tears, which are caused not by knowledge of one’s self but by the hardness and sins of others; whereby Samuel is described as having wept for Saul. Both the Lord in the Gospel and Jeremiah in former days wept for the city of Jerusalem, the latter thus saying, O, that my head were water and my eyes a fountain of tears! And I will weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people.^[5] Or also such as were those tears of which we hear in Psalm 101: For I have eaten ashes for my bread and mingled my cup with weeping.^[6] And these were certainly not caused by the same feeling as those that arise in Psalm 6 from the person of the penitent but were due to the anxieties of this life and its distresses and losses, by which the righteous who are living in this world are oppressed. And this is clearly shown not only by the words of the psalm itself but also by its title, which runs as follows in the character of that poor person of whom it is said in the Gospel that blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.^[7] A prayer of the poor when he was in distress and poured forth his prayer to God.^[8]

From these tears those are vastly different that are squeezed out from dry eyes while the heart is hard, and although we cannot believe that these are altogether fruitless (for the attempt to shed them is made with a good intention, especially by those who have not yet been able to attain to perfect knowledge or to be thoroughly cleansed from the stains of past or present sins), yet certainly the flow of tears ought not to be thus forced out by those who have already advanced to the love of virtue, nor should the weeping of the outward person be with great labor attempted, as even if it is produced it will never attain the rich copiousness of spontaneous tears. For it will rather cast down the soul of the suppliant by his endeavors, and humiliate him, and plunge him in human affairs and draw him away from the celestial heights, wherein the awed mind of one who prays should be steadfastly fixed, and will force it to relax its hold on its prayers and grow sick from barren and forced tears.