As birds and sparrows fly away, so the curse causeless shall not come upon any one.^[1] And again [Solomon] says, Those that bring reproaches are exceedingly foolish.^[2] But as the bee, a creature as to its strength feeble, if it stings anyone, loses its sting and becomes a drone; in the same manner you also, whatsoever injustice you do to others, will bring it upon yourselves.

The nations confess you because your word became a mirror before them in which they might see hidden death devouring their lives. Idols are ornamented by those who craft them, but they disfigure their crafters with their ornamentation. [The mirror] brought [the nations] directly to your cross, where physical beauty is disfigured but spiritual beauty is resplendent. The one who was God pursued the nations who were pursuing gods that were not gods at all. And [using] words like bridles, he turned them away from many gods [and brought them] to one.

This is the mighty one whose proclamation [of the gospel] became a bridle in the jaws of the nations,^[1] turning them away from idols to the one who sent him.

I had treated you with contempt, Demetrian, as you railed with sacrilegious mouth against God, who is one and true, and frequently cried out with impious words, thinking it more fitting and better to ignore with silence the ignorance of a man in error than to provoke with speech the fury of a man in madness. And I did not do this without the authority of the divine teaching, since it is written, Do not say anything in the ears of the foolish, lest when he hears he may mock your wise words, and again, Do not answer the foolish according to his folly, lest you become like him.

Your flight is a good one if you do not answer the fool according to his folly. Your flight is good if you direct your footsteps away from the countenance of fools. Indeed, one swiftly goes astray with bad guides; but if you wish your flight to be a good one, remove your ways far from their words.

[David] used not to answer the enemy that provoked him, the sinner that exasperated him. As he says elsewhere, As though he were deaf he heard not them that speak vanity and imagine deceit, and as though he were dumb he opened not his mouth to them.^[1] Again, in another place, it is said, Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like to him.

The first duty then is to have due measure in our speech. In this way a sacrifice of praise is offered up to God. Thus a godly fear is shown when sacred Scriptures are read. Thus parents are honored. I know well that many speak because they know not how to keep silence. But it is not often that any one is silent when speaking does not profit him. A wise person, intending to speak, first carefully considers what he is to say and to whom he is to say it; also where and what time.

^[1] It is more agreeable to remain silent on such questions and to consider their foolish and irreverent assumptions unworthy of a response, since the divine words forbid it, saying, Answer not a fool according to his folly. But the fool, according to the prophet, is the one who says there is no God.^[2]

The sin of all people is not taken away by the Lamb if they neither grieve nor are tormented till it be taken away. For since thorns have not only been sown but have also taken deep root in the hands of everyone who has become drunk because of evil, and has lost sobriety, according to what is said in Proverbs, Thorns grow in the hand of the drunkard. So what must we say in addition regarding the extent of distress they produce in him who has received such plants into the body of his own soul? For he who has admitted evil into the depth of his own soul to such an extent that he has become thorn-producing earth has to be cut down by the living and effectual word of God which is more piercing than any two-edged sword and more capable of burning than any fire.^[1]

That fire which discovers thorns, and which, because of its own divinity, will stop them and not in addition set the threshing floors or fields of grain on fire, will need to be sent to such a soul.

Now the boards [of the tabernacle] were made out of acacia wood, that is, a thorny sort [of wood], and according to the Savior’s pronouncement thorns are the cares of this world, its pleasures, riches and false delights.^[1] But the pricks of sins may also not incongruously be compared with thorns, for it is written here that thorns grow in the hands of a drunkard, that is, sins in the works of a fool. Because the holy preachers are eager both to expurgate themselves from the pricks of vices and to strip away all the cares and delights of the world so that with a free mind they might be able to be expanded in the love of God and neighbor and to run far and wide to preach the word, it is therefore rightly said that the boards of the tabernacle were made out of acacia wood (that is, out of thorny [wood]), for they were indeed made of thorns, but thorns from which all the thorny barbs had been completely stripped away, so that they shone with a pure whiteness.

Don’t you know that people so unconcerned about their own salvation and vacillating between attention to it and headlong course into the devil’s net are compared in sacred Scripture with dogs? It says, remember, The person who turns away from his sin and then goes back to it is like a dog returning to its vomit.

We have learned that in some less observant monasteries, men have entered and brought their capital with them and later, losing their religious fervor, have made great trouble in demanding their property. Returning to the world which they had left, as dogs return to their vomit, with the aid of their relatives they have extorted what they had brought with them to the monastery and have sought the support of secular judges. With the help of magistrates they have [thus] destroyed the monasteries, so that we see many innocent men ruined by a single sinner.

These, no doubt, are the things suffered by clerics, monks or virgins who are proud, disobedient and lukewarm. When at the beginning of their life they abandoned the ways of this world and with a fervent spirit fled to the service of holy religion, through the grace of God they were rid of all their sins. But afterwards, when they did not put forth zeal because of carelessness and sloth and were not filled with spiritual graces through the help of God, the vices which had departed found them empty and returned with many more^[1] and compelled them to return to their vomit. Then was fulfilled in them what is written, As the dog that returns to his vomit becomes hateful, so is the sinner that returns to his sin.

This is not a small fault either to consider oneself wise and to refer everything back to one’s own judgment. . . . Paul addresses this same reproach to the pagan philosophers: Professing to be wise, they become fools.^[1] This is the reason for their folly. The author of the Proverbs said on his part, Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him. Again, it is Paul who gives this advice: Do not be wise in your own opinion.^[2]

There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, a person wise in his own conceit; and a still greater evil is to charge with the instruction of others a person who is not even aware of his own ignorance.

If one of the brothers who agreed upon a common pact shall suddenly on one occasion only fall into altercation with another, he may, according to the gospel, ask and receive forgiveness.^[1] But if he refuses to mend his ways, and if the one against whom a wrong has been done has not succeeded in changing the other’s presumption after a first and second admonition, then he shall report it to the abbot, lest both he and his brother be endangered by this silence. As the prophet says, He who hides his enmity maintains deceit.

He that digs a pit for his neighbor shall fall into it. And this happened even then. For they wished to destroy [Jesus] in order to suppress his preaching, but just the opposite took place.^[1] His preaching flourished by the grace of Christ, whereas all their schemes have been snuffed out and have perished. Further, they have lost their homeland, and freedom, and security and worship, and have been deprived of all honor and glory, and become slaves and captives.

Accordingly, since we know these things, let us never plot against others, because we have learned that by so doing we are sharpening the sword against ourselves and wounding ourselves more deeply than others.