Theologians From Rome

"No one can take to himself the prerogative of Christ, no one before the day of judgment can pass judgment upon men. If the Church is already cleansed, what shall we reserve for the Lord?"

"Pardon me for having praised Origen's zeal for Scriptural learning in my youthful days before I fully knew his heresies; and I will grant you (Rufinus) forgiveness for having written an Apology for his works when your head was grey."

"Before Arius arose in Alexandria as a demon of the south, things were said incautiously [regarding the Trinity] which cannot be defended against a malevolent criticism."

"In the case of Tertullian we praise his great talent, but we condemn his heresy. In that of Origen we admire his knowledge of the Scriptures, but nevertheless we do not accept his false doctrine. As to Didymus, however, we extol both his powers of memory, and the purity of his faith in the Trinity, while on the other point in which he erred in trusting to Origen we withdraw from him. The vices of our teachers are not to be imitated, their virtues are."

"Ignoratio Scripturarum, ignoratio Christi est."

"It is no fault of Christianity that a hypocrite falls into sin."

"Neither Britain, a province fertile in tyrants, nor the people of Ireland, knew Moses and the prophets."

"De mysterio Trinitatis, cujus recta confessio est ignoratio scientiae"

"To sin is human, to lay snares is diabolical."

"Let your daughter have first of all the book of Psalms for holiness of heart, and be instructed in the Proverbs of Solomon for her godly life."

"Quotidie morimur, quotidie commutamur, et tamen aternos nos esse credimus."

"The tired ox treads with a firmer step."

"Alius vulnus, nostra sit cautio."

"Bruta quoque animalia et vagae aves, in easdem pedicas retiaque non incidunt."

"Plenus venter facile de ieiuniis disputat."

"Athletes as a rule are stronger than their backers; yet the weaker presses the stronger to put forth all his efforts."

"Et sicut viri fortes in controversiis solent facere, culpam praemio redimerem."

"Ita se natura habet, ut amara sit veritas, blanda vitia existimentur."

"Non confundant opera tua sermonem tuum: ne cum in Ecclesia loqueris, tacitus quilibet respondeat, cur ergo haec quae dicis, ipse non facis?"

"Asino quippe lyra superflue canit."

"Negotiatorem clericum, et ex inope divitem, ex ignobili gloriosum quasi quandam pestem fuge."

"Ne hoc quidem scire quod nescias."

"Interdum animus dominarum ex ancillarum habitu iudicatur."

"Speculum mentis est facies, et taciti oculi cordis fatentur arcana."

"Grandes materias ingenia parva non sufferunt."

"O mors quae fratres dividis, et amore societos, crudelis ac dura dissocias."

"Difficulter eraditur, quod rudes animi praebiberunt. Lanarum conchylia quis in pristinum colorem revocet?"

"Proclivis est enim malorum aemulatio, et quorum virtutes assequi nequeas, cito imitaris vitia."

"Cum subito raptus in spiritu...."

"The charges we bring against others often come home to ourselves; we inveigh against faults which are as much ours as theirs; and so our eloquence ends by telling against ourselves."

"A dreadful rumor reached us from the West. We heard that Rome was besieged, that the citizens were buying their safety with gold, and that when they had been thus despoiled they were again beleaguered, so as to lose not only their substance but their lives. ...The speaker's voice failed and sobs interrupted his utterance. The city which had taken the whole world was itself taken; nay, it fell by famine before it fell by the sword, and there were but few to be found to be made prisoner."

"Privilegia paucorum non faciunt legem."

"They fill their houses through the plunder and losses of others, so that the saying of the philosophers may be fulfilled, 'Every rich man is unjust or the heir of an unjust one.' (Omnis dives aut iniquis aut iniqui haeres.)"

"Non digne Graeca in Latinum transfero: aut Graecos lege (si ejusdem linguae habes scientiam); aut si tantum Latinus es, noli de gratuito munere judicare, et, ut vulgare proverbium est: equi dentes inspicere donati."

"Innocence would be dead long ago if wickedness were always allied to power, and calumny could prevail in all that it seeks to accomplish."

"To die is the lot of all, to commit homicide only of the weak man."

"Nisi quod in se habet mordacis aliquid veritatis."

"To be deceived is the common lot of both layman and bishop."

"“According to your faith, be it done unto you,” says God. (Matt 9:29) I do not, indeed, like the sound of those words. For if it be done unto me according to my faith, I shall perish. And yet I certainly believe in God the Father, I believe in God the Son, and I believe in God the Holy Ghost. I believe in one God; nevertheless, I would not have it done unto me according to my faith. For the enemy often comes, and sows tares in the Lord's harvest. I do not mean to imply that anything is greater than the purity of heart which believes that mystery; but undoubted faith towards God it is hard indeed to find."

"I could not pray, if I did not believe; but if I really believed, I should cleanse that heart of mine with which God is seen, I should beat my hands upon my breast, the tears would stream down my cheeks, my body would shudder, my face grow pale, I should lie at my Lord's feet, weep over them, and wipe them with my hair, I should cling to the cross and not let go my hold until I obtained mercy. But, as it is, frequently in my prayers I am either walking in the arcades, or calculating my interest, or am carried away by base thoughts, so as to be occupied with things the mere mention of which makes me blush."

"Let them not flatter themselves if they think they have Scripture authority for their assertions, since the devil himself quoted Scripture, and the essence of the Scriptures is not the letter, but the meaning. Otherwise, if we follow the letter, we too can concoct a new dogma and assert that such persons as wear shoes and have two coats must not be received into the Church. (Matt 10:10)"

"A quo et affixus cruci, martyrio coronatus est, capite ad terram verso, et in sublime pedibus elevatis: asserens se indignum qui sic crucifigeretur ut Dominus suus."

"Just as divorce according to the Saviour's word was not permitted from the beginning, but on account of the hardness of our heart was a concession of Moses to the human race, so too the eating of flesh was unknown until the deluge. But after the deluge, like the quails given in the desert to the murmuring people, the poison of flesh-meat was offered to our teeth. … At the beginning of the human race we neither ate flesh, nor gave bills of divorce, nor suffered circumcision for a sign. Thus we reached the deluge. But after the deluge, together with the giving of the law which no one could fulfil, flesh was given for food, and divorce was allowed to hard-hearted men, and the knife of circumcision was applied, as though the hand of God had fashioned us with something superfluous. But once Christ has come in the end of time, and Omega passed into Alpha and turned the end into the beginning, we are no longer allowed divorce, nor are we circumcised, nor do we eat flesh."

"Diogenes maintains that tyrants do not bring about revolutions in cities, and foment wars civil or foreign for the sake of a simple diet of vegetables and fruits, but for costly meats and the delicacies of the table. And, strange to say, Epicurus, the defender of pleasure, in all his books speaks of nothing but vegetables and fruits; and he says that we ought to live on cheap food because the preparation of sumptuous banquets of flesh involves great care and suffering, and greater pains attend the search for such delicacies than pleasures the consumption of them. … Persons who feed on flesh want also gratifications not found in flesh. But they who adopt a simple diet do not look for flesh. … The soul greatly exults when you are content with little: you have the world beneath your feet, and can exchange all its power, its feasts, and its lusts, the objects for which men rake money together, for common food, and make up for them all with a sack-cloth shirt."

"Nemo invito auditori libenter refert. Sagitta in lapidem nunquam figitur, interdum resiliens percutit dirigentem."

"Facilius enim neglegentia emendari potest quam amor nasci."

"Amicitia quae desinere potest vera numquam fuit."

"Libet, sarcina corporis abiecta, ad purum aetheris evolare fulgorem. Paupertatem times? sed beatos Christus pauperes appellat. Labore terreris? at nemo athleta sine sudore coronatur. De cibo cogitas? sed fides famem non timet. Super nudam metuis humum exesa ieiuniis membra collidere? sed Dominus tecum iacet. Squalidi capitis horret inculta caesaries? sed caput tuum Christus est. Infinita eremi vastitas te terret? sed tu paradisum mente deambula. Quotiescumque illuc cogitatione conscenderis, toties in eremo non eris."

"Amicum qui diu quaeritur, vix invenitur, difficile servatur."

"Opulence is always the result of theft, if not committed by the actual possessor, then by his predecessor."