[De veritate dicenda aut tacenda]

give consideration to it, and it has almost been exiled from the court of human society by a bill of divorce, not only among seculars but also among religious. Indeed, this bitter herb seems to make both the one offering it and the one receiving it so bitter that it proves to embitter the mind, the belly, and the whole body. And that which is offered out of charity and for the sake of charity, more often than not, does not generate good, but extinguishes what is generated. Concerning the manner and end of correction: when the sin is secret, that is, known to you alone, according to that of Matthew 18: "If your brother sins against you," that is, when only you know. Augustine, 2, q. 1, final If, however, he sinned while many were listening and did an injury to you, and he sins against those whom he made witnesses of his iniquity. Regarding this, Henry of Ghent, Quodlibet 9, says: It does not seem that the saying holds that when you alone know the sin of your brother, and a secret admonition has been provided, you could bring two or three with you, according to the sentence of the Gospel. Because revealing is not the act of a corrector of a crime, but of a betrayer, and thus he is corrected for a secret matter, and he is more to be feared for becoming worse and defending the sin. This is from Augustine, On the Lord's Sermon on the Mount, book 1, chapter 15. For even a secret correction ought to be omitted when it is probably feared that he will become worse, lest he do what he committed in secret until others are found who also know the crime. Not so, according to Augustine: Joseph the Just did not want to denounce Mary, seeing her alone pregnant and suspecting her to be an adulteress, and he spared her with such kindness until others also knew what he himself knew. Things known by all ought to be corrected before all, and things that are sinned in secret, more secretly. Distinguish, therefore, and the Scripture will be in accord. Hence, when a sin is known secretly, but is yet known by others, and can be proven by some, and witnesses are called, then the admonition having been made, and he does it... I do not know it, but when I know the act of someone and another similarly knows it, then first secret admonition is to be provided. And if he does not hear me, then I am to take this person who knows it with me and argue over the fact. If, however, I know the fact and others know the reputation, then after secret admonition has been provided, I ought to argue against him before others over the reputation, not over the fact.