On the Twelve Abuses of the World

Whoever therefore joins to himself one who has been excommunicated by a Catholic, that person receives the rights of the holy priesthood in which the Christian race is an elect generation, and he transgresses. For this reason, it is necessary for a bishop to be present to those for whom he is placed as a watchman. But as to what he ought to be in himself, the Apostle Paul explains: one coming to the rank of bishop should be sober, prudent, chaste, wise, modest, hospitable, having sons who are submissive with all chastity, having a good testimony from those who are outside, holding to the faithful word of doctrine, not having had more than one wife before the bishopric, not a striker, not double-tongued, not a drunkard, not a neophyte, so that by this he may show in deed what he teaches others in the word of doctrine. Let negligent bishops therefore beware of what the Lord complains through the prophet: "Many shepherds have demolished my people, and they did not feed my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves." But rather, let those whom the Lord has constituted over his family take care to give them food in its proper time—that is, the measure of wheat and proven doctrine—so that when the Lord comes, we may merit to hear: "Well done, good and faithful servant; because you were faithful over a few things, I will set you over many; enter into the joy of your Lord."

A People without Discipline.

The eleventh original: "Novecim'"—likely a transcription error for "undecimus" or eleventh in the sequence degree of abuse is a people without discipline, who, while they do not serve the exercises of discipline, bind themselves with the common snare of perdition. For the wrath of the Lord does not escape the rigor of any discipline, and therefore the psalmist proclaims to the undisciplined people: "Apprehend discipline, lest the Lord be angry." Discipline, indeed, is the ordered correction of morals and the observance of the greater rule of those who have preceded, concerning which discipline the Apostle Paul speaks thus: "God offers himself to you as sons in discipline; for if you are without discipline, of which you have all become participants, then you are adulterers and not sons." Therefore, those who are adulterers without discipline do not grasp the inheritance of the heavenly kingdom. For sons bear the corrections of paternal discipline and do not despair of being able to receive the inheritance. Concerning which discipline Isaiah also speaks, when he preaches to the undisciplined people, saying: "Cease to act perversely, learn to do good." And to the same, the psalmist sings with a concordant voice, saying: "Decline from evil and do good." Unhappy, therefore, is he who casts away discipline. For he who rends the disciplines of the church of Christ dares something beyond soldiers who, while crucifying the Lord, did not rend his tunic. For just as the tunic covers the whole body except the head, so discipline covers and adorns every church except Christ, who is the head of the church and is not under discipline.