Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Pseudo-Clementine Literature/The Clementine Homilies/Homily IV/Chapter 11

Chapter XI.&#8212;Truth and Custom.

&#8220;There is a certain great difference, O men of Greece, between truth and custom.&#160; For truth is found when it is honestly sought; but custom, whatsoever be the character of the custom received, whether true or false, is strengthened by itself without the exercise of judgment; and he who has received it is neither pleased with it as being true, nor grieved with it as false.&#160; For such an one has believed not by judgment, but by prejudice, resting his own hope on the opinion of those who have lived before him on a mere peradventure.&#160; And it is not easy to cast off the ancestral garment, though it be shown to himself to be wholly foolish and ridiculous.