Page:The whole familiar colloquies of Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam.djvu/391

THE SERAPHIC FUNERAL. 387 moderated for two reasons, the one for fear they should tread upon money unawares, the other lest cold, or thorns, or snakes, or flint, or any such thing should hurt them, since they are obliged to travel bare- foot all the world over. But, however, that that might be, and the dignity of the rule preserved inviolable, the slashes in the shoes shew the naked foot, and so fulfil the rule by synedoche.

Ph. They value themselves much upon their professing evangelical perfection, which, they say, consists in evangelical precepts; but about those precepts the learned themselves have hot disputes. And in every state of life there is room for evangelical perfection. But now which do you reckon the most perfect of the gospel precepts 1 Th. I believe that you find in the fifth of Matthew, which ends thus, " Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for those that persecute you and revile you, that you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven, who maketh His sun to shine upon the o-ood and the evil, and sendeth rain upon the just and the unjust : therefore be ye perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Ph. You have answered very pertinently ; but then our Father is rich and munificent to all people, asking nothing of any man. Th. And so are they bountiful too ; but it is of spiritual things, of prayers, and good works, in which they are very rich. Ph. I would there were among them more examples of that evangelical charity that returns blessings for cursings, and good for evil.

What is the meaning of that celebrated saying of pope Alexander, It is safer to affront the most powerful prince than any one single Franciscan or Dominican 1 Th. It is lawful to avenge an injury offered to the dignity of the order, and what is done to the least of them is done to the whole order. Ph. But why not rather the good that is done to one is done to the whole order 1 And why shall not an injury done to one Christian engage all Christendom in revenge ? Why did not St. Paul, when he was beaten and stoned, call for succour against the enemies of his apostolical character ] Now if, according to the sayin^ of our Saviour, it be more blessed to give than receive, certainly he that lives and teaches well, and gives of his own to those that are in want, is much perfecter than he that is only on the receiving hand, or other- wise St. Paul's boast of preaching the gospel gratis is vain and idle. It seems to me to be the best proof of an evangelical disposition that persons are not angry when reproached, and have a Christian charity for those that ill deserve it. What great matter is it for a man to relinquish something of his own, to live better upon that which is another body's, and to reserve to himself a desire of revenge 1 The world is full everywhere of this half-shod, rope-girt sort of people ; but there is scarce one of them to be found that presses after that which Christ calls perfection, and the apostles constantly practised. Th. I am no stranger to the stories that wicked persons tell of them; but, for my own part, wherever I see the sacred habit I think the angels of God are by, and count that a happy house whose threshold is most worn by their feet. Ph. And I am of opinion that women are nowhere more fruitful than where these men are most familiar. But I beg St. Francis's pardon, Theotimus, for being so much out of the way. I really took their habit to be no more than a garment, nor one jot better than a sailor's jacket or a shoemaker's coat, setting aside the