Incontinenece (unchastity or the unlawful indulgence of the sexual appetite) is called by St. Basil of Seleucia (1) a living plague, and by St. Bernardine of Sienna, the most noxious of all sins; "a terrible gnawing worm (2)." Because, as St. Bonaventure says, impurity destroys the germs of all virtues (3). Hence St. Ambrose calls it the hot-house and mother of all vices (4). For it brings with it hatred, thefts, sacrileges, and other similar vices. Hence St. Remigius has justly said: "With the exception of those that die in childhood, most men will be damned on account of this vice (5)." And Father Paul Segneri says that as pride has filled hell with angels, so impurity has filled it with men. In other vices the devil fishes with the hook, in this he fishes with the net; so that by incontinence he gains more for hell than by all other sins. On the other hand, God has inflicted the severest chastisement on the world, sending deluges of water and fire from heaven, in punishment of the sin of incontinence.

Chastity is a most beautiful gem; but, as St. Athanasius says, it is a gem found by few on this earth (6). But if this gem is suitable for seculars, it is absolutely necessary for ecclesiastics. Among the virtues that St. Paul prescribes to Timothy, he recommended chastity in a special manner: Keep thyself chaste (7). Origen says that chastity is the first virtue with which a priest that goes to the altar should be adorned (8). Clement of Alexandria has written that only they that lead a chaste life are and can be called priests (9). Hence, then, as purity constitutes priests, so, on the other hand, incontinence robs them, as it were, of their dignity, says St. Isidore (10).

Hence the holy Church has always endeavored by so many Councils, laws, and admonitions to guard with jealousy the chastity of her priests. Innocent III. made the following ordinance: "No one is to be allowed to be ordained priest unless he is a virgin or his chastity has been proved (11)." He also commanded that the incontinent priest should be excluded "from all ecclesiastical dignities (12)." St. Gregory ordained: "He that has fallen into a carnal sin after ordination should be deprived so far of his office, that he be not permitted to perform any function at the altar (13)." Besides, he ordained (14), that if a priest committed a sin against purity, he should do penance for ten years. For the first three months he should sleep on the ground, remain in solitude, have no intercourse with any person, and should be deprived of Communion. He should then fast every day for a year and a half on bread and water, and for the remainder of the ten years he should continue to fast on bread and water only on three days in the week. In a word, the Church regards as a monster the priest that does not lead a life of chastity.

II. Malice of Impurity in the Priest.

Let us, in the first place, examine the malice of the sin of a priest who violates chastity. A priest is the temple of God, as well by the vow of chastity as by the sacred unction by which he was consecrated to God. He that hath anointed us in God, who also hath sealed us (15). Such is the language of St. Paul, speaking of himself and of his associates in the ministry. Hence Cardinal Hugo has said: "The priest should not pollute the sanctuary of the Lord, because the oil of the holy unction is poured out upon him (16)." The body, then, of the priest is the sanctuary of the Lord. "Keep thyself chaste," says St. Ignatius, Martyr, "as a gift of God and the temple of the Holy Ghost (17)." St. Peter Damian says that the priest that denies his body by impurity violates the temple of God. He then adds: "Do not change the vessels consecrated to God into vessels of contumely (18)." What would you say of the man that should use a consecrated chalice at table? Speaking of priests, Innocent II. has said: "Since they should be the temples of the sanctuaries of the Holy Ghost, they are disgraced if they become addicted to impurity (19)." How horrible to see a priest that should send forth in every direction the light and odor of purity, become sordid, fetid, and polluted with sins of the flesh? The sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire (20). Hence Clement of Alexandria has written that an unchaste priest, as far as in him lies, contaminates God Himself, Who dwells within him (21). Of this God Himself complains by the mouth of His prophet: Her priests have despised My law, and have despised My sanctuaries, . . . and I was profaned in the midst of them (22). Alas! says the Lord, by the incontinence of my priest, I, too, am defiled: by violating chastity he pollutes My sanctuary, that is, his body which I have consecrated, and in which I often come to dwell. It was this St. Jerome meant when he said: "We defile the body of Christ whenever we approach the altar unworthily (23)."

Besides, the priest on the altar offers to God in sacrifice the immaculate Lamb; that is, the very Son of God. On this account, says St. Jerome, the priest should be so chaste as not only to abstain from every impure action, but also to avoid every indecent glance (24). St. John Chrysostom likewise has written that a priest should have purity which would make him fit to stand in the midst of the angels in heaven (25). And in another place he has said that by their purity the hands of a priest, which must touch the flesh of Jesus Christ, should be more resplendent than the rays of the sun (26). On the other hand, St. Augustine asks where can a man be found so wicked as to presume to touch the most holy sacrament of the altar with unclean hands (27)? "But," says St. Bernard, "the priest that dares to ascend the altar, to handle the body of Jesus Christ, after being contaminated with sins of impurity, is guilty of a far more enormous crime (28)." "Ah! priest of God," exclaims St. Augustine, "the hands that you moisten with the blood of the Redeemer do not moisten with the sacrilegious blood of sin (29)." Ah! do not allow the hands which are bathed in the blood of the Redeemer, shed one day for the love of you, to be polluted with the sacrilegious blood of sin.

Moreover, Cassian says that priests must not only touch, but must also eat, the sacred flesh of the Lamb; and therefore they should practise angelic purity (30). But according to Peter Comestor, the priest who, while he is defiled with sins against chastity, pronounces the words of consecration, spits, as it were, in the face of Jesus Christ; and in receiving the sacred body and blood into his polluted mouth, he, as it were, casts them into the foulest mire (31). St. Vincent Ferrer says that such a priest is guilty of a greater impiety than if he threw the consecrated host into a sink (32). Here St. Peter Damian exclaims, and says, " O priests! whose duty it is to offer to God the Immaculate Lamb, do not first immolate yourself to the devil by your impurities (33)." Hence the saint afterwards calls the unchaste priest a victim of the devils, on which these cruel spirits make a most delicious feast in hell (34). Besides, the unchaste priest not only brings himself to perdition, but he also causes the damnation of many others. St. Bernard said that incontinence in ecclesiastics was one of the greatest persecutions that the Church could suffer. On the words of Ezechias, Behold in peace is my bitterness most bitter (35), says the holy Doctor, the Church has suffered much from the sword of the tyrant and from the infection of heresy, but she suffers still more from the incontinence of the unchaste ecclesiastic, who by his scandals drags the bowels out of his own mother (36). "How shameful," says St. Peter Damian, "to see a man who preaches chastity made the slave of lust (37)"

III. Sad Effects of Impurity.

Let us now examine the evils that the vice of incontinence produces in the soul, particularly in that of a priest.

I. BLINDNESS OF THE SOUL.

First, this sin blinds the soul, and makes her lose sight of God and of the eternal truths. " Chastity," says St. Augustine, "purifies the mind, and through it men see God (38)." But the first effect of the vice of impurity is, according to St. Thomas, blindness of the understanding. Its effects are thus described by the saint: "The effects of this impure vice are: blindness of the mind, hatred of God, attachment to the present life, horror of the future life (39)." St. Augustine has said that impurity takes away the thought of eternity (40). When a raven finds a dead body, its first act is to pluck out the eyes; and the first injury that incontinence inflicts on the soul is to take away the light of the things of God. This was felt by Calvin, who was first a parish priest, a pastor of souls (41), but afterwards, by this vice, became an heresiarch; by Henry VIII., first the defender and afterwards the persecutor of the Church. This was also experienced by Solomon; first a saint, and after wards an idolater. The same happens to the unchaste priest. They shall, says the Prophet Sophonias, walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord (42). Miserable man! in the midst of the light of the Masses that he celebrates, of the Offices that he recites, and of the funerals that he attends, he remains as blind as if he believed neither in death that awaits him, nor in a future judgment, nor in hell that he purchases by his sins. Mayest thou, says the Lord, grope at midday as the blind is wont to grope in the dark (43). In a word, he is so blinded by the fetid mire in which he is immersed, that after having forsaken God who has raised him so much above others, he does not even think of returning to ask pardon. They will not, says the Prophet Osee, set their thoughts to return to their God; for the spirit of fornication is in the midst of them (44). Hence St. John Chrysostom says, that neither the admonitions of Superiors, nor the counsels of virtuous friends, nor the fear of chastisements, nor the danger of shame shall be sufficient to enlighten the unchaste priest (45).

No wonder: for he is so blind that he can no longer see. Fire hath fallen on them, and they have not seen the sun (46). "This fire is no other than the fire of concupiscence (47)," says St. Thomas. Hence he afterwards adds, "The sins of the flesh extinguish the light of reason, for carnal delectations cause the soul to be drawn entirely towards the pleasures of the senses (48)." This vice, by its beastly delectation, deprives man even of reason; so that, as Eusebius says, it makes him become worse than the senseless beast (49). Hence the unchaste priest, blinded by his impurities, shall no longer make any account of the injuries that he does to God by his sacrileges, nor of the scandal that he gives to others. He will even go so far as to dare to say Mass in a state of sin. No wonder; for he that has lost the light, easily abandons himself to the commission of every crime. Come ye to Him and be enlightened (50). He that wants light must draw near to God; but because, according to the words of St. Thomas, "a thoroughly impure man is mostly removed from God (51)," impurity removes man to a great distance from God, the unchaste becomes, as it were, senseless brutes that no longer apprehend spiritual things. But the sensual man, says St. Paul, perceiveth not these things that are of the Spirit of God (52). Hell, eternity, and the dignity of the priesthood, no longer make any impression upon the incontinent ecclesiastic: He perceiveth not (53)." Perhaps he will, as St. Ambrose says, begin even to entertain doubts about faith: "Whenever one begins to be incontinent, one begins to deviate from the faith (54)." Oh! how many miserable priests have by this vice even lost their faith? His bones, says Job, shall be filled with the vices of his youth (the vices of youth are impurities), and they shall sleep with him in the dust (55). As the light of the sun cannot enter into a vessel filled with earth, so the light of God cannot shine into a soul habituated to sins of the flesh: her vices shall continue to sleep with her till death.

But as that unhappy soul, for the sake of her impurities, forgets God, so shall He forget her, and permit her to remain abandoned in her darkness. Because, says the Lord, thou hast forgotten Me, and hast cast Me off behind thy body, bear thou also thy wickedness and thy fornications (56). St. Peter Damian says, "They throw the Lord behind their bodies that obey the voice of their passions (57)." Father Cataneo (58) relates that a sinner who had contracted a habit of impurity, when admonished by a friend to abandon his evil ways, unless he wished to be damned, answered: "Friend, I may indeed go to hell for this habit." He certainly went to that place of torment, for he was suddenly struck dead. A priest who was found in the house of a certain lady whom he went to tempt was compelled by her husband to take a poisonous draught. After returning home he took to his bed, and mentioned to a friend the misfortune that had befallen him. The friend seeing the miserable man so near his end exhorted him to go to confession. No, replied the unhappy man, I cannot go to confession; this favor only I ask of you, go to such a lady, tell her that I die for the love of her. Can greater blindness be conceived?

2. OBSTINACY OF THE WILL.

In the second place, the sin of impurity produces obstinacy of the will. "Once fallen into the snare of the devil, one cannot so easily escape it," says St. Jerome (59). And according to St. Thomas, there is no sin in which the devil takes so much delight as in impurity; because the flesh is strongly inclined to that vice, and he that falls into it can be rescued from it only with difficulty (60). Hence the vice of incontinence has been called by Clement of Alexandria "a malady without remedy (61);" and by Tertullian, "an incurable vice (62)." Hence St. Cyprian calls it the mother of impenitence (63). "It is impossible," says Peter de Blois, "for him that submits to the domination of the flesh to conquer carnal temptations (64)." Father Biderman relates of a young man, who was in the habit of relapsing into this sin, that at the hour of death he confessed his sins with many tears and died, leaving strong grounds to hope for his salvation. But on the following day his confessor, while saying Mass, felt some one pulling the chasuble; turning round he saw a dark cloud, which sent forth scintillations of fire, and heard a voice saying that was the soul of the young man that had died; that though he had been absolved from his sins, he was again tempted, yielded to a bad thought, and was damned.

The prophet and the priest are defiled. . . . Therefore their way shall be as a slippery way in the dark; for they shall be driven on, and fall therein (65). Behold the ruin of the unchaste ecclesiastic. He walks on a slippery path, in the midst of darkness, and is impelled to the precipice by the devils, and by evil habits. Hence it is impossible for him to escape destruction. St. Augustine says that they that give themselves up to this vice soon contract the habit of it; and the habit soon creates, as it were, a necessity of sinning (66), The vulture rather than abandon the carcass on which it has begun to feed is content to wait to be killed by the sportsman. This happens to him that contracts a habit of impurity.

Oh! how much greater the obstinacy produced in the priest that submits to the tyrannical rule of this vice, than that which it causes in seculars! This happens both because the priest has had greater light to know the malice of mortal sin, and because in him impurity is a greater sin than it is in a secular. For the unchaste priest not only offends against chastity, but also against religion, by violating his vow, and, generally speaking, he also transgresses against fraternal charity. For the incontinence of a priest is almost always accompanied with most grievous scandal to others. In his book on the "Last Things," Denis the Carthusian relates that a servant of God, conducted in spirit to purgatory, saw there many seculars that were suffering for sins against purity, but very few priests. Having asked the reason, he was told that scarcely any unchaste priest repents sincerely of this sin, and that, therefore, almost all such priests are damned (67).

3. ETERNAL DAMNATION.

Finally, this accursed vice leads all, and particularly priests that are infected with it, to eternal damnation. St. Peter Damian says that the altar of God receives no other fire than that of divine love. Hence he that dares to ascend the altar inflamed by the fire of impurity is consumed by the fire of divine vengeance (68). And in another place he says that all the obscenities of the sinner shall be one day converted into pitch, which shall eternally nourish in his bowels the fire of hell (69).

Oh! what vengeance does not the Lord inflict on the unchaste priest! How many priests are now in hell for sins against purity! "If," says St. Peter Damian, "the man in the Gospel, who came to the marriage feast with out the nuptial garment, was condemned to darkness, what then should he expect who, admitted to the mystical banquet of the divine Lamb, neglects to adorn himself with the brilliant garb of virtues, and even presents himself impregnated with the fetid odors of impurity (70)." Baronius relates that a priest who had contracted a habit of sins against chastity saw at death a multitude of devils coming to carry him away. He turned to a religious who was attending him, and besought him to pray for him. But soon after he exclaimed that he was before the tribunal of God, and cried aloud: "Cease, cease to pray for me, for I am already condemned, and your prayers can be of no service to me (71)." St. Peter Damian (72) relates that in the city of Parma a priest and a woman with whom he had sinned were suddenly struck dead. In the revelations of St. Bridget (73) we read that an unchaste priest was killed by a thunder bolt; and it was found that the lightning had reduced to ashes only the indelicate members, and left the remainder of the body untouched, as if to show that it was principally for incontinence that God had inflicted this chastisement upon him. Another priest in our own time died suddenly in the act of committing a sin against chastity, and for his greater infamy was exposed in the court of the church. The unchaste priest dishonors the Church, and therefore the Lord justly chastises him by making him the most dishonored of all men. Thus, speaking of priests, God says, by the Prophet Malachy, But you have departed out of the way, and have caused many to stumble at the law. . . . Therefore I also made you contemptible, and base before all people (74).

IV. Remedies for Incontinence.

The spiritual masters point out many remedies for the vice of impurity; but the principal and the most necessary are the flight of occasions, and prayer. As to the first means, St. Philip Neri used to say that in this warfare cowards, that is, they that avoid dangerous occasions, gain the victory. Let a man use all other possible means, unless he flies away he is lost. He that loveth danger shall perish in it (75).

As to the second means, it is necessary to know that we have not strength to resist temptations of the flesh. This strength must be the gift of God. But God grants it to those only that pray and ask for it. The only defence against this temptation, says St. Gregory of Nyssa, is prayer (76). And before him the Wise Man said: And as I knew that I could not otherwise be continent, except God gave it, . . . I went to the Lord and besought Him (77).



THE SACRILEGIOUS MASS.

I. Purity Required in the Priest to Celebrate Worthily.

"We must needs confess," says the holy Council of Trent, "that no other work can be performed by the faithful so holy and divine as this tremendous mystery itself (78)." God himself could not enable man to perform a more sublime or sacred action than the celebration of Mass. Oh! how much more excellent than all the ancient sacrifices is our sacrifice of the altar, in which we immolate not an ox, nor a lamb, but the very Son of God? The Jews, says St. Peter of Cluni, had an ox; the Christians have Christ: the sacrifice of the latter as far transcends that of the former, as Christ is more excellent than an ox (79). The same author adds, that to servants a servile victim was suited, but for friends and children was reserved Jesus Christ a victim that has delivered us from sin and eternal death (80). Justly, then, has St. Laurence Justinian said, that there is no oblation greater, more profitable to us, or more pleasing to God, than the offering that is made in the sacrifice of the Mass (81).

According to St. John Chrysostom, during the celebration of Mass the altar is surrounded by angels, who are present to pay homage to Jesus Christ, the victim offered in sacrifice (82). And St. Gregory asks, "who doubts that at the very hour of immolation, at that voice of the priest, the heavens are opened and the choirs of angels are present at that mystery of Jesus Christ (83)?" St. Augustine says that the angels assist as servants to the priest who offers the sacrifice (84).

Now the Council of Trent teaches that Jesus Christ Himself was the first that offered this great sacrifice of His body and blood, and that He now offers Himself by the hands of a priest chosen to be his minister and representative on the altar (85). St. Cyprian says that " the priest truly holds the place of Christ (86)," and that, there fore, at the consecration, he says This is My body: this is the chalice of My blood (87). To his disciples Jesus himself said, He that heareth you, heareth Me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth Me (88).

The priests of the Old Law the Lord commanded to be clean, merely because it was their duty to carry the sacred vessels: Be ye clean, you tliat carry the vessels of the Lord (89). "How much more clean," says Peter de Blois, "should they be who carry Christ in their hands and in their body (90)?" How much greater purity shall God demand from the priests of the New Law, who must represent the person of Jesus Christ on the altar, in offering to the eternal Father His own very Son! Justly, then, does the Council of Trent require that priests celebrate this sacrifice with the greatest possible purity of conscience: "It is also sufficiently clear, that all industry and diligence are to be applied to this end, that it be performed with the greatest possible inward cleanness and purity of heart (91)." This, says the Abbot Rupert, is what is signified by the Alb with which the Church commands the priest to be covered from head to foot in the celebration of the holy mysteries (92).

It is but just that priests should honor God by innocence of life, since he has honored them so much above others, by making them the ministers of this great mystery. "Behold, O priests," says St. Francis of Assisi, "your dignity; and as the Lord has honored you on account of this mystery, so be careful on your part to love and to honor Him (93). " But how shall a priest honor God? Is it by the costliness or vanity of his dress? No, says St. Bernard, but by sanctity of life, by the study of the sacred sciences, and by labor in holy works (94).

II. How Great is the Crime of the Priest that Celebrates Mass in Mortal Sin.

But does the priest that celebrates in mortal sin give honor to God? As far as regards himself, he treats the Lord with the greatest dishonor that can be offered to Him, by despising Him in His own person. For by his sacrilege he appears, as far as in him lies, to defile the immaculate Lamb, whom he immolates in the consecrated host. To you, O priests, says the Lord by the Prophet Malachy, who despise My name, . . . you offer polluted bread upon My altar, and you say, wherein have we polluted Thee (95)? "We," says St. Jerome, in his comment on this passage, "pollute the bread, that is, the body of Christ, when we unworthily approach the altar (96).

God cannot raise a man to a greater elevation than by conferring on him the sacerdotal dignity. How many selections must the Lord have made in calling a person to the priesthood. First, he must select him from a countless number of possible creatures. He must then separate him from so many millions of pagans and heretics, and, lastly, he must make choice of him from the immense multitude of the faithful. And what power does God confer on this man? If the Lord bestowed only on one man the power of calling down by his words the Son of God from heaven, how great should be his obligations and his gratitude to the Lord! This power God grants to every priest. Lifting up the poor out of the dunghill, that He may place him with princes, with the princes of His people (97).

The number of persons to whom God has given this power does not diminish the dignity or the obligations of the priesthood. But what does the priest do that celebrates in the state of sin? He dishonors and despises the Lord, by declaring that so great a sacrifice is not deserving of the reverence which would make him dread the sacrilegious oblation of it, says St. Cyril (98).

The hand, says St. John Chrysostom, that touches the sacred flesh of Jesus Christ, and the tongue that is purpled with His divine blood, should be purer than the rays of the sun (99). In another place he says that a priest ascending the altar should be possessed of purity and sanctity which would merit for him a place in the midst of the angels (100). How great, then, must be the horror of the angels when they behold a priest, who is the enemy of God, stretching forth his sacrilegious hands to touch and eat the immaculate Lamb!" Who," exclaims St. Augustine, shall be so wicked and daring as to touch the most holy sacrament with polluted hands (101)!" Still more wicked is the priest that celebrates Mass with a soul defiled by mortal sin. God turns away his eyes that he may not behold such horrible impiety. When, says the Lord, you stretch forth your hands, I will turn away My eyes, . . . . for your hands are full of blood (102). To express the disgust that He feels at the sight of such sacrilegious priests, the Lord declares that He will scatter the dung of their sacrifices over their faces: I will scatter upon your face the dung of your solemnities (103). It is true, as the Council of Trent teaches, that the holy sacrifice cannot be contaminated by the malice of priests (104). However, priests who celebrate in the state of sin defile, as far as in them lies, the sacred mystery; and therefore the Lord declares that He is, as it were, polluted by their abominations. Her priests have defiled My sanctuaries, . . . and I was profaned in the midst of them (105).

Alas! O Lord, exclaims St. Bernard, how does it happen that some of those that hold a high place in your Church are the first to persecute you (106)! This is, indeed, too true, as St. Cyprian says, that a priest who celerates Mass in the state of sin insults with his mouth and hands the very body of Christ (107). Another author, Peter Comeston, adds, that the priest who pronounces the words of consecration in the state of sin spits, as it were, in the face of Jesus Christ; and when he receives the most holy sacrament into his unhallowed mouth he, as it were, casts the body and blood of Jesus Christ into the mire (108). But why do I say that he casts Jesus Christ into the mire ? The soul of a priest in sin is worse than mire; and, as Theophilactus says, the mire is not so unworthy of receiving the divine flesh as the heart of a sacrilegious priest (109). The sacrilegious priest, then, says St. Vincent Ferror, is guilty of greater impiety than if he cast the most holy sacrament into a sink (110). Such, too, is the doctrine of St. Thomas of Villanova (111).

The sins of a priest are always most grievous on account of the injury that they do to God, Who has chosen him for his own minister, and has heaped so many favors upon him. It is one thing, says St. Peter Damian, to violate the laws of a sovereign, and another to strike him with your own hands. This is what the priest does that offers sacrifice in the state of mortal sin. It is one thing to transgress edicts which the king has promulgated, and another to wound him with our own hands. No one sins more grievously than the priest that offers sacrifice unworthily. When we sin in any other way we, as it were, injure God in His property, but when we unworthily offer sacrifice we dare to lay violent hands upon His person (112). This was the sin of the Jews who had the daring audacity to offer violence to the person of Jesus Christ. But St. Augustine teaches that the sin of the priest that offers sacrifice unworthily is still more grievous: "Those that unworthily offer Jesus Christ in heaven sin more grievously than the Jews who crucified him when he was upon earth (113). The Jews did not know the Redeemer as priests do. Besides, as Tertullian says, the Jews lay hands on Jesus Christ only once, but the sacrilegious priest dares frequently to repeat this injurious treatment (114). It is also necessary to remark, that, according to the doctrine of theologians, a priest by the sacrilegious celebration of Mass is guilty of four mortal sins: 1. Because he consecrates in the state of sin, 2 Because he communicates in the state of sin, 3 Because he administers the sacrament in the state of sin; and, 4 Because he administers it to an unworthy person, that is, to himself, who is in mortal sin (115).

This made St. Jerome foam, through zeal, against the Deacon Sabinian. "Miserable wretch!" said the holy Doctor, "how has it happened that your eyes have not grown dim, that your tongue has not been twisted, that your arms have not fallen to the ground when you dared to assist at the altar in the state of sin (116)." St. John Chrysostom teaches that a priest that approaches the altar with a soul stained with mortal sin is far worse than a devil (117). For the devils tremble in the presence of Jesus Christ. We read in the life of St. Teresa that when she was going to Communion one day she saw with terror a devil on each side of the priest who celebrated Mass in the state of mortal sin. The devils trembled in the presence of the holy sacrament, and manifested a desire to fly away. From the consecrated Host Jesus said to the saint, " Behold the force of the words of consecration, and see, O Teresa, My goodness which makes me willing to place Myself in the hands of my enemy for your welfare, and for the welfare of every Christian (118)!" The devils then tremble before Jesus in the holy sacrament; but the sacrilegious priest not only does not tremble, but, as St. John Chrysostom says, he audaciously tramples on the Son of God in His own person (119). In the sacrilegious priest are verified the words of the Apostle: How much more do you think he deserveth worse punishments who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath esteemed the blood of the testament unclean by which he was sanctified (120)? Then, in the presence of that God at whose beck the pillars of heaven tremble, and the whole earth and all things in it are moved (121), a worm of the earth dares to trample on the blood of the Son of God!

But, alas! what greater calamity can befall a priest than to change redemption into perdition; sacrifice into sacrilege, and life into death? Great, indeed, was the impiety of the Jews who drew blood from the side of Jesus Christ; but far greater is the impiety of the priest who receives from the chalice the same blood and insults it. Such is the thought of Peter de Blois; he adds, while borrowing the words of St. Jerome: "Shame on the perfidious Jew; shame on the perfidious Christian: the Jew caused the blood to flow from the side of Christ; the Christian, the priest, causes the same blood to flow from the chalice in order to profane it (122)." Of such priests our Lord complained one day to St. Bridget, saying, "They crucify my body more cruelly than the Jews did (123)." A learned author says that the priest who celebrates in the state of sin is guilty, as it were, of murdering before the eyes of the eternal Father His own Son (124).

Oh ! what an impious treason. Behold how Jesus Christ complains, by the mouth of David, of the sacrilegious priest: For if My enemy had reviled Me I would verily have borne with it, . . . but thou, a man of one mind, and My familiar, who didst take sweetmeats together with Me (125). Behold an exact description of a priest who offers Mass in the state of sin. If my enemy, said the Lord, had insulted me, I would have borne the offence with less pain; but you whom I have made my familiar, my minister, a prince among my people, to whom I have so often given my flesh for food you have sold me to the devil for the indulgence of passion, for a beastly gratification, for a little earth. Of this sacrilegious treason the Lord complained to St. Bridget: "Such priests," he said, "are not my priests, but real traitors; for, like Judas, they sell and betray me (126)." St. Bernardine of Sienna teaches that such priests are even worse than Judas; because Judas betrayed the Saviour to the Jews, but they deliver him up to devils by receiving him into their sacrilegious breasts, which are ruled by devils (127).

Peter Comestor observes that when a sacrilegious priest begins the prayer Aufer a nobis iniquitates nostras, etc. ("Take away from us our iniquities, etc."), and kisses the altar, Jesus appears to reproach him, and say: Judas, do you betray me with a kiss (128)? And when the priest, says St. Gregory, extends his arm to communicate, I think I hear the Redeemer say what he said to Judas, "Behold the hand that betrays me is with me on the altar (129)." Hence, according to St. Isidore of Pelusium, the sacrilegious priest is, like Judas, entirely possessed by the devil (130).

Ah! the blood of Jesus Christ, so much insulted, cries more powerfully for vengeance against the sacrilegious priest than the blood of Abel did against Cain. This Jesus himself declared to St. Bridget. Oh! what horror must God and his angels feel at the sight of a sacrilegious Mass! This horror the Lord made known in the following manner, in the year 1688, to his servant Sister Mary Crucified, of Palma, in Sicily. At first she heard a doleful trumpet, which uttered, in a tone of thunder, audible over the entire earth, the following words: Ultio, paena, dolor (vengeance, punishment, pain). She then saw several sacrilegious ecclesiastics singing psalms with discordant voices, and in a confused and irregular manner. She next saw one of them rise up to go to the altar and say Mass. While he was putting on the sacred vestments, the church was covered with darkness and mourning. He approaches the altar, and, in saying the Introibo ad altare Dei, the trumpet sounds again and repeats, ultio, paena, dolor. In an instant the altar appeared to be surrounded by flames of fire, which denoted the just fury of the Lord against the unworthy celebrant; and at the same time a great multitude of angels were seen with swords in their hands as if to execute vengeance on him for the sacrilegious Mass which he was going to offer. When the monster came near the consecration, a crowd of vipers sprung from the midst of the flames to drive him away from the altar; these vipers represented his fears and stings of conscience. But they were all useless; the impious wretch preferred his own reputation to all these stings of remorse. Finally he pronounced the words of consecration; and instantly the servant of God felt a universal earthquake, which caused heaven, earth, and hell to tremble. She saw angels around the altar bathed in tears; but the divine mother wept still more bitterly at the death of her innocent Son, and at the loss of a sinful child. After a vision so tremendous and dismal, the servant of God was so overpowered with fear and sorrow that she could do nothing but weep. The author of her life remarks that it was in the same year the earthquake happened which produced such havoc in the city of Naples and in the surrounding country. Hence we may infer that this earthquake was a punishment for the sacrilegious Mass at which Sister Mary was present.

But, exclaims St. Augustine, what more horrid impiety can be conceived than that the tongue that calls down the Son of God from heaven should be, at the very same moment, employed in outraging His majesty? or that the hands that are bathed in the blood of Jesus Christ should be, at the same time, polluted with the blood of sin (131). To the sacrilegious priest St. Bernard says: O unworthy wretch! if you wish to commit the enormous crime of celebrating Mass in the state of sin, at least procure another tongue, and do not employ that which is washed in the blood of Jesus Christ; procure hands different from those which you stretch out to touch His sacred flesh (132). Oh! let the priest who wishes to live at enmity with God at least abstain from sacrilegiously offering sacrifice on His altar! But, no! says St. Bonaventure: he will, for the sake of the miserable stipend that he receives, continue to commit a sin of such horrible enormity (133). Perhaps he expects that the sacred flesh of Jesus Christ which he offers in sacrifice will deliver him from his iniquities? Shall the holy flesh, says the prophet Jeremias, take away from thee thy crimes in which thou hast boasted (134)? No: the contact of that sacred body, as long as you remain in the state of sin, shall render you more guilty and more deserving of chastisement. He, says St. Peter Chrysologus, who commits a crime in the presence of his judge can advance no grounds of defence (135).

What chastisement does not the priest deserve who, instead of carrying with him to the altar flames of divine charity, brings the fetid fire of unchaste love! Speaking of the punishment inflicted on the sons of Aaron for having offered strange fire, St. Peter Damian says: "Let us take care not to mingle unholy fire, that is, the flames of lust with the salutary sacrifices (136)."

Whosoever, adds the saint, shall dare to carry the flame of lust to the altar, shall certainly be consumed by the fire of God's vengeance (137). May the Lord, then, says the holy Doctor in another place, preserve us from ever adoring on the altar the idol of impurity, and from placing the Son of the Virgin in the Temple of Venus, that is, in an unchaste heart (138)! If the man that came to the feast without the nuptial garment was cast into darkness, how much greater vengeance shall fall on him who approaches the divine table not only not clothed with a decent garment, but exhaling the stench of his impurities? says the same St. Peter Damian (139). Woe, exclaimed St. Bernard, to him that separates himself from God; but still greater woe to the priest who approaches the altar with a guilty conscience (140). Speaking one day to St. Bridget of a priest who had sacrilegiously celebrated Mass, the Lord said that He entered into the soul of that priest as a spouse for his sanctification, and that He was obliged to depart from it as a judge, to inflict the punishment merited by the sacrilegious reception of His body (141).

If the sacrilegious priest will not abstain from celebrating the divine mysteries in the state of sin, through horror of the insult, or rather of so many insults, offered to God by sacrilegious Masses, he ought at least to tremble at the awful chastisement prepared for him. St. Thomas of Villanova teaches that no punishment is sufficient to avenge a crime so enormous as a sacrilegious Mass. "Woe," he says, " to the sacrilegious hands! woe to the unclean breast of the impious priest! Every punishment is inadequate to the sin by which Christ is despised in this sacrifice (142)." Our Lord once said to St. Bridget that such priests are cursed by all creatures in heaven and on earth (143). A priest, as we have said in another place, is a vessel consecrated to God; and as Balthasar was chastised for having profaned the vessels of the Temple, so says, Peter de Blois, shall the priest be punished who unworthily offers sacrifice: " We see priests abusing vessels consecrated to God, but near them is that hand and that terrible writing: Mane, Thecel, Phares--numbered, weighed, divided (144)." Thou art numbered: a single sacrilege is sufficient to put an end to the number of divine graces. Thou art weighed: such a crime is enough to make the balance of divine justice descend to the eternal perdition of the sacrilegious priest. Divided : enraged at such an enormity, the Lord shall banish and separate you from Himself for eternity. Thus, then, shall be verified the words of David: Let their table become as a snare before them (145). The altar shall become for the sacrilegious priest the place of his punishment, where, remaining obstinate in sin, he shall be bound in the chains of hell, and shall be made the perpetual slave of Satan. For, according to St. Laurence Justinian, they that communicate in mortal sin adhere with greater pertinacity to sin (146). This is conformable to the doctrine of the apostle, that he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh judgment to himself (147). Hence St. Peter Damian exclaims: O priest of God, who offer to the eternal Father His own Son in sacrifice do not beforehand immolate yourself as a victim to the devil (148).

O Jesus, eternal priest, keep Thy priests within the shelter of Thy Sacred Heart, where none may touch them. Keep unstained their anointed hands, which daily touch Thy sacred body. Keep unsullied their lips, daily prupled with Thy precious blood. Keep pure and unearthly their hearts, sealed with the sublime mark of the priesthood. Let Thy holy love keep them from the world's contagion. Bless their labors with abundant fruit, and may the souls to whom they minister be their joy and consolation here and their everlasting crown hereafter. Amen



Footnotes:

1 Orat. 5.

2 "Vermis quo nullus nocentior."-- T. II. s. 52, a. 3, c. 2.

3 "Luxuria omnium virtutum eradicat germina."

4 "Luxuria seminarium et origo vitiorum est." --St. Thom, de Vill. De S.I ldeph. conc. 2.

5 "Demptis parvulis, ex adultis pauci, propter hoc vitium, salvantur."--II Crist, istr. p. I, rag. 24.

6 "Gemma pretiosissima, a paucis inventa." De Virginit.

7 "Teipsum castum custodi."--I Tim. v. 22.

8 "Ante omnia Sacerdos, qui divinis assistit altaribus, castitate debit accingi." --In Levit. hom. 4.

9 "Soli qui puram agunt vitam, sunt Dei Sacerdotes."--Strom. 1. 4.

10 Si pudicitia Sacerdotes creat, libido Sacerdotibus dignitatem abrogat."--Epist. 1. 3, ep. 75.

11 Nemo ad sacrum Ordinem permittatur accedere, nisi aut virgo aut probatae castitatis existat."--Cap. A Multis. De aet. et qual. ord.

12 "Ab omnium graduum dignitate."

13 "Qui, post acceptum sacrum Ordinem, lapsus in peccatum carnis fuerit, sacro Ordine ita careat, ut ad altaris ministerium ulterius non accedat."--Cap. Pervenit. dist. 50.

14 Cap. Presbyter, dist. 82.

15 "Unxit nos Deus, qui et signavit nos."-- 2 Cor. i. 21.

16 "Sacerdos ne polluat sanctuarium Domini; quia oleum sanctae unctionis super eum est."

17 " Teipsum castum custodi, ut domum Dei, templum Christi." --Ep. ad Heron. Diac.

18 "Nonne templum Dei violant? Nolite vasa Deo sacrata in vasa contumeliae vertere."--Opusc. 18, d. 2, c. 47.

19 "Cum ipsi templum et sacrarium Spiritus Sanctl debeant esse, indignum est eos immunditiis deservire."--Cap. Decernimus. dist. 28.

20 "Sus lota in volutabro luti!"--2 Pet. ii. 22.

21 "Deum in ipsis habitantem corrumpunt, quantum in se est, et vitiorum suorum conjunctione poluunt." --Paedag. l. 2, c. 10.

22 "Sacerdotes ejus contempserunt legem meam, et polluerunt sanctuaria mea; . . . et coinquinabor in medio eorum."--Ezech. xxii. 26.

23 "Polluimus corpus Christi, quando indigni accedimus ad altare." --In Mal. i. 7.

24 "Pudicitia sacerdotalis, non solum ab opere immundo, sed etiam a jactu oculi sit libera."--In Tit. i. 8, 9.

25 "Necesse est Sacerdotem sic esse purum, ut, in ipsis caelis collocatus, inter caelestes illas virtutes medius staret."--De Sacerd. 1. 3.

26 "Quo solares radios non deberet excedere manus illa, quae hanc carnem tractat?" --In Matt. hom. 83.

27 " Quis adeo impius erit, qui lutosis manibus Sacratissimum Sacramentum tractare praesumat?" Instead of these words we read at the place indicated: "Si erubescimus et timemus Eucharistiam manibus sordidis tangere, plus debemus timere ipsam Eucharistiam in anima polluta suscipere." --Serm. 292, E. B. App. ED.

28 "Audent Agni immaculati sacras contingere carnes, et intingere in sanguinem Salvatoris manus, quibus paulo ante carnes attrectaverunt." --Declam. n. 13.

29 "Ne manus quae intinguntur sanguine Christi, polluantur sanguine peccati." Molina, Intr. Sac. tr. I, c. 5, 2.

30 "Qua puritate oportebit custodire castitatem, quos necesse est quotidie sacrosanctis Agni carnibus vesci!" --De Caen. Inst. 1. 6, c. 8.

31 "Qui sacra illius verba Sacramenti ore immundo profert, in faciem Salvatoris spuit; et cum in os immundum sanctisimam Carnem ponit, eam quasi in lutum projicit."--Serm. 38.

32 " Majus peccatum est, quam si projiciat Corpus Christi in cloacam."

33 "Cur, o Sacerdos, qui sacrificium Deo debes offerre, temet ipsum prius maligno spiritui non vereris victimam immolare." --Opus. 17, c. 3.

34 "Vos estis daemonum victimae, ad aeternae mortis succidium destinatae; ex vobis diabolus, tamquam delicatis dapibus, pascitur et saginatur."

35 "Ecce in pace amaritudo mea amarissima." --Is. xxxviii. 17.

36 "Amara prius in nece Martyrum, amarior in conflictu haereticorum, amarissima in moribus domesticorum. Pax est, et non est pax: pax a paganis, pax ab haereticis, sed non profecto a filiis."--In Cant. s. 33.

37 "Qui praedicator constitutus es castitatis, non te pudet servum esse libidinis!"--S. ad Past, in syn.

38 "Castitas, mundans mentes hominum, praestat videre Deum." --Serm. 291, E. B. app.

39 "Caecitas mentis, odium Dei, affectus praesentis saeculi, horor vel desperatio futuri." 2. 2, q. 153, a. 5.

40 "Luxuria futura non sinit cogitare."

41 John Calvin was provided, at the age of twelve, with a chaplaincy in the church of Noyon, and afterwards with the curacy of Pont l' Eveque, near this city, although he was never raised to the dignity of the priesthood. (Dict. hist, de Feller.)

42 "Ambulabunt ut caeci, quia Domino peccaverunt."--Soph. i. 17.

43 "Percutiat te Dominus amentia, et caecitate, ac furore mentis, et palpes in meridie, sicut palpare solet caecus in tenebris, et non dirigas vias tuas."--Deut. xxviii. 28.

44 "Non dabunt cogitationes suas, ut revertantur ad Deum suum; quia spiritus fornicationum in medio eorum, et Dominum non cogno verunt."--Os. v. 4.

45 "Nec admonitiones, nec consilia, ne aliquid aliud salvare potest animam libidine periclitantem."--Hom. contra lux.

46 "Supercecidit ignis, et non viderunt solem."--Ps. Ivii. 9.

47 " 'Supercecidit ignis,' id est, concupiscentiae."--2. 2, q. 15, a. i.

48 "Vitia carnalia extinguunt judicium rationis. Delectatio quae est in venereis, totam animam trahit ad sensibilem delectationem."--2. 2, q. 53, a. 6.

49 "Luxuria hominem pejorem bestia facit."--Eusebius, Ep. ad Dam. de morte Hier.

50 "Accedite ad eum, et illuminamini."--Ps. xxxiii. 6.

51 " Per peccatum luxuriae, homo videtur maxime a Deo recedere."--In Job 31, lect. I.

52 "Animalis autem homo non percipit ea quae sunt Spiritus Dei."--I Cor. ii. 14.

53 "Non percipit."

54 "Ubi caeperit quis luxuriari, incipit deviare a fide recta."--Epist. 36.

55 "Ossa ejus implebuntur vitiis adolescentiae ejus et cum eo in pulvere dormient."--Job, XX. II.

56 "Quia oblita es mei, et projecisti me post corpus tuum, tu quoque porta scelus tuum et fornicationes tuas."--Ezech. xxiii. 35.

57 "Illi Deum post corpus suum ponunt, qui suarum obtemperant illecebris voluptatum."--Opusc. 18, diss. 2, c. 3.

58 Eserc. della buona m. p. I, d. 34.

59 "Hoc rete diaboli, si quis capitur, non cito solvitur."--Eusebius, Ep, ad Dam. de morte Hier.

60 "Diabolus dicitur maxima gaudere de peccato luxuriae, quia est maximae adhaerentiae, et difficile ab eo homo potest eripi."--1. 2, q. 73, a. 5.

61 "Morbus immedicabilis." Paedag. 1. 2, c. 10.

62 "Vitium immutabile."

63 "Impudicitia mater est impoenitentiae."--De Disc, et Bon. pud.

64 "Est fere impossibile triumphare de carne, si ipsa de nobis triumphavit."

65 "Propheta et Sacerdos polluti sunt; . . . idcirco via eorum erit quasi lubricum in tenebris; impellentur enim, et corruent in ea."--Jer. xxiii. II.

66 "Dum servitur libidini, facta est consuetude; et dum consuetudini non resistitur, facta est necessitas."--Conf. 1. 8, c. 5.

67 "Vix aliquis talium veram habet contritionem; idcirco pene omnes aeternaliter damnantur."--Quat. Nov. p. 3. a. 13

68 "Altaria Domini, non alienum, sed ignem dumtaxat divini amoris accipiunt; quisquis igitur carnalis concupiscentiae flamma aestuat, et sacris assistere mysteriis non formidat, ille divinae ultionis igne consumitur."--Opusc. 27, c. 3.

69 "Veniet, veniet profecto dies, imo nox, quando libido ista tua vertetur in picem, qua se perpetuus ignis in tuis visceribus inextinguibiliter nutriat."--Opusc. 17, c. 3.

70 "Quid illi sperandum, qui, caelestibus tricliniis intromissus, non modo non est spiritalis indumenti decore conspicuus, sed ultro etiam foetet sordentis luxuriae squalore perfusus."--Opusc. 18, d. I, c. 4.

71 "Cessa pro me orare, pro quo nullatenus exaudieris."--Anno 1100, n. 24.

72 Epist. 1. 5, ep. 16.

73 Rev. 1, 2, c. 2.

74 "Vos autem recessistis de via, et scandalizastis plurimos in lege; . . . propter quod et ego dedi vos contemptibiles et humiles omnibus populis."--Mal. ii. 8.

75 "Qui amat periculum, in illo peribit."--Ecclus. iii. 27.

76 "Oratio pudicitiae preasidium est."--De or. Dom. or. I.

77 "Et ut scivi quoniam aliter nom possem esse continens, nisi Deus det, . . . adii Dominum, et deprecatus sum illum."--Wisd. viii. 21.

78 "Necessario fatemur nullum aliud opus adeo sanctum a Christi fidelibus tractari posse, quam hoc tremendum mysterium."--Sess. 22, Decr, de observ. in Missa.

79 "Habuit bovem Judaeus, habe: Christum Christianus, cujus sacrificium tanto excellentius est, quanto Christus bove major est."

80 "Congrua tunc fuit servilis hostia servis; servata est liberatrix victima jam filiis et amicis."--Ep. contra Petrobr.

81 "Qua oblatione nulla major, nulla utilior, nulloque oculis Divinae Majestatis est gratior."--Serm dc Euchar.

82 "Locus altari vicinus plenus est Angelorum choris, in honorem illius qui immolatur."--De Sacerd. 1. 6.

83 "Quis fidelium habere dubium possit, in ipsa immolationis hora, ad Sacerdotis vocem coelos aperiri, et in illo Jesu Christi mysterio Angelorum choros adesse?"--Dial. 1. 4, c. 58.

84 "Sacerdos enim hoc ineffabile conficit mysterium, et Angeli conficienti sibi quasi famuli assistunt."-- Molina, Instr. Sac. tr. i, c. 5, 2.

85 " Idem nunc offerens Sacerdotum ministerio, qui seipsum tunc in cruce obtulit."--Sess. 22, cap. 2.

86 "Sacerdos vice Christi vere fungitur."--Epist. 62.

87 "Hoc est corpus meum; hic est calix sanguinis mei."

88 "Qui vos audit, me audit; qui vos spernit, me spernit."--Luke, x. 16.

89 " Mundamini, qui fertis vasa Domini."--Is. lii. II.

90 "Quanto mundiores esse oportet, qui in manibus et in corpore portant Christum!"--Epist. 123

91 "Satis apparet omnem operam et diligentiam in eo ponendam esse, ut quanta maxima fieri potest interiori cordis munditia peragatur."--Sess. 22, Decr, de obs. in Missa.

92 "Candorem significat vitae innocentis, quae a Sacerdote debet incipere."

93 "Videte dignitatem vestram, Sacerdotes; et sicut super omnes, propter hoc mysterium, honoravit vos Dominus, ita et vos diligite eum et honorate."--Op. p. I, ep. 12.

94 "Honorificabitis autem, non cultu vestium, sed ornatis moribus, studiis spiritualibus, operibus bonis."--De Mor. et Off. Episc. c. 2.

95 "Ad vos, o Sacerdotes, qui despicitis nomen meum! . . . Offertis super altare meum panem pollutum, et dicitis: In quo polluimus te?"--Mal. i. 6.

96 "Polluimus panem, id est, corpus Christi, quando indigni accedimus ad altare."

97 "De stercore erigens pauperem, ut collocet eum cum principibus populi sui."--Ps. cxii. 6.

98 "Qui non adhibet honorem quern debet altari sancto, factis testatur illud esse contemptibile." Molina, Instr. Sacerd. tr. 2, c. 18, I.

99 "Quo igitur solari radio non puriorem esse oportet manum carnem hanc dividentem, linguam quae tremendo nimis sanguine rubescit?"--Ad pop. Ant. hom. 60.

100 " Nonne accedentem ad altare Sacerdotem sic parum esse oportet, ut, si in ipsis coelis esset collocatus, inter coelestes illas virtutes medius staret."--De Sacerd. l. 3.

101 "Quis adeo impius erit, qui lutosis manibus sacratissimum Sacramentum tractare praesumat?"

102 "Cum extenderitis manus vestras, avertam oculos meos a vobis." --Is. i. 15.

103 "Dispergam super vultum vestrum stercus solemnitatum vestrarum."--Mal. ii. 3.

104 "Haec quidem illa munda oblatio est, quae nulla malitia offerentium inquinari potest."--Sess. 22, cap. i.

105 "Coinquinabar in medio eorum."--Ezech. xxii. 26.

106 "Heu, Domine, Deus, quia ipsi sunt in persecutione tua primi, qui videntur in Ecclesia tua gerere principatum."--In Conv. S. Pauli S. I.

107 "Vis infertur corpori Domini; in Dominum manibus atque ore delinquunt."--Serm, de. Lapsis.

108 Qui sacra illius verba Sacramenti ore immundo profert, in faciem Salvatoris spuit; et cum in os immundum sanctissimum carnem ponit, eum quasi in lutum projicit."--Serm. 38.

109 "Lutum non adeo indignum est corpore divino, quam indigna est carnis tuae impuritas."--In Heb. 10, 16.

110 "Majus peccatum est, quam si projiceret corpus Christi in cloacam."

111 "Quantum flagitium sit in spurcissimam pectoris tui cloacam Christi sanguinem fundere."--De Sacram. alt. conc. 3.

112 "Aliud est promulgata edicta negligere, aliud ipsum regem vibrato propriae manus jaculo sanciare. Deterius nemo peccat, quam Sacerdos qui indigne sacrificat: aliter in quocumque modo peccantes, quasi Dominum in rebus ejus offendimus; indigne vero sacrificantes, velut in personam ejus manus injicere non timemus."--Opusc. 26, c. 2.

113 " Minus peccaverunt Judaei crucifigentes in terra deambulantem, quam qui contemnunt in coelo sedentem.--In Ps. 68, s. 2.

114 "Semel Judaei Christo manus intulerunt; isti quotidie corpus ejus lacessunt. O manus praescindendae!"--De Idol.

115 Cfr. our Moral Theology, 1. 6, n. 35, and V. Hinc dicimus

116 Miser non caligaverunt oculi tui, lingua torpuit, conciderunt brachia!"--Ep. ad Sabian.

117 "Multo daemonic pejor est, qui, peccati conscius, accedit ad altare."--In Matt. horn. 83.

118 Life, ch. 38.

119 "Quando qui particeps est cum ipso in mysteriis, peccatum committit, non eum conculcat."--In Heb. hom. 2O.

120 "Quanto majus putatis deteriora mereri supplicia, qui Filium Dei conculcaverit, et sanguinem testamenti pollutum duxerit, in quo sanctificatus est?"--Heb. x.2O.

121 "Columnse coeli contremiscunt."--Job, xxvi. 11.

122 " Quam perditus ergo est, qui redemptionem in perditionem, qui sacrificium in sacrilegium, qui vitam convertit in mortem! Verbum beati Hieronymi est: Perfidus Judseus, perfidus Christianus, ille de latere, iste de calice, sanguinem Christi fudit!"--Epist. 123.

123 "Corpus meum amarius crucifigunt, quam Judaei."--Rev. 1. 4, c. 133.

124 "Ne, si peccatis obnoxii offerunt, eorum oblatio sit quasi qui victimat Filium in conspectu Patris."--Durant. De Rit. Eccl. l. 2. c. 42, 4.

125 "Quoniam, si inimicus meus maledixisset mihi, sustinuissem utique; . . . tu vero, homo unanimis, dux meus et notus meus, qui simul mecum dulces capiebas cibos!"--Ps. liv. 13.

126 "Tales Sacerdotes non sunt mei Sacerdotes, sed veri proditores ipsi enim et me vendunt quasi Judas."--Rev. 1. I, c. 47.

127 "Juda traditore deteriores effecti, eo quod, sicut ille tradidit Jesum Judaeis, sic isti tradunt diabolis, eo quod illum ponunt in loco sub potestate diaboli constituto."--T. II. s. 55, a. I, c. 3.

128 "Nonne Christus potest stare, et dicere: Juda! tradis osculo Filium hominis!"--Serm. 42.

129 "Qui Christi corpus indigne conficit, Christum tradit, ut Christus, dum traditur dicat; Ecce manus tradentis me mecum est in mensa."--P. de Blots, Epist. 123.

130 "In eis qui peccant, nec sancta mysteria contingere verentur, totus daemon se insinuat; quod etiam in proditore quoque fecit."--Epist. 1. 3 ep. 364

131 "Ne lingua, quae vocat de caelo Filium Dei, contra Dominum loquatur; et manus, quae intinguntur sanguine Christi, polluantur sanguine peccati."--Molina, Instr. Sacr. tr. i, c. 5, 2.

132 "Quando ergo peccare volueris, quaere aliam linguam quam eam quae rubescit sanguine Christi, alias manus praeter eas quae Christum suscipiunt."

133 "Accedunt, non vocati a Deo, sed impulsi ab avaritia."--De Praep. ad M. c. 8.

134 "Numquid carnes sanctae auferent a te malitias tuas, in quibus gloriata es?"--Jer. xi. 15.

135 "Excusatione caret, qui facinus, ipso judice teste, committit."--Serm. 26.

136 "Cavendum est ne alienum ignem, hoc est, libidinis flammam, inter salutares hostias deferamus."--Opusc. 26, c. i. Levil. x.

137 "Quisquis carnalis concupiscentiae flamma aestuat, et sacris assistere mysteriis non formidat, ille, procul dubio, divinsae ultionis igne consumitur."--Opusc. 27, c. 3.

138 "Absit ut aliquis huic idolo substernatur, ut Filium Virginis in Veneris templo suscipiat."--Sem. 60.

139 "Quid illi sperandum, qui, caelestibus tricliniis intromissus, non modo non est spiritualis indumenti decore conspicuus, sed ultro etiam faetet sordentis luxuriae squalore perfusus." Opusc. 18. d. I, c. 4.

140 "Vae ei qui se alienum fecerit ab eo: et multum vae ei qui immundus accesserit." De Old. vita. c. 2.

141 "Ingredior ad Sacerdotem istum ut sponsus; egredior ut Judex, judicaturus contemptus a sumente."--Rev. 1. 4, c. 62.

142 "Vae sacrilegis manibus, vae immundis pectoribus impiorum Sacerdotum! omne supplicium minus est flagitio quo Christus contern nitur in hoc sacrificio."--De Sacrum, alt. conc. 3.

143 "Maledicti sunt a caelo et terra, et ab hominibus creaturis, quae ipsae obediunt Deo, et isti spreverunt."--Rev. 1. I, c. 47.

144 "Videmus Sacerdotes abutentes vasis Deo consecratis; sed prope est manus illa et scriptura terribilis: Mane, Thecel, Phares : Numeratum, Appensum, Divisum."--Serm. 56

145 "Fiat mensa eorum coram ipsis in laqueum."--Ps. Ixviii. 23.

146 "Sumentes indigne, prae caeteris delicta graviora committunt, et pertinaciores in malo sunt."--S. de Euchar.

147 "Qui enim manducat et bibit indigne, judicium sibi manducat et bibit."--I Cor. xi. 29.

148 "Cur, o Sacerdos, qui sacrificium Deo debes offerre, temetipsum prius maligno spiritui non vereris victimam immolare?" Opusc. 17, c. 3.