Held in 1515.
He will set his speeches with understanding (Ps.
111, 5. According to the Vulgate.)
(1) Happy and truly blessed is such a man, for he truly makes his speeches with understanding, considering what, how, to whom, and when he should speak. Let us therefore try to dissect and expose that most shameful vice of slander.
(2) Know then that every slanderer is first of all a spiritual murderer of men, that is, much worse than a physical murderer. For man lives according to a threefold life: according to the bodily, according to the spiritual, and according to his reputation or good name, according to the saying, "Their names shall live forever." But now the sword of the slanderer, which is his tongue, first kills the life of the good name, which he may never be able to restore. Secondly, it kills the soul of the one whom he slandered, by provoking him to anger, enmity, hatred, or any other mortal sin, or to revenge by retaliating against the same slander. And even if this does not happen every time, it should still happen, as much as is up to him; for he hurled it at him once; if it did not hit him and kill him, then only the grace of God was to blame for it. One compares Gabriel *) of the how
*) Gabriel Viel, a famous theologian of the 15th century, professor at the newly founded university of
Thirdly, he kills his hearer, for that the calm hearing of slander is a mortal sin is evident from Psalm 15, v. 1: "Lord, who shall dwell in thy tabernacle?" to which v. 3 is answered: "He that receiveth not, i.e., consents to slander against his neighbor; he that practiseth not guile with his tongue," or in Hebrew: "he that slandereth not with his tongue. So whoever accepts slander, as the Jews did to Christ, will not dwell in the tabernacle, that is, in the church. But only mortal sinners will not dwell in the church; therefore woe to them!
(3) Secondly, they are fierce tyrants without mercy; therefore they also will not attain life. For we are commanded to bury the dead, but they dig the dead out of their graves and spread their stench through the nostrils of the earth, that is, of men; for which reason Martha herself wanted to prevent Christ from raising him who had already been in the grave three days, because he was stagnant, John 11:39; but they did not do so, therefore woe to them!
4 So also Moses commanded. "You shall not expose the shame and disgrace, i.e., the sins and shortcomings, of your mother, sister, brother and all others."
For those who do this are poisonous snakes, traitors, losers, murderers, thieves, robbers, tyrants, devils and all misfortunes, desperate unbelievers, envious people and haters. And with it all those are rejected who believe that one can say everything that is true and who invent an excuse for their sins, so that others will be warned and he will be improved. You fool! That is not the way to correct your neighbor; "You shall not reveal," Moses said. Therefore the Lord also said of such: "The hour is coming that everyone who kills you," that is, who destroys you in your body, in which you live with others, "will believe that he is doing God a service.
5 Did Christ perhaps slander his disciples when he stood before Annas, whether it would have been the truth if he had done so? So neither truth nor falsehood excuses, but it sins badly whoever belittles another.
6. thirdly, they are also lewd rapists, because they defile pure hearts by instilling their accursed seed from the tongue. For as the word of God is a holy seed, which the soul receives without injury, but rather with the preservation of its virginity, as the blessed Virgin Mary received the Son of God: so the word of the slanderer is a false, adulterous seed of the devil, which corrupts the virgin soul in the hearer. And indeed they are like unto vipers, both he that speaketh and he that heareth: what they receive by the mouth, that soweth they in turn. Therefore Christ and John call the fathers of these wicked ones "vipers" for the sake of this vice.
(7) Fourthly, they are devils incarnate. For as Lucifer is not a devil by nature, but by office and wickedness, so are they not by nature, but by wickedness; for the devil has nothing else by which he can corrupt souls, but by slander and degradation, by which he degrades God and the righteousness of Christ in the soul to which he infuses them. Therefore he is also called satan in Hebrew, diabolos in Greek, detractor in Latin,
That is, degraders, desecrators; and those who belong to his party also follow him. Thus one reads in the revelation of John on the 12th, that he has pulled down the third part of the stars to the earth. Yes, these are the same ones who drive out peace, which is why Jesus Sirach curses and execrates them in the strongest terms throughout the entire 21st chapter. One reads only this punishment speech completely corresponding to such a terrible evil.
Fifth, they are unbelievers because they have no faith, despairers because they have no hope, and puffed-up hopefuls because they have no love; for they do not believe that a brother is, they do not hope that a brother is, and they do not love him as themselves. In the same way they are sorcerers according to Gal. 5.
First Amendment. Slander is a vain and empty talk of man, and a temptation by which men tempt us; for it is said in Psalm 39:6 (here according to the Vulgate), "Verily, all man liveth is vanity"; item, in Ecclesiastes 1:2.For "vanity of all vanity" is man, and everything is vanity because of him, as also the apostle says (Rom. 8, 20.): "To vanity - that is, to man - is all creation subject", and therefore this itself is also vanity. But still the man who lives is pure, i.e. all vanity, since he is the cause why everything else is vain; for he, the vain one, uses it all in a vain way, he takes it vainly, he loves vainly, as if they were real goods and his ultimate end, whereas they are only the signs and means of goods, as it were only a way and a mirror.
Slander occurs, firstly, when one brings something untrue to the attention of one's neighbor; secondly, when one says something true, but secret, to him in public; thirdly, when one denies the truth of what is said to one's neighbor. Compare Gabriel.
Second addition. Not a dead man, but a man that liveth is vanity; that is, he that liveth after the flesh in sensual lusts, as the dear cattle; for a man that is dead after the flesh is already more than a man; a man so living is
a child of God and like an angel. This is also how that saying is to be understood, where it says (Ps.143, 2.; here according to the Vulgate): "No man is justified before your face who lives", but only such a one who has truly died; item, that other one (2 Mos. 33,20.): "No man shall look upon me and live"; because through the crucifixion of the flesh he has died to the lusts; but such shall see God. So die and, made alive in the spirit, you will see God, you will no longer be vanity, and you will be justified before God.
Third addition. But slander is also a devilish and silent language, that is, a challenge and slander with which the devil challenges us. Therefore, it comes to us no differently than a challenge from men, which the devil always uses to tempt us by slander, because he is Satan. So if the apostle already punishes foolish speech, how do you think he will punish this devilish speech?
(9) Sixthly, they are sorcerers, as it is said in Gal. 5:20, "Revealed are the works of the flesh, as, idolatry, sorcery." For they prepare the magic potion of slander, wherewith they charm and pervert the ears of the hearers, so that he whom they diminish in others can no longer do anything, just as a charmed man is also hindered in his preservation. For just as witches can change beautiful weather, which means grace and affection, into the opposite: so also the slanderers bring ruin by their practices and change cheerful into stormy and sad weather among men, so that whom one had previously embraced with affection, with hearty goodwill and cheerful countenance, he now repels after the enchantment with a gloomy, cold and furrowed brow. - Other witches deceive the act of procreation and inhibit the procreative power. So there are also those who make bad another's teachings and interpret them in the worst way, so that they would be detested by others and all intercourse would be denied to them. - Likewise, they can blind the eyes and deceive the senses, so that what is a man is seen as a wild animal. Thus Ziba himself did to David
so that David could no longer see Mephibosheth for who he really was, 2 Sam. 16 and 19.
(10) The seventh is serpents, Ecclesiastes 10:11: If a serpent bites silently, he that slandereth secretly is of the same kind; and therefore such are like unto the Jews, who slew Christ, and whom therefore John, as well as Christ himself, calleth vipers. But it is the nature of vipers that when the male puts his head into the female's throat during mating, the female bites off the head, and then the young are born by piercing the mother's side, thus killing her. Similarly, a slanderer is the male of the otter, and the one who listens to him, the female, who mix their mutual poison against the brother. The remaining points of comparison you may find out yourself. They are also in this like the traitor Judas, yes, his heirs, who secretly betrayed Christ and bit him; and what is said of him only frightfully in the 109th Psalm, the same is also true of his descendants.
Eighth, they are their own most righteous judges, who pronounce their own condemnation precisely through the one whom they slander. For whatever evil they accuse their neighbor of, only in a much worse and spiritual sense, they make themselves guilty in their conscience and before God according to the words of Paul to the Romans (2, 1.): "In which you judge another, you condemn yourself"; item, that other, Matth. 7, 1.: "Judge not, and you shall not be judged." The reason for this is that if someone tells an untruth, it falls on his head. For example, a liar says of his neighbor, "This one is arrogant," but in so saying he shows himself to be an arrogant man, because he despises and belittles his neighbor. But if he has spoken the truth, he has not done so sincerely; for just as Moses commanded that what is right should also be done rightly, so again it should also be spoken rightly and sincerely. So also such a one is a spiritual fornicator who says of another, This one is a fornicator;
For although it is true, it is said in an untrue, insincere spirit, because he does not say it in the place, to the person, and in the way he should, not sowing the true and good seed of the words in the proper vessel, nor at the proper time and place.
Therefore let every man speak with such understanding that he knows that God will speak the same of him as he speaks of another, whether good or evil; and then see to it that what you prefer to hear from God, you also say of your neighbor. Therefore the Lord says (Matth. 12, 37.): "From your words you will be justified and from your words you will be condemned"; item, Jer. 23, 36.: "Every man's own word will be a burden"; there also belongs Ps. 37, 15."Their sword will penetrate their own souls"; and again Ps. 50:20: "You sit" - that is, safely and without fear of God, as it were as the only one who is righteous, like Annas and Caiphas against Christ - "against your brother and speak" etc. For the slanderers sit as if they were not aware of any sins, yes, as if they were vain saints; the righteous and saints, on the other hand, stand there and keep silent as poor sinners, but in truth only the blessed sit with Christ, as it is promised to them. Those slanderers, then, already here arrogate to themselves such a glory; but what does it say further? (v. 21): "You did this and I kept silent; then you thought ungodly that I would be like you; so I will punish it and put it before your eyes" - namely, your words against yourself, which you spoke while sitting against your brother. This is also evident in the Gospel, where the Pharisees spoke of Christ (Joh. 9, 16.): "This man is not of God"; item, v. 24.: "We know that this man is a sinner"; likewise (Joh. 7, 20.): "You have the devil"; item (Matth. 11, 19.): "Behold, how man is a glutton and a winebibber, a publican and a sinner's companion"; all of which is completely true when applied to the originators of these slanders.
13 Now let us also consider some of their punishments. First, the sister of Moses was beaten with leprosy, because she had
In the same way the slanderers shall be beaten. Secondly, the secular law also punishes them with death, as it appears from the title (of the civil law book): "Of the defamatory writing". Thirdly, see the various examples in the Lives of the Fathers and in the "Mirror of Examples of Sacred Scripture". That is why Aesopus also indicated it in a very fine way that he bought tongues twice, as the worst and the best food.
14 Therefore it is also punished so severely in the holy Scriptures, so in the 52nd Psalm, v. 3: "Why do you defy, you who are mighty in wickedness, so that you can do harm? Thy tongue seeketh after harm all the day long; like a sharp shearer thou practisest guile." For the slanderers put a thing in such a way and adorn it in such a way that it seems quite probable to most people what they say; as for example just that Doeg, against whom this psalm is directed, who therefore had a sharp Sheermanser and a slanderous tongue piercing to the point of conviction, because he had seen that David had been with the priests and that they had given him bread and a sword, as 1 Sam. 21. and 22. read. From this he made the accusation that Abimelech had conspired with David against Saul; therefore it is said here that he was therefore mighty in malice, that is, he was able to convince, and must not have a blunt tongue, as when one only licks, *) but he provoked David in the deepest and sharpest way.
15 In the same way Ziba spoke of Mephibosheth to make him hateful to David in an apparently true and credible way: he had said, "Today the house of Israel will restore to me my father's kingdom" (2 Sam. 16:3.); and this was quite probable, for he was a grandson of Saul. And so Ziba overpowered him, and David believed very evil. In the same way, those who are cursed with the most furious rage do the same to all who slander them, as it is said in Ps. 101:5: "The
slandering his neighbor in secret, I follow him" (according to the Vulg.).
16 But, alas, this vice is now rampant and is going on terribly in all the alleys and corners of the church, and the higher the status of the people, the more abominable and insolent they disgrace themselves with it. But do not follow them; let them be your superiors in office, but not in example. On the other hand, let Monica, the excellent and prudent woman of whom her son, St. Augustine, writes in his Confessions, be an example to you, that although she was among very shameful people, she had an admirable grace towards this vice. So also the prophets Isaiah, Cap. 2, 41, and Micah, Cap. 4, 3, to turn swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, and those to turn their evil and harmful tongues into good and useful ones.
(17) But now let us also consider their excuses. First of all, when they slander, they say: I do not say that I wanted to slander him, nor do I want to have it said to him. Such are very fine speakers who, with an oratorical makeup, deny saying what they are saying in the first place, and who deny that they did not say it in the way in which they do it. But it will not excuse them; for "the righteous man sets his speeches with understanding." He must see from what motive he speaks, from what necessity, to whom, in what manner, and who he is who speaks. For if he does it only out of pastime or wantonness of heart, let him take care that he does not paint the devil over his door according to the proverb; otherwise he will come to good; That is, he who palliates and excuses his sin forms a devil in the midst of the day and makes himself an angel of light, while he can hardly escape the devil who has really been made into an angel, even though he used all diligence, made the cross everywhere, and always spoke and acted in the fear of the Lord. Or do you think that the Lord, standing before Annas, could not have spoken about his disciples in the same way, or even better, like you? and yet he kept silent even when asked. But you spill it all out, even unasked!
(18) Others justify themselves by saying that what they say is true. But if one may say everything that is true, why do not confessors reveal the sins of their confessors? and why do you not say your own sins publicly, since they are also true? Do you love your neighbor as yourself? You think you cannot conceal his shortcomings, because they are the truth, while you do the opposite with your own. See how beautifully you condemn yourself here and prove that you act against the commandment of the Lord. Ah, it is not enough for such a cursed tongue to do evil; nay, they rejoice in it also. Was it not also the truth that the disciples had fled from the Lord, and yet he concealed it; why therefore does such a larva flatter thee to thy destruction, since Sirach says *) (19:10, according to the Vulgate): "If thou hast heard a word against thy neighbor, let it die in thee, and know that thou shalt not burst therefrom"; if thou hast seen it, thou hast experienced it; let that be enough. But they do not do so, for they think they will burst if they do not spit it out. Then Moses says: "What is right, let it be done right", so also what is true, let it be said true, what is holy, let it be presented holy, otherwise you sin much more, because you tell the truth in a wrong way, just as those sin much more, who act the holy profane and unholy and practice the right wrongly; because righteousness and understanding is the preparation for your covenant, so also truth and understanding are the works of his hands, Ps. 111.
19. so the hero will set his speeches with understanding; Jer. 23, 28.: "He who has my speech, he says my speech", that is, he says the
Truth true and sincere. In that he speaks: the speech, he excludes everything false, which he otherwise calls malice, vituperation etc.; for such is not worthy to be called speech, and yet it is not enough to speak speeches, but they must also be set with understanding, so also "the works of his hands are truth and understanding". Hence it comes about that every slander, if it says false things, sins against the commandment: Thou shalt not bear false witness; but if it says true things, but as a slander, that is, not true and sincere, it sins against the second commandment: Thou shalt not take the name of thy God - that is, the name of Christ, as he himself says in the Gospel: I am the truth - uselessly, much less falsely.
(20) What, then, does it mean to speak the truth truly? Answer: It means to speak it at the time, in the place, from the cause and in the way it should be done, and this is the mind of truth. For this reason, the apostle commands Timothy (?) that all his speeches be seasoned with salt. Therefore, it is not enough to have merely spoken the truth in order to be without sin.
(21) A third kind of slanderers are those who pretend that they do this so that the truth may come to light and be corrected. To such it is to be answered, This is not the way to amend; rather, it is always to be feared that thou speakest without understanding. For he who wants to amend his brother's sin has the rule for it in the gospel; if he despises it, or thinks he is acting more wisely than Christ taught, what a great fool must he not be? Nor will he succeed, because he acts and errs according to the sense of his flesh. But let him see whether he speaks in the place, to the person, and for the purpose that can really indicate to him whether he speaks for the sake of the betterment of his neighbor or not rather to tell something new or to carry on an idle, idle chatter. Take away idle time and idle talk, and you will find very few who care about the betterment of their neighbor.
22. the fourth kind are those who still crown their devil and Satanic angel with gold, and
They adorn themselves and transfigure themselves with wonderful splendor, saying that they told the sin of their brother only so that another might beware of him. That is to put on a semblance of true piety and the makeup of love, and therefore it must be a golden and sunny noonday devil, that they want to warn another. But what can I say against it? We cannot deny that it is sometimes of the highest necessity; for so did Augustine and the orthodox teachers against the heretics, so did Christ against the Pharisees, so did the apostle against the false apostles. Here they have a great protection; but they may see to it that they are also as those were, and speak it in such a spirit, from such a motive, to such persons, etc. that is, that the mind may not be left out.
23 There are six kinds of slander, about which one may read Bernard in his 23rd Lenten Sermon, as well as in the 36th Sermon, of the Restitution of Honor, Art. 3, where he says: that the slanderer is that possessed one who was in the tombs, that is, in the throats; for "an open grave is their throat," and in the same place he says: a death is their throat, indeed they are nothing but tongue and throat, for if that one had a legion of devils, the slanderer has in his throat as many devils as he utters slander. Therefore Bernard says: Both, the slanderer and the one who willingly listens to him, have a devil, the one has it on his tongue, the other in his ear. Every tongue of a slanderer is a devil's tongue; for just as, according to Job 40, the nqbel of the flesh and the loins of men are of the devil for the sake of evil desire, so is every member that acts ungodly; and just as, on the other hand, Christ possesses the members of his own, so in truth the devil possesses the tongue of the slanderer and the ear of his hearer.
24. nor is anything more righteous in the sight of god than that those who will not remember the truth about themselves and their own cook in order to purify themselves must defile their noses and teeth with other people's dung; for every slanderer does nothing but chew the cud of other people's filth with his teeth and, like a pig with its nose, chew the cud of other people's filth.
950 E. 1. 84-86. B. Of the ten commandments in particular. Eighth commandment. W. x, ii4i-ii4Z. 951
Therefore, even among all, the human filth stinks the most, over which only the devil's filth passes. What good does it do you to dig around in other people's excrement and defile yourself with it and spread a pestilential odor? For a good smell is a good smell that comes from an ointment that is on the outside, a bad smell is a bad smell that comes from the dung that is on the inside. And even if a man puts away his dung secretly, the slanderer does not let it be secretly; he takes pleasure in rolling in it, and is worth nothing better according to God's righteous judgment.
25 These are also our dishonorable things, of which the apostle, 1 Cor. 12:23, says that the more we try to hide our sins, the more we adorn them. So the slanderer carries them around, rolls around and dwells in them like the human heart in the body, and he always does it like the hoopoe, for when he sees someone washing off someone who is stained with dirt, he cries out, "Look, how he has shamed himself; for whom the best answer would be, "You eat that," for in truth he also eats it. This is also how it is to be understood what is said by Ezekiel, Cap. 4, 12. 13. that they had eaten bread polluted with human dung. It is therefore an unclean, disgusting bird that defiles its own camp. We are all of this kind, but he who carries other people's dung onto his bed is even more disgusting. Therefore the slanderer is a dunghill of all men, even though against the will of men, as well as that gate of Jerusalem, which was called the gate of filth.
(26) Therefore every one of us has a belly full of filth, so that it is not necessary to defile ourselves externally and outwardly, for there is no one who would not be disgusted to do so bodily; but it is a cause, because our filth is not external, therefore we should look at ourselves inwardly. Thus our belly is our conscience, which is filled with the filth and filthiness of sins; since we do not consider it seriously, but only the covering and shell of our outward conduct, by which we remain unknown to men, which we are inwardly, we defile ourselves with the
The other's cot, that we may be unclean on every side, within and without. For these are the covers of the land of Midian, that is, of the Moors, or of the sins of the flesh, and the tents of the Moors, Hab. 3:7, and the tents of Kedar; but not so are the covers of Solomon.
(27) The slanderers are also traitors, whom the torturer of God, that is, the devil, will scatter forever to the four winds of the world, which are pain, despair, terror and howling in hell. That is why every slanderer has such an abominable stench, which he emits from his accursed throat and mouth, polluting the air all around; therefore flee him, O man, abhor his stench, turn your eyes away from his mouth, which is the most foul abyss. For the mouth of a slanderer is a pit of hell, which from the depth of all filth and excrement lets out an infernal mephitic exhalation.
28 And imagine that when the slanderers come together, their entertainment consists in taking any one, placing him in front of them in the middle, and then, one after the other, tearing him apart with their mouths, as dogs do the carrion of a horse in the field. And in this they are in truth equal to the dogs, yes, even much more vile; for the latter devour only a horse, but the latter pounce on the dug-up carrion of a man, which of all things rots and stinks the most, into which, in spite of its already gnawed flesh, its rotten nerves and the worms crawling around in it - ghastly thought! Fie, fie! what a hideous monster is a slanderer! But know that the slanderer is not so vile in the flesh in the sight of men, as he is in the sight of God spiritually; for there is a very great difference between the spiritual and the carnal.
But in the truest sense of the word, a sinful man who has sin is an Aesir, which is then torn to pieces when his sin, which he has with him in his conscience, has been removed from him.
The slanderers, however, lick and even devour it; they are therefore that animal called the hyena, of which Pliny and others say that it imitates the voice of man in the nighttime. The slanderers, however, lick and even devour it; they are therefore that animal called hyena, of which Pliny and others say that it imitates the voice of man at night time in order to lure him and strangle him, and feeds on the corpses of the dead dug out of the graves. So does the slanderer, who would have to die if he did not slander, for his nourishment is slander, by which he lures and kills man when he has seduced one to listen to him by his polluting word. For even he who listens to the slanderer calmly is cursed by the fact that he agrees when the latter imitates the human voice, that is, presents a slander as a true and innocent narrative, as mentioned above in the excuses of the same.
(30) The slanderers also belong to the number of those vagabond house-stagers, commonly called "knappsack", who drink nothing but the poison of their polluting slander and dare to claim that their art is useful for the protection of those who buy it, so that they want to beware of them.
(31) What, then, is the remedy for this vice? Answer: I know of none; for this is the most violent plague, that no man can tame the tongue unless he asks God's goodness for it and sees to it with all the force and diligence possible to him that he walks as carefully among men as if he were a man.
Eyes, ears and senses are closed to him; and if something evil and sinful happens that he thinks he sees, he puts his conscience before him alone and takes care that he does not make it seem or appear to him as if there were other sins besides his own. For he who does not set his mind on the outermost and highest things will hardly come to the middle. When he hears, when he sees, behold, he has done this and that, then he immediately turns away and says to himself, I now have other things to see than this; and so, according to the psalmist, he turns away from everything into his own heart, then at last the Lord will speak peace over him.
32 An example of this was the excellent war hero Joab, who, in spite of his many great and glorious deeds, nevertheless lost his fame among the other heroes listed last in 2 Sam, so that it is really to be wondered at that, while everything else is told, just the deeds of this man, who did more than all others, are concealed. But he had murdered, as David said of him, he had murdered secretly with deceit and insidiousness two who were better than he. In the same way, the slanderer always murders both the one who hears and the one he slandered, who are better than he, no matter how good a worker he may be in other virtues. The slanderer's tongue is of such a kind that it sticks out secretly and from behind, and strikes a blow without being heard.