Commodian — Instructiones 60
I am not just, brothers — lifted from a sewer — nor do I lift myself, but I grieve for you, seeing from so great a people none crowned in the agony. If one does not himself fight, at least let him supply them. Rebuke the disaster; serve luxuriously with shouting! A brother labors under arms with the world against him, and you, leaning on wealth, neither fight nor resist for the fighter. … On such the whole church hangs, if he should win. You see a brother abstain and fight with the foe. You wish peace in the camp; outside he fights back. Be merciful, that you may be saved before all things. Do you not see the Lord crying with so great a herald’s call, who orders to offer food even to enemies? Therefore look ahead to daily meals, which he always took on absolutely all days with the poor man. You seek to feed, fool, one who will feed you again. He scarcely appears to me who proposes to be set in order. Well-fed, with stretched belly you declaim; a brother pressed by need is wasting next to you. What do you say of the Lord’s Day? If he did not call before, call out from the crowd a poor man to take to lunch. In such is your hope — in those refreshed from what is yours.
Latin
60 IN ECCLESIA OMNI POPULO DEI. Iustus ego non sum, fratres, de cloaca leuatus, Nec me supertollo, sed doleo uestri, qui cerno Ex tanto populo nullum in agone coronari. Certe si non ipse pugnat, uel suggerat illis. Cladem obiurgate, ouanter officite luxu! Labora<t> frater aduersante mundo sub armis, Et fretus opibus nec pugnas nec pugnanti resistis. ******** In talem pendit ecclesia tota, si uincat. Abstinere uides fratrem et pugnare cum hoste. Optas tu in castris pacem, foras ille repugnat. Misericors esto, ut sis ante omnia saluus. Nec intuis Dominum praeconio tanto clamante<m>, Inimicis etiam qui iubet alimenta praebere? Prandia ob ea prospice diurna, quae semper Omnibus omnino diebus cum pauperis sumpsit. Pascere tu quaeris, stulte, qui te denuo pascat. Uix ille mihi paret, qui conponi proponit. Laute cibatum distenso uentre declamas, Oppressus inopia frater est iuxta tabescens. De die Dominica quid dicis? Si non ante uocauit, Exuoca de turba pauperem quem ad prandium ducas In talibus spes est uestra de uestro refectis.