“What I want to show is that you are fleeing from Sodom,
and that you must take example from Lot’s wife.
Expect no flattery in these pages;
a flatterer is but an attractive enemy.“
—St. Jerome—
A Letter to Eustochium
(Rome, 384 A.D.)
Cicero:
“But if those who have just come into port from the deep are wont with great zeal to advise those just leaving port on the weather, pirates, and geography, because it is natural for us to befriend those who are entering upon the same perils that we have undergone, how ought I to feel, seeing land at last nearby after a great storm, toward him whom I see must undergo the greatest storms?”
(For Murena 2.4;
quoted in Erasmus’s
De Copia–1512)
St. Jerome:
“And I, not having ship and cargo intact and not as one ignorant of the waves and inexperienced as a sailor, utter this warning, but as one lately cast up on the shore by shipwreck, with faltering voice announce to those about to sail: ‘On that sea the Charybdis of luxury devours salvation; there with virginal countenance the Scylla of passion, smiling, lures chastity to shipwreck. Here is a barbarian shore, here the pirate Devil with his comrades carries chains of bondage. Do not trust him; do not be careless, even if the sea smiles like the quiet waters of a lake, even if the topmost surface of the quiescent element barely curls, this plain holds great mountains; within is peril; within is the enemy. Quick with the halyards, lower the sails. Let the cross of the ship’s yard be fastened on the bows; that calm is a storm.'”
(Epistle 14.6 to the Monk Heliodorus;
quoted in Erasmus’s De Copia–1512)
George Wither:
“But sure the World is now become a Gull,
To think such scoundrels can be worshipfull.
For, in these days, if men have gotten riches,
Though they be Hangmen, Usurers, or Witches,
Devils incarnate, such as have no shame,
To act the thing that I should blush to name;
Doth that disgrace them any whit? Fie no,
The World ne’er meant to use her Minions so.
There is no shame for Rich men in these times,
For wealth will serve to cover any crimes.”
Abuses Stript and Whipt,
Bk. I. Satyr, 8:
“Covetousness”
1613
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A Villanelle
The Lord was crucified in Sodom and Egypt,
Golgotha, the place of the skull.
We once sailed from Sodom. Now to it we’re shipped!
Dim candles below deck reveal contracts ripped.
Leaks spring from our compromised hull.
The Lord was crucified in Sodom and Egypt
and now, for Sodom’s black mass, our leaders have skipped
God’s devotions to which they’re dull.
From thence once we sailed, now thither we’ve been shipped
though shallow forms of piety are still lipped
by our president, our chief gull!
The Lord was crucified in Sodom and Egypt.
Sodom exports strong draughts and our leaders sipped
until Reason was at a lull.
We once sailed from Sodom. Now to it we’re shipped!
Into Egyptian magic some of them slipped:
a whore’s sheets (our death shroud) to mull.
The Lord was crucified in Sodom and Egypt.
We once sailed from Sodom. Now to it we’re shipped!
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Erasmus of Rotterdam:
“As a storm makes clear who is the best pilot, so calamity makes clear who is the best leader. Likewise: As no one entrusts the helm to the most friendly, but rather to the most competent sailor, so no one will consign the direction of the Republic to him who desires it most, but rather to him whom he judges most fit. Likewise: Just as sailors take in sail when the winds are too strong, and when they are light, spread their folds more widely, so when affairs prosper exceedingly, the spirit should be tempered lest it become haughty; but when fortune is unfriendly, the spirit should then expand and be sustained by fortitude and hope of future good fortune. Likewise: When¬ ever it is not possible to hold a straight course through a storm, then we ought to strive by tacking back and forth to reach that place whither we wish to come. Likewise: Whenever the violence of a storm is too great for the sailors’ skill, they take in the sails and throw out the anchor; in the same way it is sometimes necessary to yield to the raging multitude, until through the power of oratory it begins to be manageable. Similarly: Just as the sailor does not always keep the sail in the same position, but now raises it on high, now takes it in, now turns it to this side, now to that, in whatever way the winds de¬ mand, so the wise man ought not to pursue the same course in life everywhere, always, and under all circumstances, but ought to adapt his countenance, his speech, and his habits to existing circumstances. Likewise: Just as in great storms the most skilled sailors sometimes permit themselves to be advised by even the unskilled, because in such emergencies some things come to the mind one way, some an¬ other, in the same way a good king in the Republic’s great perils will not refuse to hear the advice of anyone. Likewise: As in the slightest danger the helm is handled by that pilot who has experienced the greatest perils, so the safest condition for a state is under that prince who has been trained in the gravest emergencies. Likewise: As he who controls the rudder does not think that he adequately performs his duty unless he looks about him and warns anyone what should be done, so he does not act like a prince who does not direct and be responsible for the duties of the lower magistrates also. Likewise: Just as a sailor would be insane if through hatred of some whom he carried on a ship he allowed the ship to be lost, since in the wreck he could not be safe himself, so he would not be of sound mind who be¬ cause of partisanship did not defend the safety of his country, without the safety of which he could not himself be safe. Likewise: As sailors are accustomed to throw out the sacred anchor only in the most savage storms, so only in the gravest perils and well-nigh desperate circumstances should recourse be had to extreme remedies.”
–Erasmus of Rotterdam–
Copia: Foundations of the Abundant Style
(1512)
NEW PURITAN 