26. That, namely, befalleth
them which in undisciplined younger widows, the same Apostle saith
must be avoided: “And withal they learn to be idle; and not only
idle, but also busy bodies and full of words, speaking what they
ought not.” This very
thing said he concerning evil women, which we also in evil men do
mourn and bewail, who against him, the very man in whose Epistles
we read these things, do, being idle and full of words, speak what
they ought not. And if there be any among them who did with that
purpose come to the holy warfare, that they may please Him to whom
they have proved themselves, these, when they be so vigorous in
strength of body, and soundness of health, that they are able not
only to be taught, but also, agreeably unto the Apostle, to work, do, by receiving of these men’s idle and corrupt discourses, which they are unable, by reason of their unskilled rawness, to judge of, become changed by pestiferous contagion into the same noisomeness: not only not imitating the obedience of saints which quietly work, and of other monasteries which in most wholesome discipline do live after the apostolic rule; but also insulting better men than themselves, preaching up laziness as the keeper of the Gospel, accusing mercy as the prevaricator therefrom. For a much more merciful work is it to the souls of the weak, to consult for the fair fame of the servants of God, than it is to the bodies of men, to break bread to the hungry. Wherefore I would to God that these, which want to let their hands lie idle, would altogether let their tongues lie idle too. For they would not make so many willing to imitate them, if the examples they set were not merely lazy ones, but mute withal.