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GIOVANNI PICO EARL OF MIRANDOLA TO FRANCESCO HIS NEPHEW
GREETING IN OUR LORD.
Happy art thou my son when that our Lord not only giveth thee grace well to
live but also that while thou livest well he giveth thee grace to bear evil words of evil
people for thy living well. Certainly as great a praise as it is to be commended of them
that are commendable, as great a commendation it is to be reproved of them that are
reprovable. Notwithstanding my son I call thee not therefore happy because this false
reproof is worshipful & glorious unto thee, but for because that our Lord Jesu Christ
(which is not only true but also truth itself) affirmeth that our reward shall be
plenteous in heaven when men speak evil to us & speak evil against us living for his
name.[36] This is an Apostles dignity: to be reputed digne afore God to be defamed of
wicked folk for his name. For we read in the gospel of Luke that the apostles went
joyful and glad from the council house of the Jews because God had accepted them as
worthy to suffer wrong and repress for his sake. Let us therefore joy and be glad if we
be worthy so great worship before God that his worship be showed in our rebuke. And
if we suffer of the world any thing that is grievous or bitter: let this sweet voice of our
Lord be our consolation. Si mundus vos odio habet, scitote quia priorem me vobis
odio habuit
. If the world (saith our Lord) hate you, know ye that it hated me before
you. If the world then hated him by whom the world was made: we most vile &
simple men and worthy (if we consider our wretched living well) all shame & reproof:
if folk backbite us & say evil of us: shall we so grievously take it that lest they should
say evil we should begin to do evil. Let us rather gladly receive these evil words, and
if we be not so happy to suffer for virtue & truth as the old saints suffered beatings,
bindings, prison, swords, & death: let us think at the least wise we be well served if
we have the grace to suffer chiding, detraction, & hatred of wicked men, lest that if all
occasion of deserving be taken away there be left us none hope of reward. If men for
thy good living praise thee: thy virtue certainly in that it is virtue maketh thee like
unto Christ: but in that it is praised it maketh thee unlike him: which for the reward of
his virtue received the opprobrious death of the cross for which as the apostle saith
God hath exalted him and given him a name that is above all names. More desireful is
then to be condemned of the world and exalted of God than to be exalted of the world
and condemned of God: the world condemneth to life, God exalteth to glory: the
world exalteth to a fall, God condemneth to the fire of hell. Finally if the world fawn
upon thee: unneth it may be but that thy virtue (which all lift upward should have God
alone to please) shall somewhat unto the blandishing of the world & favour of the
people incline. And so though it lose nothing of the integrity of our perfection: yet it
loseth of the reward, which reward while it beginneth to be paid in the world where all
thing is little, it shall be less in heaven where all thing is great. O happy rebukes
which make us sure: that neither the flower of our virtue shall wither with the pestilent
blast of vainglory: nor our eternal reward be minished for the vain promotion of a
little popular fame. Let us my son love these rebukes, & only of the ignominy and
reproof of our Lord's cross let us like faithful servants with an holy ambition be proud.
We (saith Saint Paul) preach Christ crucified, which is unto the Jews despite, unto the
Gentiles folly, unto us the virtue and wisdom of God. The wisdom of this world is
foolishness afore God, & the folly of Christ is that by which he hath overcome the
wisdom of the world by which it hath pleased God to make his believing people safe.
If that thou doubt not but that they be mad which backbite thy virtue: which
the Christian living that is very wisdom reputeth for madness: consider then how
much were thy madness, if thou shouldst for the judgement of mad men swerve from
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the good institution of thy life, namely sith all error is with amendment to be taken
away & not with imitation & following to be increased. Let them therefore neigh, let
them bawl, let them bark, go thou boldly forth thy journey as thou hast begun, and of
the wickedness & misery consider how much thyself art beholden to God: which hath
illumined thee sitting in the shadow of death, and translating thee out of the company
of them (which like drunken men without a guide wander hither and thither in obscure
darkness) hath associated thee to the children of light. Let that same sweet voice of
our Lord alway sound in thine ears. Sine mortuos sepelire mortuos suos, tu me
sequere
. Let dead men alone with dead men, follow thou me. Dead be they that live
not to God, and in the space of this temporal death laboriously purchase themselves
eternal death. Of whom if you ask whereto they draw: whereto they refer their studies,
their works & their business, & finally what end they have appointed themselves in
the adoption whereof they should be happy: either they shall have utterly nothing to
answer, or they shall bring forth words repugnant in themselves & contrary each to
other like the raving of bedlam people. Nor they wot never themselves what they do,
but like them that swim in swift floods they be borne forth with the violence of evil
custom as it were with the boisterous course of the stream. And their wickedness
blinding them on this side: & the devil pricking them forward on that side: they run
forth headlong into all mischief, as blind guides of blind men, till that death set on
them unaware, & till that it be said unto them that Christ saith in the gospel, my friend
this night the devils shall take thy soul from thee: these goods then that thou hast
gathered whose shall they be. Then shall they envy them whom they despised. Then
shall they commend them that they mocked. Then shall they covet to ensue them in
living when they may not: whom when they might have ensued they pursued. Stop
therefore thine ears my most dear son, & whatsoever men say of ye, whatsoever men
think on ye, account it for nothing, but regard only the judgement of God, which shall
yield every man after his own works when he shall show himself from heaven with
the angels of his virtue: in flame of fire doing vengeance upon them that have not
known God nor obeyed his gospel, which (as the apostle saith) shall suffer in death
eternal pain, from the face of our Lord, & from the glory of his virtue, when he shall
come to be gloried of his saints & to be made marvellous in all them that have
believed. It is written. Nolite timere qui corpus possunt occidere, sed qui animam
potest mittere in gehennam
. Fear not them (saith our Lord) that may kill the body: but
fear him that may cast the soul into hell. How much less then be they to be feared: that
may neither hurt soul nor body: which if they now back-bite thee living virtuously,
they shall do the same nevertheless: if (virtue forsaken) thou were overwhelmed with
vice: not for that vice displeaseth them but for that the vice of backbiting alway
pleaseth them. Flee if thou love thine health, flee as far as thou mayst their company,
and returning to thyself oftentimes secretly pray unto the most benign father of
heaven, crying with the prophet. Ad Te Domine levavi animam meam: Deus meus in
Te confido, non erubescam, etiam si irrideant me inimici mei. Et enim universi qui
sperant in Te non confundentur. Confundantur iniqua agentes supervacue. Vias tuas
Domine demonstra mihi, et semitas tuas edoce me. Dirige me in veritate tua, et doce
me: quia Tu es Deus Salvator meus, et in Te sperabo tota die.
[37] That is to say. To
Ye Lord I lift up my soul: in Thee I trust, I shall not be ashamed, & though mine
enemies mock me. Certainly all they that trust in Thee shall not be ashamed. Let them
be ashamed that work wickedness in vain. Thy ways good Lord show me, and thy
paths teach me. Direct me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art God my Saviour, in
Thee shall I trust all the day. Remember also my son that thy death lieth at hand.
Remember that all the time of our life is but a moment & yet less than a moment.