§1Mirarer psychicos istos, si sola luxuria tenerentur, qua saepius nubunt, si non etiam ingluuie lacerarentur, qua ieiunia oderunt.
I should wonder at those psychics, if they were possessed by luxury alone, by which they marry more frequently, if they were not also torn to pieces by gluttony, by which they hate fasts.
monstrum scilicet haberetur libido sine gula, cum duo haec tam unita atque concreta sint, ut si disiungi omnino potuissent, ipsi prius uentri pudenda non adhaererent.
To be sure, lust without gluttony would be held a monster, since these two are so united and concrete that, if they could have been separated at all, the shameful parts would not have adhered to the belly itself beforehand.
specta corpus, et una regio est.
Behold the body, and it is a single region.
denique pro dispositione membrorum ordo uitiorum.
Finally, according to the disposition of the limbs is the order of the vices.
prior uenter, et statim cetera saginae substructa lasciuia est; per edacitatem salacitas transit.
First is the belly, and immediately other wantonness is built upon the fattening; through voracity, salacity passes.
agnosco igitur animalem fidem studio carnis, qua tota constat, tam multiuorantiae quam multinubentiae pronam, ut merito spiritalem disciplinam pro substantia aemulam in hac quoque specie continentiae accuset perinde gulae frenos imbuentem per nullas interdum uel seras uel aridas escas, quemadmodum et libidini per unicas nuptias.
I recognize, therefore, the animal faith, by the zeal of the flesh, of which it entirely consists, prone to as much multi-devouring as multi-marrying, so that deservedly it accuses the spiritual discipline as a rival in substance also in this species of continence, putting bridles on gluttony by means of foods that are sometimes either none or late or dry, just as on lust by means of single marriages.
piget iam cum talibus congredi, pudet etiam de eis altercari quorum nec defensio uerecunda est.
It irks me now to engage with such people; it shames me even to dispute with those whose defense is not even decent.
quomodo enim protegam castitatem et sobrietatem sine taxatione aduersariorum? quinam isti sint, semel nominabo: exteriores et interiores botuli psychicorum.
For how shall I protect chastity and sobriety without taxing my adversaries? Who those are, I will name once for all: the outer and inner sausages of the psychics.
hi paracleto controuersiam faciunt; propter hoc nouae prophetiae recusantur; non quod alium deum praedicent Montanus et Priscilla et Maximilla, nec quod Iesum Christum soluant, nec quod aliquam fidei aut spei regulam euertant, sed quod plane doceant saepius ieiunare quam nubere.
These make controversy against the Paraclete; because of this, the new prophecies are rejected; not because Montanus and Priscilla and Maximilla preach another god, nor because they dissolve Jesus Christ, nor because they overturn any rule of faith or hope, but because they clearly teach to fast more frequently than to marry.
de modo quidem nubendi iam edidimus monogamiae defensionem.
Indeed, concerning the manner of marrying, we have already published the defense of monogamy.
nunc de castigatione uictus secunda uel magis prima continentiae pugna est.
Now concerning the chastisement of diet is the second or rather the first fight of continence.
arguunt nos, quod ieiunia propria custodiamus, quod stationes plerumque in uesperam producamus, quod etiam xerophagias obseruemus siccantes cibum ab omni carne et omni iurulentia et uuidioribus quibusque pomis nec quid uinositatis uel edamus uel potemus; lauacri quoque abstinentiam, congruentem arido uictui.
They accuse us of keeping our own fasts, of prolonged stations mostly into the evening, of observing even xerophagies, drying our food from all meat and all broth and any wetter fruits, and neither eating nor drinking anything of a winey nature; and also the abstinence from the bath, appropriate to a dry diet.
nouitatem igitur obiectant, de cuius inlicito praescribant aut haeresin iudicandam, si humana praesumptio est, aut pseudoprophetiam pronuntiandam, si spiritalis indictio est, dum quaque ex parte anathema audiamus, qui aliter adnuntiamus.
Therefore they object to novelty, of whose illegality they prescribe that it must either be judged a heresy, if it is human presumption, or pronounced a false prophecy, if it is a spiritual indictment, while on every part we hear anathema, we who announce otherwise.
§2Nam quod ad ieiunia pertineat, certos dies a deo constitutos opponunt, ut cum in Leuitico praecipit dominus Moysi decimam mensis septimi diem placationis, sancta, inquiens, erit uobis dies, et uexabitis animas uestras, et omnis anima, quae uexata non fuerit in illa die, exterminabitur de populo suo. certe in euangelio illos dies ieiuniis. determinatos putant, in quibus ablatus est sponsus, et hos esse iam solos legitimos ieiuniorum Christianorum abolitis legalibus et propheticis uetustatibus.
For as to what pertains to fasts, they oppose certain days appointed by God, as when in Leviticus the Lord commands Moses the tenth day of the seventh month as the day of atonement, saying, "It shall be a holy day to you, and you shall afflict your souls, and every soul that shall not have been afflicted on that day shall be destroyed from its people." Certainly they think those days in the Gospel are determined for fasts, in which the bridegroom was taken away, and that these are now the only legitimate fasts of Christians, the legal and prophetic antiquities having been abolished.
ubi uolunt enim, adgnoscunt quid sapiat lex et prophetae usque ad Iohannem.
For where they wish, they recognize what the law and the prophets signify up to John.
itaque de cetero indifferenter ieiunandum ex arbitrio, non ex imperio nouae disciplinae, pro temporibus et causis uniuscuiusque; sic et apostolos obseruasse, nullum aliud imponentes iugum certorum et in commune omnibus obeundorum ieiuniorum, proinde nec stationum, quae et ipsae suos quidem dies habeant quartae feriae et sextae, passiue tamen currant, neque sub lege praecepti neque ultra supremam diei, quando et orationes fere hora nona concludat de Petri exemplo, quod Actis refertur.
Therefore, for the rest, they say that fasts should be kept indifferently by free choice, not by the command of a new discipline, according to the times and causes of each person; that the apostles also observed thus, imposing no other yoke of certain fasts to be kept in common by all, likewise not of stations, which themselves indeed have their own days, Wednesdays and Fridays, but run passively, neither under the law of precept nor beyond the end of the day, when also prayer concludes about the ninth hour after the example of Peter, which is related in the Acts.
xerophagias uero nouum adfectati officii nomen et proximum ethnicae superstitioni, quales castimoniae Apim, Isidem et Magnam Matrem certorum eduliorum exceptione purificant, cum fides libera in Christo ne Iudaicae quidem legi abstinentiam quorundam ciborum debeat, semel in totum macellum ab apostolo admissa, detestatore eorum qui sicut nubere prohibeant, ita iubeant cibis abstinere a deo conditis.
But xerophagies, they say, is a new name for an affected duty and very close to pagan superstition, such as the chaste rites of Apis, Isis, and the Great Mother purify by the exclusion of certain foods; since a free faith in Christ does not owe abstinence from certain foods even to the Jewish law, once for all admitted by the apostle into the whole market, who detested those who, as they forbid to marry, so command to abstain from foods created by God.
et ideo nos esse iam tunc praenotatos in nouissimis temporibus abscedentes a fide, intendentes spiritibus mundi seductoribus, doctrinis mendaciloquorum inustam habentes conscientiam.
And therefore they say that we were already then pre-noted as departing from the faith in the last times, giving heed to seducing spirits of the world, to the doctrines of liars, having their conscience branded.
quibus, oro te, ignibus? credo, quibus nuptias saepe deducimus et cenas quotidie coquimus? sic et cum Galatis nos quoque percuti aiunt obseruatores dierum et mensium et annorum.
With what fires, I pray you? I believe, those with which we often celebrate marriages and daily cook dinners? Thus they say that we are also struck with the Galatians as observers of days and months and years.
iaculantur interea et Esaiam pronuntiasse: non tale ieiunium dominus elegit, id est non abstinentiam cibi, sed opera iustitiae, quae subtexit; et ipsum dominum in euangelio ad omnem circa uictum scrupulositatem compendio respondisse, non his communicari hominem quae in os inferantur, sed quae ex ore proferantur, cum et ipse manducaret et biberet usque in notationem: ecce homo uorator et potator! sic et apostolum docere, quod esca nos deo non commendet, neque abundantes, si edamus, neque deficientes, si non edamus.
Meanwhile they also hurl that Isaiah declared: "Not such a fast has the Lord chosen," that is, not abstinence from food, but the works of justice, which he weaves beneath; and that the Lord himself in the Gospel answered in a compendium to all scrupulosity about diet, that a man is not defiled by those things which are put into the mouth, but by those which are brought forth from the mouth, since he himself also ate and drank even to the remark: "Behold a man gluttonous and a wine-drinker!" So also they say the apostle teaches, that food does not commend us to God, neither abounding if we eat, nor lacking if we do not eat.
his et huiusmodi sensibus eo iam subtiliter tendunt, ut unusquisque pronior uentri possit superuacua nec adeo necessaria existimare sublati uel deminuti uel demorati cibi officia, praeponente scilicet deo iustitiae et innocentiae opera.
By these and suchlike sentiments they now subtly aim at this, that everyone more prone to his belly can think the duties of withdrawn or diminished or delayed food superfluous and not so necessary, God of course preferring the works of justice and innocence.
et scimus, quales sint carnalium commodorum suasoriae, quam facile dicatur: opus est de totis praecordiis credam, diligam deum et proximum tamquam me.
And we know what the persuaders of carnal comforts are like, how easily it is said: "It is necessary that I believe with all my heart, and love God and my neighbor as myself.
in his enim duobus praeceptis tota lex pendet et prophetae, non in pulmonum et intestinorum meorum inanitate.
For on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets, not on the emptiness of my lungs and intestines."