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Chapter VI.
Complete historical editorial footnotes. These notes retain the original edition’s wording; individual note authors are unspecified.
English translation and editorial credits: Augustus Henry Eugene de Romestin, Eugene de Romestin (assistant), Henry Thomas Forbes Duckworth (assistant).
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Ps. lxxi. 15 [LXX.]. “Sanctus in negotiationem introisse se negat,” says St. Ambrose, from Ps. lxxi. 15. According to the Septuagint, “οὐκ ἔγνων πραγματείας” which in the old Latin versions became “quoniam non cognovi negotiationes” (the Vulgate has “literaturam” for “negotiationes”).
Editorial footnote · On the Duties of the Clergy, Chapter VI., editorial note cite_note-1 · Original source
37. Let not, therefore, expediency get the better of virtue, but virtue of expediency. By expediency here I mean what is accounted so by people generally. Let love of money be destroyed, let lust die. The holy man says that he has never been engaged in business. For to get an increase in price is a sign not of simplicity but of cunning. Elsewhere it says: “He that seeketh a high price for his corn is cursed among the people.”
Prov. xi. 26. St. Ambrose cites the same verse each time, but the first time according to LXX. The second time he varies the commencement.
Editorial footnote · On the Duties of the Clergy, Chapter VI., editorial note cite_note-4 · Original source
44. Rightly, therefore, Solomon says: “He that withholdeth corn shall leave it for the nations,” not for his heirs, for the gains of avarice have nothing to do with the rights of succession. That which is not rightfully got together is scattered as though by a wind by outsiders that seize it. And he added: “He who graspeth at the year’s produce is cursed among the people, but blessing shall be his that imparteth it.” Thou seest, then, what is said of him who distributes the corn, but not of him that seeks for a high price. True expediency does not therefore exist where virtue loses more than expediency gains.