67. Well then, the sober judgement that is indicated by a frugal lifestyle and the proper authority that is evidenced by self–control are seemly for people everywhere, and especially so for a person who occupies a position of honour. They prove that the man who is in the public eye is not held spellbound by his own treasures and that the man who has charge over free people is no slave to money himself. Rather, the seemly thing for someone in such a position is to be superior to treasure in his spirit while in his willingness to serve he is lower than a friend; for humility increases the esteem in which a person is held. Here is what is genuinely praiseworthy and appropriate in a man of the first rank: he must have no desire at all to pursue dishonourable gain, as do traders from Tyre or merchants from Gilead; he must not treat money as the source of every possible good; and he must not behave as though he were merely being paid to do a job, totting up his gains at the end of every day and calculating the profits he has made.

68. If it is praiseworthy to show that your spirit is unaffected by such desires, it is far more impressive still to win the affection of the masses by displaying a generosity which is neither prodigal towards those who are simply persistent in their requests nor miserly towards those who really are in need.

69. There are many kinds of generosity. It is not simply a matter of organizing and distributing food to those who lack the basic daily supplies to stay alive. There is also an obligation to give aid and assistance to those who are ashamed to show their needs openly—so long as the resources set aside for the needy as a whole are not exhausted in the process. I am speaking here of a responsibility which needs to be shouldered by someone who is in a responsible position, such as a priest or an almoner. Such a man should inform his bishop of people who fall into this category, and he should not hold back if he sees that a person is experiencing some need or other, or has by a reverse of fortune been reduced from a position of wealth to a state of hardship and poverty. This is especially important if the person has landed in this plight not as a result of youthful extravagance but because someone has stolen from him or because he has lost his inheritance, so that he is no longer in a position to meet his basic daily needs.

70. Another great act of generosity is to ransom prisoners, to snatch people from the hands of the enemy, to deliver men from death and—especially—women from dishonour, to hand children back to their parents and parents back to their children, and to restore citizens to their own country. We saw this all too clearly in the devastation of Illyricum and Thrace. How many prisoners were put up for sale, all over the world—if you could bring them all back, they would match the population of an entire province. And yet there were those who would have taken the very individuals whom the churches ransomed and brought them into slavery again. These people were more severe than the captivity itself: they begrudged mercy to others. If they had ended up in slavery themselves, would they be happy to behave like slaves, free men that they are? If they had been sold, would they not be refusing to serve as slaves? Yet they want to put an end to the freedom of others, when they are quite unable to put an end to their own slavery—unless of course a buyer would like to receive a payment; in which case slavery is not being brought to an end: rather, people are being ransomed from it.

71. It is a special act of generosity to ransom prisoners, then, particularly if they are in the hands of a barbarian enemy, who shows no regard for humanity and no interest in mercy, except in so far as his greed has kept an eye to the profit that might be made from the receipt of ransom–money. It is also a good thing to assume responsibility for a person's debts if he is not in a position to pay them himself, and to supply money which is legally owed but which a person has despaired of ever being able to pay on account of his poverty. It is great, too, to feed little children and to extend protection to orphans.

72. There are also people who endeavour to protect the honour of young women who have lost their parents, by arranging marriages for them, helping them not just with kind feelings but with practical support as well. There is another type of generosity that the apostle teaches, too, and it is this: "If a believer has widows in his family, he must take care of them himself, so that the church is not burdened by their upkeep, but has enough for those who truly are widows." [1 Tim 5:16]

 

 

76. It is clear, therefore, that we must observe due measure when we show generosity, so that we do not bestow the kind of largesse that is of no benefit to anyone. It is essential to maintain moderation, and doubly so for priests: they must distribute alms not for the sake of show but in the interests of justice. Nowhere are greed and begging a more serious problem than they are here. There are people who come along—people who are in perfectly good health—and they come along with no good reason other than the fact that they spend their lives wandering from place to place, and their intention is to use up the supplies intended for the poor, and to reduce to nothing the resources that have been collected for them. Nor are they content with just a little, but they keep on asking for more: they attempt to substantiate their claims by parading around in poor clothes, and they make a bid for greater rewards by pretending that they were born into high social surroundings. If anyone is naive enough to give credence to their claims, before he realizes it he drains the savings which were meant to provide food for the poor. There must be due measure in the generosity we show: that way, people will not go away with their pockets completely empty, but nor will the money collected for the basic subsistence of the poor be handed over to the fraudulent so that they can make off with it like plunder. We need to keep this sense of proportion: we must not forget a sense of humanity for people, but genuine hardship must not be left to fend for itself.

77. There are plenty of people who pretend to have debts. We need to look into the truth of their circumstances. They tell us tearfully that they have been stripped of everything by robbers: if their injury is obvious, or if you recognize who they are, this should make you trust them, and they should be given help all the more speedily. Those who have been removed from the church deserve to be given basic supplies, if they do not have the means to feed themselves. The person who maintains this kind of measure in his giving is miserly towards no one but generous towards all. It is not enough for us simply to offer a listening ear, to hear the voices of those who plead with us: we must also use our eyes, to look into their real needs. To the person whose mission it is to do good works, the weakness of a poor man cries out far more powerfully than his voice does. Of course, we cannot always ensure that people who are persistent and vociferous will not extort more, but let us not invariably give way to those who resort to effrontery. It is the person who does not see you that you must see; it is the person who is ashamed to be seen that you must seek out. You must give a thought, too, to the man who is shut up in prison, and the plight of the person who is laid low by illness ought to strike a chord in your heart, even if it cannot strike a chord in your ears.

78. The more the people see you doing good deeds, the more they will love you. I know of many priests who have found that the more they have given, the more plentiful their resources have been. The simple fact is, if anyone sees a man busily engaged in good deeds he is happy to give him something to distribute in his round of duty, for he is confident that his charity will reach the poor—after all, nobody wants his contribution to profit anyone other than the poor. Now if a person sees an almoner behaving in a fashion that is immoderate on the one hand or too sparing on the other, he is displeased either way: in the one case, the fruit of someone else's labour is being thrown away on excessive handouts; in the other, it is being hoarded in people's own pockets. So, just as it is essential when showing generosity to maintain a sense of due measure, it is equally necessary sometimes to be spurred into action. More often than not, it would appear, it is due measure that is called for, to ensure that you are able to perform your acts of kindness day after day and that you do not end up depriving someone in genuine need because you have chosen to indulge somebody else in a way that is extravagant. But there are also times when you need to be spurred into action, for money is put to better use when it feeds the poor than it is when it fills the pockets of the rich. Make sure that you are not drawing the string on the salvation of the needy when you draw the string on your purse, and that you are not burying the poor alive in there just as much as you would if you laid them in a tomb.

 

(trans. Davidson 2001: 303–313; summary M. Szada)