to sanctification. Finally, be aware that the mystery is also sanctification: 'If I wash not thy feet, thou shalt have no part with me.' So I say this, not that I may rebuke others, but that I may commend my own ceremonies. In all things I desire to follow the Church in Rome, yet we, too, have human feeling; what is preserved more rightly elsewhere we, too, preserve more rightly.

(6) We follow the Apostle Peter himself; we cling to his devotion. What does the Church in Rome reply to this? Surely for us the very author of this assertion is the Apostle Peter, who was the priest of the Church in Rome, Peter himself, when he said: 'Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.'18 Behold faith: That he first pleaded an excuse belonged to humility; that he afterwards offered himself belonged to devotion and faith.

(7) The Lord answered him, because he had said 'hands and head': 'He that is washed, needeth not to wash again, but to wash his feet alone.'19 Why this? Because in baptism all fault is washed away. So fault withdraws. But since Adam was overthrown by the Devil,20 and venom was poured out upon his feet, accordingly you wash the feet, that in this part, in which the serpent lay in wait, greater aid of sanctification may be added, so that afterwards he cannot overthrow you. Therefore, you wash the feet, that you may wash away the poisons of the serpent. It is also of benefit for humility, that we may not be ashamed in the mystery of what we disdain in obedience.

18 John 13.9.

19 Cf. John 13.10. 20 Cf. Gen. 3.1-6.15.

Chapter 2

(8) There follows a spiritual sign which you heard read today, because after the font there remains the effecting of perfection, when at the invocation of the priest the Holy Spirit is poured forth, ‘'the spirit of wisdom, and of understanding, the spirit of counsel, and of virtue, the spirit of knowledge, and of godliness, the spirit of holy fear,"1 as it were, seven virtues of the Spirit.

(9) All virtues, of course, pertain to the Spirit, but these are, as it were, cardinal; as it were, principal. For what is so principal as godliness? What so principal as knowledge of God? What so principal as virtue? What so principal as counsel of God? What so principal as fear of God? Just as fear of this world is infirmity, so fear of God is great fortitude.

(10) There are seven virtues, when you are signed. For, as the Holy Apostle says, because the wisdom of our Lord is manifold, he says, and the wisdom of God is manifold,3 so is the Holy Spirit manifold, who has diverse and various virtues. Therefore, He is called the 'God of hosts," which can be applied to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. But this belongs to another discussion, to another time.

(11) After this what follows? You are able to come to the altar. Since you have come, you are able to see what you did not see before. This is a mystery that you have read in the Gospel; if, however, you have not read it certainly you have heard it: A blind man presented himself to the Saviour to be cured, and He who had cured others only by a word and

speech, and by His power restored the sight of eyes, yet in the book of the Gospel which is written according to John, who truly before the rest saw great mysteries and pointed them out and declared them, wished to prefigure this mystery in him. Surely, all the Evangelists were holy, all the Apostles; all were holy except the betrayer. Yet St. John, who was the last to write his Gospel, as if a friend required and chosen by Christ, poured forth the eternal mysteries by a kind of greater trumpet. Whatever he has said is a mystery. Another said that the blind man was cured. Matthew said it, Luke said it, Mark said it. What does John alone say?—He took clay and spread it upon his eyes and said to him: Go to Siloe. And rising he went and washed and he came seeing."

97

(12) Do you also consider the eyes of your heart. You saw the things that are corporeal with corporeal eyes, but the things that are of the sacraments you were not yet able to see with the eyes of the heart. So, when you gave your name, he took mud and besmeared it over your eyes. What does this signify? That you confessed your sin, that you examined your conscience, that you performed penance for your sins, that is, that you recognize the lot of human generation. For, even if he who comes to baptism does not confess sin, nevertheless by this very fact he fulfills the confession of all sins, in that he seeks to be baptized so as to be justified, that is so as to pass from fault to grace.

(13) Do not think it a matter of indifference. There are some- -I know for certain that there was someone who said it—when we said to him: 'In this age you ought rather to be baptized,' he said: 'Why am I baptized? I have no sin; I have

6 Cf. Matt. 9.27-30; 12.22; 20.30-34; 12.14; Luke 18.35-43; Mark 8.22-25; 10.46-52.

not contracted sin, have I?' This one did not have the mud, because Christ had not besmeared him, that is, He had not opened his eyes; for no man is without sin.

(14) He who takes refuge in the baptism of Christ recognizes himself as human. So, too, He placed mud upon you, that is, modesty, prudence, consideration of your frailty, and said to you: 'Go to Siloe.' 'Which,' he says, 'is interpreted sent.' That is: Go to that font, at which the cross of Christ the Lord is preached; go to that font, at which Christ redeemed the errors of all.

(15) You went, you washed, you came to the altar, you began to see what you had not seen before. That is: Through the font of the Lord and the preaching of the Lord's passion, your eyes were then opened. You who seemed before to have been blind in heart began to see the light of the sacraments.

So, most beloved brethren, we have come all the way to the altar, to the richer discussion. And thus, since this is a matter of time, we cannot begin the whole disputation, since the discussion is more comprehensive. What has been said today is enough. Tomorrow, if it pleases the Lord, we will discuss the sacraments themselves.