Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History

by Unknown

  Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

  Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

  Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

  Not every one that saith unto me, “Lord, Lord,” shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works?” And then will I profess unto them, “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

  Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock; and the rain descended, and the floods came and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

  Saint Francis Preaches to the Birds

  “Therefore, my little sisters, beware of the sin of ingratitude….”

  Baptized as John in 1182, this saint became known as Francis of Assisi from his nickname of Francesco, “the Frenchman.” Although he was born in Assisi, a town in central Italy, his mother’s family was of French descent, and he knew some French as well as Latin.

  When he was twenty-three, Francis sought a military career. He intended to join an army supporting the pope’s cause in southeastern Italy, but he became ill at Spoleto and never reached the fighting. While ill, he received a “heavenly visitation,” a voice in a dream asking him, “Why do you desert the Lord for his vassal?”

  After serving as a repairer of run-down churches and a nurse of lepers, Francis started a religious order dedicated to a strict renunciation of the material values of this world and a literal adherence to the Christian Gospel. His followers numbered only eleven in 1209, but his joyous preaching and asceticism increased the numbers a decade later to more than five thousand. This was the ebullient message attributed to him: “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.”

  The faith of Francis in the brotherhood of men and nature led him to preach the Gospel, or “good news,” to all of God’s creatures, great and small. In this sermon, his personification of birds as “my little sisters” introduces the evidence of God’s love for them and, by extension, argues the need for a human posture of gratefulness toward the Creator.

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  MY LITTLE SISTERS, the birds, much bounden are ye unto God, your creator, and always in every place ought ye to praise him, for that he hath given you liberty to fly about everywhere, and hath also given you double and triple raiment; moreover he preserved your seed in the ark of Noah, that your race might not perish out of the world; still more are ye beholden to him for the element of the air which he hath appointed for you; beyond all this, ye sow not, neither do you reap; and God feedeth you, and giveth you the streams and fountains for your drink; the mountains and the valleys for your refuge and the high trees whereon to make your nests; and because ye know not how to spin or sew, God clotheth you, you and your children; wherefore your Creator loveth you much, seeing that he hath bestowed on you so many benefits; and therefore, my little sisters, beware of the sin of ingratitude, and study always to give praises unto God.

  John Wyclif Gives the Sixth Sunday Gospel after Easter

  “All men should beware… the fiend….”

  The “morning star of the reformation,” John Wyclif (or Wycliffe) may now be best known for having translated the Bible into English; his translation was the basis for religious instruction for over two centuries, until the King James Version. (He is also known to phrase detectives as the coiner, or at least the first user in print, of “by hook or by crook,” in one of his controversial tracts. Tenants of manors were allowed to take as much firewood as could be cut with a crook, or loose timber that could be pulled from the tree by a hook; Wyclif used the phrase to mean “one way or the other,” as we do today.)

  As a religious reformer and doctor of theology, however, he gained renown in his time for his preaching, despite what were considered heretical notions about the need for the reform of papal authority, ideas expressed both in his writings and in his lectures. When his controversial theses were denounced by Oxford University in 1381, Wyclif added to the controversy by choosing to appeal not to the pope but to the king.

  Many of the radical views that informed his preaching may be glimpsed in his remarks on the Gospel for the sixth Sunday after Easter. In this sermon, Wyclif questions papal control and favors an untraditional doctrinal position—that the Holy Ghost is not of God alone but of the Father and the Son.

  The formal style, complicated for us by obsolete or archaic words such as “sclaundred” (offended) and “cautelies” (craftiness or trickery), lends solemnity to Wyclif’s argument. With quotations from Jesus interspersed throughout the message, Wyclif carefully couches his controversial position in what “say some men.” The message against the pope, however, comes across clearly, ending with exhortations to condemn false priests and to beware the fiend or devil, the personification of evil.

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  CHRIST TELLETH HIS disciples of coming of the Comforter, the which is the Holy Ghost, and what life they shall after lead. And each man should con here this lore, for then he may be soul’s leech, and wit, by signs of his life, whether his soul be sick or whole.

  Lord! if a physician learneth diligently his signs, in veins, in pulse, and other things, whether a man’s body be whole; how much more should he know such signs that tell help of man’s soul, and how he hath him to God. Although such things be privy and pass worldly wit of men, natheless, the Holy Ghost telleth men some of such signs, and maketh them more certain than man can judge a bodily health. And, for we should kindly desire for to know the soul’s state, therefore the Holy Ghost, that teacheth us to know these signs, is cleped a comforter, passing other comforters. And as a man’s soul is better than the body, and endless good passeth temporal good, so this knowing of the soul passeth other man’s cunning.

  Christ saith thus to his disciples, “When this comforter shall come that I shall send you of the Father, Ghost of truth that cometh forth of him, he shall also bear witness of me; and ye shall also bear witness, for ye be with me always from the beginning of my preaching.” But here may Greeks be moved to trow that the Holy Ghost cometh not forth but of the Father and not of Christ that is his Son; for the one saith Christ and in this Gospel leaveth the other.

  And it seemeth to some men, if this were truth that should be trowed, God would lightly tell this truth as he telleth other that we trow; and else it were presumption to charge the church with this truth, since neither authority of God, nor reason, teacheth that this is so; and all belief needful to men is told them in the law of God. Here me thinketh that Latins sinned somewhat in this point, for many other points are now more needful to the church; as it were more needful to wit whether all the church hang in the power of the pope, as it is said commonly, and whether men that shall be saved be needed here to shrive them to priests, and thus of many decrees that the pope hath ligh
tly ordained. But me thinketh that it is so that this Ghost cometh both of the Father and of the Son, and these persons be one cause of him; and me thinketh, to no intent should Christ say, he sendeth his Ghost, or that this Ghost is his, but if this Ghost come of him.

  And to this that Greeks say, that Christ leaveth this word, certainly so doth he many other for certain cause, and yet we trow them; as Christ saith that his lore is not his, for it is principally of his Father; and yet we trow that it is his, but the will is in his Father. So we believe that the will by which the Father loveth the Son cometh of wit that is in the Son, but principally of God’s power. And in this word Christ teacheth us to do algates worship to God.

  And thus these Greeks may not prove that we trow false in this belief, or that Christ left this truth, without cause to tell it thus: for by this that Christ saith, the Holy Ghost came of his Father, and leaveth thus the coming of him, He stoppeth the pride of the Church and teacheth men to worship God. But when he saith that he sendeth the Holy Ghost to his disciples, and all that his Father hath is his, he teacheth clearly that this Ghost cometh of him; and otherwise should Christ not speak.

  And thus Latins are to blame, for they leave needful truth, and deepen them in other truth, that is now not so needful. And thus say some men that the bishop of Rome, that they clepe head of the church and thereto pope and Christ’s vicar, doth more harm to the Church of Christ than doth vicar of Thomas in India, or vicar of Paul in Greece, or the sultan of Babylon. For the root of which he came, that is doing of the church and the haying of the emperor, is not full holy ground, but envenomed with sin. But this venom first was little, and hid by the cautelies of the fiend, but now is grown too much and too hard to amend. So it is that each apostle was obedient to each other, as Peter obeysed unto Paul when he reproved him; and thus think some men that they should obeyse to the pope, but no more than Christ biddeth, no more than to other priests, but if he teach better Christ’s will and more profit to men; and so of all his ordinance, but if it be grounded in God’s law, set no more price thereby than by law of the emperor. Men should say much in this matter, and other men should do in deed; but men would hold them heretics, as the fiend’s limbs did Christ. And so thick are his members that whoso holdeth with Christ’s law, he shall be shent many ways and algates with lies.

  And this telleth Christ before unto his Apostles, to make them strong and arm them against such persecutions. “These things,” saith he, “I spake to you, that ye be not sclaundred.” He is sclaundred that is let by word or deed, so that his right will fall down from his wit; and so if a man be pursued and suffer it patiently, he is not sclaundred, although men sin against him.

  The first pursuit against Christ shall be of false priests, not alone letting the members of Christ to rule the people in churches, as curates should do, but putting them out of church as cursed men or heretics. And therefore saith Christ that they shall make you “without synagogues.” But yet shall more woodness come after this, for they procure the people, both more and less, to kill Christ’s disciples for hope of great meed. And hereto Christ saith certainly of this matter, “That hour is come that each man that killeth thus good men, shall judge him to do God meedful obedience.” And to this end procure friars Antichrist disciples, that well nigh it is thus now among Christian men. Some men are summoned to Rome and there put in prison, and some are cried as heretics among the common people; and over this, as men say, friars kill their own brethren, and procure men of the world to kill men that say them truth. And one dread letteth them that they start not to more woodness, for they defend that it is lawful and meedful, priests for to fight in cause that they feign God’s; and so if their party be stronger than seculars, they may move these priests to fight against these gentlemen. And as they have robbed them of temporal goods, so they will deprive them of the sword as unable, and say that such fighting should best fall to priests. Thus had priests this sword before Christ came, and they drowned so far out of religion of God that they had killed Christ, head of holy church.

  All men should beware of the cautelies of the fiend, for he sleepeth not, casting false wiles, and all these do the fiend’s limbs; “for they know not the Father and his Son” by properties of them. The fiend blindeth them so in worldly purpose, that they know not strength of God nor wisdom of his bidding; for faith faileth unto them that they look not afar, but thing that is nigh their eye, as beasts without reason. “All this hath Christ spoke to his disciples that when time cometh of them, they should have mind that he hath said them these perils to come.” And the Holy Ghost moveth ever some men to study God’s law and have mind of this wit; and so love of God’s law and sad savour therein is token to men that they are God’s children, but yet of their end are uncertain.

  Religious Scourge Savonarola Demands Repentance from the Citizens of Florence

  “To thy tongue say, ‘Speak no more evil.’”

  The fiery words of Girolamo Savonarola, the most forceful of Italy’s religious reformers in the fifteenth century, led to a “bonfire of the vanities.” In those public conflagrations of 1497, devoted followers of Savonarola burned items considered immoral and representative of the gaudy excesses of life in Florence; books, masks, and other “vanities” (trivial or frivolous objects) fueled the religious flames as Savonarola exhorted his listeners to repent and find forgiveness in a new austerity.

  Savonarola had begun his formal religious training in the most severe of Dominican orders. Sent to Florence, the cultural center that became the cradle of the Renaissance, he sought to reform what he considered the moral corruption of both church and state. Prophesying divine wrath, Savonarola used biblical allusions and straightforward, unadorned words to denounce the Medici and convey the inevitability of purging that he expected divine wrath to bring.

  After charging the pope with having achieved his election through simony, or the corrupt sale of preferments, he was excommunicated in 1497, and a year later he was tried for heresy, with severe cross-examination and torture that supposedly extorted from him a confession of false prophecy. Savonarola was hanged and then burned at the stake.

  In his May 12, 1496, sermon on the Feast of the Ascension, Savonarola excoriated the vices and wickedness that he saw everywhere. Especially forceful are the parallel passages that conclude the sermon, as Savonarola instructs followers on addressing their eyes, ears, tongues, and hands as ways to preach to themselves.

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  IN EVERYTHING AM I oppressed; even the spiritual power is against me with Peter’s mighty key. Narrow is my path and full of trouble; like Balaam’s ass, I must throw myself on the ground and cry, “See, here I am; I am ready to die for the truth.” But when Balaam beat his fallen beast, it said to him, “What have I done to thee?” So I say to you, “Come here and tell me: what have I done to you? Why do you beat me? I have spoken the truth to you; I have warned you to choose a virtuous life; I have led many souls to Christ.” But you answer, “Thou hast spoken evil of us, therefore thou shouldst suffer the stripes thou deservest.” But I named no one; I only blamed your vices in general. If you have sinned, be angry with yourselves, not with me. I name none of you, but if the sins I have mentioned are without question yours, then they and not I make you known.

  As the smitten beast asked Balaam, so I ask you, “Tell me, am I not your ass? And do you not know that I have been obedient to you up to this very moment, that I have even done what my superiors have commanded, and have always behaved myself peaceably?” You know this, and because I am now so entirely different, you may well believe that a great cause drives me to it. Many knew me as I was at first; if I remained so I could have had as much honor as I wanted. I lived six years among you, and now I speak otherwise; nevertheless I announce to you the truth that is well known. You see in what sorrows and what opposition I must now live, and I can say with Jeremiah, “O my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and contention to the whole earth!” But where is a father or a mother that can say I have led their
son into sin; one that can say I have ruined her husband or his wife? Everybody knows my manner of life; therefore it is right for you to believe that I speak the truth which everybody knows. You think that it is impossible for a man to do what the faith I have preached tells him to do: with God it would be easy for you.

  The ass alone saw the angel; the others did not, so open your eyes. Thank God, many have them open. You have seen many learned men whom you thought wise, and they have withstood our cause: now they believe; many noted masters who were hard and proud against us: now humility casts them down. You have also seen many women turn from their vanity to simplicity; vicious youths who are now improved and conduct themselves in a new way. Many, indeed, have received this doctrine with humility. That doctrine has stood firm, no matter how attacked with the intention of showing that it was a doctrine opposed to Christ. God does that to manifest his wisdom, to show how it finally overcomes all other wisdom. And he is willing that his servants be spoken against that they may show their patience and humility, and for the sake of his love not be afraid of martyrdom.

  O ye men and women, I bid you to this truth; let those who are in captivity contradict you as much as they will, God will come and oppose their pride. Ye proud, however, if you do not turn about and become better, then will the sword and the pestilence fall upon you; with famine and war will Italy be turned upside down. I foretell you this because I am sure of it: if I were not, I would not mention it. Open your eyes as Balaam opened his eyes when the angel said to him, “Had it not been for thine ass, I would have slain thee.” So I say to you, ye captives, “Had it not been for the good and their preaching, it would have been woe unto you.” Balaam said, “If this way is not good, I will return.” You say likewise, you would turn back to God, if your way is not good. And to the angel you say as Balaam said, “What wilt thou that we should do?” The angel answers thee as he answered Balaam, “Thou shalt not curse this people, but shalt say what I put in thy mouth.” But in thy mouth he puts the warning that thou shouldst do good, convince one another of the divine truth, and bear evil manfully. For it is the life of a Christian to do good and to bear wrong and to continue steadfast unto death, and this is the Gospel, which we, according to the text of the Gospel for today, shall preach in all the world.