maner, is named a reproch; but being doone me∣rilie, it is called iesting.
To perceiue it the bet∣ter, thou must vnderstand, that betwéene repro∣ching and honoring there is a contrarietie. They are vnder one kind, and yet, as contraries, are furthest off one from another. They apperteine to the signification of honour. If we honour anie man, we declare that we thinke well of him; if we reproch him, we shew by some signe, words, or déeds, that we thinke euill of him. And therefore it behooueth, that if a man either vse contumelie, or haue it vsed vnto him, this man∣ner of signification is alwaies therein. For if we should doo anie thing against the estimation of anie man, and yet not signifie the ill opinion we haue of him, it would not be properlie called contumelie.
I will shew it by examples. A man breaking open another mans doore, to steale, to com∣mit adulterie, or to kill some man, that breaking in of the gate is heinous; but being not pur∣poselie doone, to dishonest him, it is iniurie: if he breake it open, to reproch him, he dealeth con∣tumeliouslie against him. Absalom abused the wiues of his father.
If he had doone it of lust, it had béene incest onelie, and not contumelie: but séeing he did these things without hauing de∣light in their loue and beautie, onelie through the hatred he bare to his father, meaning to dis∣honour him, it is now called contumelie. When in these contumelies, tawnts are vsed against anie man; those sometimes are sins, and some times no sinnes.
No sinnes, as if one vpbraid another, that he hath the pox, that he is lame or blind: sinne, as when Semei calleth
Dauid, A man of bloud.
2 There is vsed another distinction. These mischéefes are sometimes true, and sometimes false.
In
Dauid they were false; he did not couet the kingdome ambitiouslie, he did not commit wicked murders. Those sinnes are sometimes manifest, and sometimes hidden. Hereof com∣meth the gréeuousnesse of contumelies. Some∣times they be weighed according to the state of the person: as if he, to whom the contumelie is doone, be no priuate, but a publike person; as a magistrate, or a preacher. And there is alwaies required therin, an intent and purpose of discre∣diting the fame and estimation of another man. Which I speake;
bicause, if tawnts be not vsed to this end, but to the intent men may be amended, they be not properlie contumelies. Wherefore, if anie gouernours of a schoole, or ministers of the church, vse sharp words to reuoke men from their sinnes; they cannot be called contumeli∣ous. Sometimes it is lawfull to handle men so for discipline sake. This is gathered by an argu∣ment from the greater; If it be lawfull to vse stripes, it is also lawfull to vse sharp spéeches. So Paule called the Galathians,
Fooles. And Christ; O ye fooles, and flowe to beleeue.
There was a respect vnto amendement, and it was no con∣tumelie.
Also the prophets doo so deale,
sometimes they speake verie bitterlie against Israel, calling hir harlot and Sodom; not to the intent they would defame the people of God, but to reuoke them from idolatrie and wickednesse.
Paule also,
in the first chapter vnto Titus, séemeth to inueigh sharplie against the
Cretians, when he bringeth a verse of Epimenides; The Cretians are alwaies liers, euill beasts, and slowe bellies. It might séeme to be hardlie doone, to note the whole nati∣on of the
Cretians with so great an infamie. Howbeit, the apostles speach was not to this end; but he gaue admonition vnto Titus, where∣by he might vnderstand, how earnestlie he ought to vrge that people. Neuertheles, pastors & schoolemaisters must take héed, that they vse not contumelies without iudgement: for if they often vse the sharper speaches, they which be re∣prehended, begin to hate them, whom they ought to loue; and by this meanes, admonitions doo but smallie preuaile. Or else another thing fol∣loweth; to wit, that they are not mooued there∣with, but are hardened, if they often heare bitter words. Wherefore Augustine, vpon the sermon of the Lord in the mount, saith; that This must be doone sildome, and with iudgement. Like vn∣to this is that, which is woont to be doone with bi∣ting speaches, wherein is more bitternesse than fauour. They, which vse them, be of the number of those, which had rather fo••go their fréend, than a fine saieng. There must be héed taken, that men be not hurt rashlie. Thus much of the na∣ture, definition, propertie, & vse of contumelie.
3 Now in the second place let vs speake a few words of the causes:
they procéed for the most part of anger, and are a certeine kind of reuenge, which is euer at hand. For so men easi∣lie reuenge themselues; especiallie they of the common sort, and also women: and generallie those, which are not able to make their part good with strength and weapons, doo vse con∣tumelies. In a certeine anger,
Semei cur•…•…ed
Dauid; he would reuenge the iniuries,
which he supposed that he had brought vpon the familie of Saule. They also procéed of a certeine anger. Some there be, which in comparison of them∣selues, make no reckoning of other men,
and therefore they be readie bent to contumelies▪ therefore rightlie said Salomon;
Where pride is, there is reproch. The blasphemous speaches,
which
Rabsaches cast out against God, sproong from no other fountaine.
Also they doo growe of a certeine foolishnesse. So Nabal the Carmelite curssed Dauid. Salomon saith;
It is a mans ho∣nour to keepe himselfe from strife, but a foole