The Christian education of children: according to the maxims of the Sacred Scripture, and the instructions of the fathers of the church / written and several times printed in French, and now translated into English.

13. Maxims touching the patience wherewith Parents are to support their children, and to moderate their re∣sentments of injuries received from others.

'TIs not enough for a Christian Father and a Christian Mother not to irritate their children by hold∣ing over them a too severe hand in things indifferent, or which are not absolutely criminal: they are more∣over to be disposed to support pati∣ently their greater disobediences, and to suffer their greater outrages, with∣out suffering themselves to be trans∣ported

to such resentments as would be no less dismal to themselves then to their children.

We have a proof convincing this truth in a dreadful history related by St. Augustin in several of his works, and which cannot be too often pre∣sented to Fathers and Mo∣thers, amidst the displeasures they receive from their Children.

There was in the Town of Caesarea in Cappadocia a widow of quality who had ten children, to wit, seven sons and three Daughters: the el∣dest of all these children, so far lost the respect he ought to his Mother, that after he had loaded her with many injurious words, he was so rash as to strike her. His Brothers and his Sisters were witnesses of this outrage, not only without opposing themselves, but even without speak∣ing one sole word in defence of their Mother. This poor Woman having her heart pearced with sorrow for

so great an injury, and suffering her self to proceed in the resentment of the affront she had received, took a resolution to lay her curse upon her wretched son who had so highly of∣fended her.

Hereupon she goes forth of her at day-break to pronounce this im∣precation against him upon the sa∣cred Font of Baptism. The Devil presented himself to her in her way under the form of her husbands brother who was Uncle to her chil∣dren, and questions her whether she was now going? she answered, that she went to lay a curse upon her el∣dest Son because of the insupportable injury he had done to her: then that accursed fiend who had no diffi∣culty to finde an entrance into the heart of this Mother, which the spirit of revenge and of anger had opened unto him, perswades her to extend her malediction upon all her other chil∣dren, since their silence rendred them no less criminalls than their eldest bro∣ther.

This Woman therefore suffering her self to be enflamed with choler against all her children by that en∣venomed counsells of this tempter, comes to clip and embrace the Bap∣tismal Font, spreads abroad her hair, discovers her breast, and demands of God in this posture, that he will re∣venge her of all her children in such a manner as that they may bear about them over all the earth, the marks of the chastisement laid upon them for the outrage she received from them; and that they may im∣print by their example a terrour into the spirits of all people.

Her prayer was heard so speedily, that her eldest son was struck at the same instant with a horrible trem∣bling in all the Members of his bo∣dy: and within less then one year all her other children were punished with the same chastisement, one af∣ter another, according to the order of their birth.

Then this unfortunate Mother,

perceiving her curses to have been so efficacious, and being no longer able to support the reproaches which her conscience suggested to her of her impiety, nor the confusion which she suffered before the world for per∣mitting her self to be transported to so great an extremity, strangled her self, and ended her accursed life by a death yet more accursed.

St. Augustin upon the occasion of one of these children, whose name was Paul, and who had been mira∣culously cured, having caused to be read to his people the recital which this young man had made of this History as I have now told it, and making reflections upon the circum∣stances which accompany it, exclaims,

Let children learn from this example to respect their Fathers and their Mothers, and let Fathers and Mo∣thers fear to fall into choler against their children. 'Tis said in sacred Writ, That the blessing of a Father

establishes the House, and that the curse of a Mother roots it up even to the foundations. This we see accom∣plished in these accursed children, who being at this present vagabonds over all the earth, have no establish∣ment in their own countrey, and who not only serve for a dreadful spectacle to all men, but also by presenting their punishment and their misery to the eyes of all them who look upon them, should above all affright proud children, who fail in their duty towards them who brought them into the world.

Learn then, O children, to ren∣der unto your Fathers and Mothers according to what is commanded you in the sacred Scripture, the respect and the honour which is due to them. But you, Fathers and Mo∣thers, remember, when your chil∣dren offend you, that you are Fa∣thers, and that you are Mothers: This unhappy Mother invoked God against her children, and she was

heard because God is truly just, and because she had been truly offended. True it is, that there was but one only among them who had injuri∣ously struck her, and the other had only been silent in this occasion, or had not uttered a word in her de∣fence. But surely God is just who heard her prayer, and who gave ear to the expressions which grief put into her mouth. All this while what shall we say of this poor Mother? Was not she her self punished by God with so much more rigour, by how much she was heard more readi∣ly and more conformably to her own desires?

'Tis thus, my Sister, that this great Saint believed that God permitted this Mother should make so unhappy an end, after she had abandoned her self to such choler against her chil∣dren, to teach Fathers and Mothers not to suffer themselves to be tran∣sported easily to such resentments, although most just in appearance;

and not easily to lay their maledicti∣on upon their children, however so reasonable a cause they may seem to have for so doing; and never to im∣plore the succour of God against them during the violence of their indig∣nation, for fear lest God hearing the prayers which grief drew from their hearts, and granting to them the things which passion alone inspi∣red them to demand of him, the revenge which they call down upon their childrens heads falls not upon their own, and hurry them not on to despair, when the heat being pas∣sed over, and the feeling of nature having got the upper hand, they shall perceive themselves to have been the cause of the misery and ruine into which their wretched children are re∣duced.

And this reflexion ought to make so much the deeper impression in the spirit of Fathers and Mothers, because this miserable Mother we have here spoken of, was in desperate hazzard

of being damned for all eternity for having suffered her self to be tran∣sported to that excess of revenge a∣gainst her children: whereas the said children were not punished for the fault they committed against her, but only during this life; and that God afforded mercy to the major part of them, at the instant prayers, and importunities of holy men, to whom they had recourse in their affliction; as was seen in two of them who were recovered; in one at Hippo, and in another of them at Revenna.

Notes

• S. Aug. Serm. 31. de diversis & l. 22. de ci∣vit. chap. 8.
• Aug. serm. 32 de diversis.