Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 1.djvu/226

So priests, who would be useful in their station, ought diligently to cultivate these four properties. First, that their tongue possess the power of a physician in healing the sick in heart, and probing the wounds of sin; being careful, at the same time, that too rough a treatment does not exacerbate rather than cure: for it is the nature of dogs to lick the body's wounds. Secondly, as a dog, by keenness of scent distinguishes a fox from a hare, so a priest, by the quickness of his perception in auricular disclosures, should discover what portion of them appertains to the cunning of the fox—that is, to heretical and sophistical perverseness; what to internal struggles and timorous apprehensions, arising from the detestation of evil or hopelessness of pardon; and what to the unbroken ferocity of the wolf or lion, originating in a haughty contempt of consequences; with other gradations of a like character. Thirdly, as the dog is of all animals the most faithful, and ready in defence of his master or his family, so priests also, should show themselves staunch advocates for the Catholic faith; and zealous