Commentaria in Deuteronomium
Chapter the Seventeenth
God commands idolaters to be put to death, and doubtful legal cases to be referred to the priests, and their decrees to be obeyed under pain of death. Secondly, vers. 14, he commands that a king be chosen from among their own nation, and that he multiply not, first, horses; secondly, wives; thirdly, riches; fourthly, that he write out and read Deuteronomy assiduously; fifthly, that he lift not himself up proudly above the people.
1. Thou shalt not sacrifice to the Lord thy God an ox or a sheep, in which there is a blemish, or any fault: because it is an abomination to the Lord thy God. 2. When there shall be found among you, within one of thy gates which the Lord thy God will give thee, a man or woman that do evil in the sight of the Lord thy God, and transgress his covenant, 3. so as to go and serve strange gods, and adore them, the sun and the moon, and all the host of heaven, which I have not commanded; 4. and this is told thee, and hearing it thou enquire diligently, and find it to be true, and that the abomination is committed in Israel: 5. thou shalt bring forth the man or woman, who have committed that most wicked thing, to the gates of thy city, and they shall be stoned. 6. At the mouth of two or three witnesses shall he die that is to be slain. Let no man be put to death, when only one beareth witness against him. 7. The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hands of all the people: that thou mayest take away the evil out of the midst of thee. 8. If thou perceive that there be among you a hard and doubtful matter in judgment between blood and blood, cause and cause, leprosy and leprosy, and thou see that the words of the judges within thy gates do vary: arise, and go up to the place which the Lord thy God shall choose. 9. And thou shalt come to the priests of the Levitical race, and to the judge that shall be at that time: and thou shalt ask of them, and they shall shew thee the truth of the judgment. 10. And thou shalt do whatsoever they shall say, that preside in the place which the Lord shall choose, and what they shall teach thee, 11. according to his law; and thou shalt follow their sentence, neither shalt thou decline to the right hand, nor to the left. 12. But he that will be proud, and refuse to obey the commandment of the priest, who ministereth at that time to the Lord thy God, and the decree of the judge, that man shall die, and thou shalt take away the evil from Israel; 13. and all the people hearing it shall fear, that no one afterwards may be puffed up with pride. 14. When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God will give thee, and possessest it, and shalt dwell in it, and shalt say: I will set a king over me, as all the nations round about have: 15. thou shalt set him whom the Lord thy God shall choose out of the number of thy brethren. Thou mayest not make a man of another nation king, that is not thy brother. 16. And when he is made king he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor lead back the people into Egypt, being lifted up with the number of his horsemen, especially since the Lord hath commanded you that you should not return any more by the same way. 17. He shall not have many wives, that may allure his mind, nor immense sums of silver and gold. 18. And after he is set upon the throne of his kingdom, he shall copy out to himself the Deuteronomy of this law in a volume, taking the copy of the priests of the Levitical tribe, 19. and he shall have it with him, and shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, and keep his words and ceremonies, that are commanded in the law. 20. Neither let his heart be lifted up with pride over his brethren, nor let him turn aside to the right hand or to the left, that he and his son may reign a long time over Israel.
Vers. 2. WITHIN ONE OF THY GATES,—that is, of thy cities. A like synecdoche occurred in the preceding chapter, vers. 18.
Vers. 3.—3. AND ADORE ALL THE HOST OF HEAVEN,—that is, adore any stars whatsoever, which are as soldiers serving God, and fighting for him when need is; see what is said on Numbers iv, 3. The causes of the adoration of the stars were: first, their light and beauty; second, that they flow into these lower things, and give them life and growth; third, that they thought them animate; fourth, that some natural philosophers hand down that man is the work of the stars: for man, when he is conceived and begotten, receives spirit from the Sun, body from the Moon, blood from Mars, wit from Mercury, desire from Jupiter, passion from Venus, humour from Saturn.
6. AT THE MOUTH OF TWO,—that is, as the Chaldee has it, by the word of two or three witnesses the guilty man being convicted shall be put to death.
7. THE HANDS OF THE WITNESSES SHALL BE FIRST UPON HIM TO PUT HIM TO DEATH.—The Hebrew: the hand of the witnesses shall be first against him, to put him to death; that is, the witness shall first cast a stone at him.
Morally, note here how great a crime apostasy is, and how greatly God avenges it, and wills that it be avenged by us. The punishment of Lucifer, of Adam, of Solomon, of Julian is known. Hear a new example.
About the year of our Lord 868 the fierce and warlike nation of the Bulgarians, leaving their idols and renouncing the superstitions of the Gentiles, for the most part believed in Christ; and, washed in the saving water of baptism, passed into the Christian religion. They report of the king of this nation that after receiving the grace of baptism he began to live with such perfection that by day, clothed in royal ornaments, he went forth before the people; but by night, entering the church secretly in sacred garb, he lay prostrate in prayer on the pavement of the basilica itself, with only a hair-cloth spread beneath him. Not long after, moved by divine inspiration, he gave up his earthly kingdom, that he might reign for ever in heaven with Christ. And he appointed in his place his elder son as king, laid aside the hair of his head, and, taking the habit of holy conversation, became a monk, intent day and night on alms, vigils and prayers. Meanwhile his son, whom he had made king, departing far from his father’s intention and practice, began to practise plunder, to give himself to drunkenness, revelling and lust, and with all his might to recall the newly baptized people to the heathen rite. When the father heard of it, kindled with exceeding zeal, he laid aside the sacred habit, took up again the girdle of knighthood, and, clothed in royal dress, with companions who feared God, pursued his son, whom he soon took without difficulty, and put out his eyes, and cast him into prison; then, having summoned his whole kingdom, he made his younger son king, threatening before all that he would suffer the like if he strayed in anything from true Christianity. These things being done, he laid down the girdle, took up again the holy habit of religion, and entering a monastery spent the rest of his present life in holy conversation. So Regino, book vi, and Martinus Polonus, book iv of the Chronicles.
In the year of our Lord 870, Carloman, while still a little boy, was by his father’s command tonsured and made a cleric; then, as time went on, he was ordained to the office of deacon, though unwilling and compelled, in the presence of his father, and read the Gospel publicly and served the Pontiff celebrating Mass according to custom. After this, falling away into apostasy from ecclesiastical religion, casting off and carelessly despising the grace that had been given him by the imposition of hands, he became a second Julian. For gathering a considerable band of robbers, he began to lay waste the churches of God, to assail whatever belongs to peace, to plunder everything, and to commit unheard-of evils. For these things, though he was often rebuked by his father, yet his wickedness in no wise ceased; at last, by his father’s command, his eyes were put out, by the just judgment of God losing the outward light who had driven from his breast the inward, which is Christ: sent into outer darkness, who had of his own will given himself up to the inner. Bereft of sight, he went to his uncle Louis, mournfully bewailing to him the troubles of his miseries and calamities. He, moved with pity, granted him the monastery of Echternach of St. Willibrord for the support of his present life, where not long after he died and was buried. So Regino, book ii of the Chronicle, year 870. Hear also of saints who wavered and were punished in a light matter.