ing God's church by two kinds of controversies. The one is, when the matter of the point controverted is too small and light, not worth the heat and strife about it, kindled only by contradiction. For as it is noted by one of the fathers, Christ's coat indeed had no seam, but the church's vesture was of divers colours;[1] whereupon he saith, In veste varietas sit, scissura non sit:[2] they be two things, Unity and Uniformity. The other is, when the matter of the point controverted is great, but it is driven to an over-great subtilty and obscurity; so that it becometh a thing rather ingenious than substantial. A man that is of judgment and understanding shall sometimes hear ignorant men differ, and know well within himself that those which so differ mean one thing, and yet they themselves would never agree. And if it come so to pass in that distance of judgment which is between man and man, shall we not[3] think that God above, that knows the heart, doth not[3] discern that frail men in some of their contradictions intend the same thing; and accepteth of[4] both? The nature of such controversies is excel-
- ↑ The allusion is to Psalms xlv. 14. "She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of needlework," but the phrase in raiment of needlework is in the Vulgate, circumamicta varietatibus, 'enveloped with varieties.'
- ↑ Let there be many colors in the garment, but let there be no rending of it. St. Bernard. Letter CCCXXXIV. To Guy of Pisa. Against the same Abaelard. Life and Works of Saint Bernard. Edited by Dom John Mabillon. Translated by Samuel J. Eales. II. 865.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 So in the original. One of the nots should obviously be struck out; the reader can choose which. S.
- ↑ Accept. To receive (a thing or person) with approval; frequently followed by 'of.' "And ye say moreover, Behold, thy servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face; per-adventure he will accept of me." Genesis xxxii. 20.
