20. For ye bear with it, if any one. There are three ways in which this may be understood. He may be understood as reproving the Corinthians in irony, because they could not endure any thing, as is usually the case with effeminate persons; or he charges them with indolence, because they had given themselves up to the false Apostles in a disgraceful bondage; or he repeats, as it were, in the person of another, what was spitefully affirmed respecting himself, (845) as if he claimed for himself a tyrannical authority over them. The second meaning is approved by Chrysostom, Ambrose, and Augustine, and hence it is commonly received; and, indeed, it corresponds best with the context, although the third is not less in accordance with my views. For we see, how he was calumniated from time to time by the malevolent, as if he domineered tyrannically, while he was very far from doing so. As, however, the other meaning is more generally received, I have no objection, that it should be held as the true one.
Now this statement will correspond with the preceding one in this way: “You bear with every thing from others, if they oppress you, if they demand what belongs to you, if they treat you disdainfully. Why then will you not bear with me, as they are in no respect superior to me?” For as to his saying that he is not weak, he means that he had been endowed by God with such excellent graces, that he ought not to be looked upon as of the common order. For the word weak has a more extensive signification, as we shall see again ere long.
It has been the invariable custom, and will be so to the end, to resist contumaciously (846) the servants of God, to get enraged on the least occasion, (847) to grumble and murmur incessantly, to complain of even a moderate strictness, (848) to hold all discipline in abhorrence; while, on the other hand, they put themselves under servile subjection to false apostles, impostors, or mere worthless pretenders, give them liberty to do any thing whatever, and patiently submit to and endure, whatever burden they may choose to impose upon them. Thus, at the present day, you will scarcely find one in thirty, who will put his neck willingly under Christ’s yoke, while all have endured with patience a tyranny so severe as that of the Pope. Those very persons are all at once in an uproar, (849) in opposition to the fatherly and truly salutary reproofs of their pastors, who, on the other hand, had formerly swallowed down quietly every kind of insult, even the most atrocious, from the monks. (850) Are not those worthy of Antichrist’s torturing rack, rather than of Christ’s mild sway, who have ears so tender and backward to listen to the truth? But thus it has been from the beginning.
(845) “ Ce que malicieusement on disoit de luy pour le rendre odieux;” — “What they said of him maliciously, with the view of making him odious.”
(846) “ De resister et contredire opiniastrement;” — “To resist and contradict obstinately.”
(847) “ Se corroucer aigrement contr’ eux a la moindre occasion;” — “To be fiercely enraged against them on the least occasion.”
(848) “ Se plaindre de leur seuerite, en disant qu’elle est excessiue;” — “To complain of their strictness, by saying that it is excessive.”
(849) “ Ils tempestent et grincent les dents;” — “They storm and gnash their teeth.”
(850) “ Toutes sortes d injures et outrages horribles que les moines leur faisoyent;” — “All sorts of horrible injuries and insults that the monks could inflict upon them.”