A false witness that speaks lies, and he that sows discord among brethren.
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Bede
AD 735
The six capital crimes enumerated here are nevertheless like minor faults when compared with the sowing of discord, since the deed that fractures the unity and fraternity which were achieved by the grace of the Holy Spirit is surely a greater sin. For anyone can raise his eyes boastfully, lie with the tongue, pollute himself with murder, plot to harm his neighbor, subject his members to other offenses, and give false testimony against another. But it must not be thought that what he names with his lying tongue is all the same, for he is able to tell a lie without doing so against a neighbor. For, in his book about lying, blessed Augustine teaches that there are eight kinds of lies. Each reprobate, I say, can bring evil upon himself or upon others yet without harming the peace of the church. But what Donatus and Arius and their followers do is more serious, who destroy the harmony of fraternal unity by sowing discord. –.
“A heart that forges evil thoughts.” Indeed, since the heart was impure, it also made the limbs impure, so that it shed the poison to its extremities.… By “brothers” he [Solomon] means those who have obtained the grace of adoption and are subjected to Christ our father. When unjust or lustful thoughts come to them, these thoughts try to trouble them. In fact, they inflame them to anger which causes hatred, and to evil desires which bring about immoral actions. Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon, Fragment
“A proud eye, an unjust tongue, hands that shed just blood.” He [Solomon] emphasizes evil actions through members of the body used wickedly. As the eye, the tongue and the hands act in the body, in the same manner reflection, impulse and decision act in the soul. And, he [Solomon] did not enumerate these things to us without reason, but in order that we might learn to be moderate through them. Those who, while drinking the blood of the Lord, yet remain polluted with iniquity are shedding the blood of the just. Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon, Fragment
