Well, as I was
saying, everything surrounding me was domestic and grateful, and I was
therefore in a mood for charity and companionship when I came down the
last dip and entered Glovelier. But Glovelier is a place of no
excellence whatever, and if the thought did not seem extravagant I
should be for putting it to the sword and burning it all down.
For just as I was going along full of kindly thoughts, and had turned
into the sign of (I think it was) the 'Sun' to drink wine and leave
them my benediction -
LECTOR. Why your benediction?
AUCTOR. Who else can give benedictions if people cannot when they are
on pilgrimage? Learn that there are three avenues by which blessing
can be bestowed, and three kinds of men who can bestow it.
(1) There is the good man, whose goodness makes him of himself a giver
of blessings. His power is not conferred or of office, but is
_inhaerens persona_; part of the stuff of his mind. This kind can
confer the solemn benediction, or _Benedictio major_, if they choose;
but besides this their every kind thought, word, or action is a
_Benedictio generalise_ and even their frowns, curses, angry looks and
irritable gestures may be called _Benedictiones minores vel incerti_.
I believe I am within the definitions. I avoid heresy. All this is
sound theology. I do not smell of the faggot. And this kind of
Benedictory Power is the fount or type or natural origin, as it were,
of all others.
(2) There is the Official of Religion who, in the exercise of his
office -
LECTOR. For Heaven's sake -
AUCTOR. Who began it? You protested my power to give benediction, and
I must now prove it at length; otherwise I should fall under the
accusation of lesser Simony - that is, the false assumption of
particular powers. Well, then, there is the Official who _ex officio_,
and when he makes it quite clear that it is _qua sponsus_ and not
_sicut ut ipse_, can give formal benediction. This power belongs
certainly to all Bishops, mitred Abbots, and Archimandrates; to
Patriarchs of course, and _a fortiori_ to the Pope. In Rome they will
have it that Monsignores also can so bless, and I have heard it
debated whether or no the same were not true in some rustic way of
parish priests. However this may be, all their power proceeds, not
from themselves, but from the accumulation of goodness left as a
deposit by the multitudes of exceptionally good men who have lived in
times past, and who have now no use for it.
(3) Thirdly - and this is my point - any one, good or bad, official or
non-official, who is for the moment engaged in an _opusfaustum_ can
act certainly as a conductor or medium, and the influence of what he
is touching or doing passes to you from him.
