33. In what respect then have we not answered with humility? If he ask for tribute we deny it not. The Church lands pay tribute; if the Emperor desire to possess these lands he has the power to claim them; none of us will interfere. The contributions of the people will more than suffice for the poor; let them excite no ill-will on account of the lands, let them take them if it please the Emperor; I give them not, but I do not refuse them. They ask for gold, but I can say, Silver and gold I seek not. But this disbursement of gold they make a cause of offence: this offence I dread not. I have stipendiaries, it is true: my stipendiaries[119] are the poor of Christ, this is a treasure which I am well used to collect. May this offence of bestowing gold on the poor ever be charged upon me! And if they accuse me of defending myself by their means, I deny not, nay I even court the charge; a defence I have, but it is in the prayers of the poor. Blind they are ♦and lame, weak and old, yet are they stronger than the stoutest warriors. Lastly, gifts to the poor make God our debtor, for it is written, _He that giveth to the poor, lendeth to the Lord_. The guards of warriors often gain not Divine grace. 34. Moreover they assert that the people have been beguiled by the strains of my hymns[120]. I deny not this either. It is a lofty strain, than which nothing is more powerful. For what can be more powerful than the confession of the Trinity, which is daily celebrated by the mouth of the whole people? All zealously desire to make profession of their faith, they know how to confess in verse the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Thus all are become teachers who were scarcely able to be disciples. Sidenote: Phil. iii. 7. Sidenote: Rom. v. 19. 35. But what can be more lowly than for us to follow the example of Christ, Who _being found in fashion as a man humbled himself being made obedient unto death_. And again, by obedience He delivered all: _For as by the disobedience of one man many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one Man shall many be made righteous_. If then He was obedient let them learn from Him the lesson of obedience, to which we adhere, saying to them who raise odium against us, on the Emperor’s account, _We render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s, and to God the things that are God’s_. To Cæsar tribute is due, we deny it not; the Church is God’s, and must not be given up to Cæsar, because the Temple of God cannot by right be Cæsar’s. Sidenote: Ps. lxiv. 7. vulg.