Anger and envy in the early church

Didache 3.2Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Anger and jealousy lead to murder.
1 Clement 3.2Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Pride bred jealousy, strife, and disorder.
1 Clement 3.4Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Jealousy, through which death entered the world, has driven out peace.
1 Clement 4.7Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Jealousy led to fratricide.
1 Clement 4.13Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Jealousy made Saul persecute David.
1 Clement 6.3Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Jealousy has broken up marriages.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 5.1.3 (33.3)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Bad temper crowds out the delicate Holy Spirit.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 5.1.6 (33.6)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Anger mixed with patience spoils it and its prayer.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 5.2.1 (34.1)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Anger overthrows the empty and doubting, not the faithful.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 5.2.4 (34.4)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Anger grows by steps into an incurable sin.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 8.7.4 (73.4)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Green but cracked sticks are good people jealous for first place.
To the Philippians 12.1Polycarp of Smyrna · ca. 110–135 · Polycarp trusts the Philippians' knowledge of Scripture and reminds them to be angry without sinning and not to let the sun go down on their anger.
Acts of John 35Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · John's sermon warns the vain, adulterers, the miserly, the wrathful and the drunken of their end.
Sentence 293 (Greek)Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · To be able to bear the anger of one's household is the mark of a wise man.
Against Heresies 4.18.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · God accepted Abel’s offering and not Cain’s because sacrifice does not sanctify; a pure conscience sanctifies the sacrifice.
Miscellanies 5.5.27Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Pythagorean symbols depend on Scripture: “no swallow in the house” means shun gossips; “confuse the pot's mark in the ashes” means leave no trace of anger, as Scripture says not to let the sun set on anger.
On Prayer 11Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Before praying we must be reconciled with our brothers and put away anger, as Christ and the apostle commanded.
On Patience 5Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Impatience was born in the devil, who could not bear God's favor to man; through it Eve and Adam sinned, Cain murdered, and Israel repeatedly rebelled; every sin springs from impatience.
Didascalia 2.38Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 2.53Anonymous · first half of the third century
Commentary on Daniel 3.15-16Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · On Daniel 5:7–12: the wise men fail; the queen recommends Daniel, whom the nobles had passed over out of envy, as the gifted are still envied today.
Against Marcion 2.16Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Anger and jealousy in God are the just instruments of a good judge, like a surgeon's tools; God's feelings share names with ours but, like his “hands” and “eyes,” exist in him in a divine, incorruptible way.
PG 12:1141 (Ps 4 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · The heavy-hearted are slow disciples and those who seek the falsehood of antichrist; the “cry” God hears is the soul’s silent voice; “be angry” in Ps 4:4 may be imperative or indicative, and anger may be a chosen passion or an involuntary first movement.
PG 12:1143 (Ps 4 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · The anger that is an involuntary first movement is not sin, and Aquila’s “be agitated” confirms the reading; Ps 4:4 teaches an examination of conscience at bedtime; “compunction” in Scripture means being stung by sin, as with Ahab.
Commentary on John 20.236Origen · ca. 230–248 · Through envy death entered, until death, the last enemy, is destroyed.
Homilies on Joshua 15.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The enemy horses that are hamstrung, unlike the donkeys that are spared, figure the proud fallen powers and the passions of the body, which must be curbed by fasting and slain while still small, so that no stirring of vice remains in the soul.
Homilies on Numbers 23.7Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Unleavened Bread is kept by removing every leaven of malice from the soul, since God cannot care about literal leaven but abhors sin, and even a small sin grows.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 1.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Origen calls Psalm 36 (37) wholly moral and explains “do not emulate”: neither lead others into wickedness nor imitate the wicked; from Deut 32:21 and 1 Cor 10:22 he shows that “emulate” means to provoke jealousy.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 2.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Anger is a vice that troubles even the wise and must be burned away like hay and stubble; we should cease from it gradually, and not rival others in wickedness.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 2.6Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The promise to the meek in Ps 37:11 shows that Christ’s beatitude was already spoken in the old Scriptures, against the Valentinians; the meek delight in the abundance of peace, while the sinner who gnashes at the righteous awaits his day.
Homilies on Jeremiah 5.9Origen · ca. 240 · Passions such as anger are a veil over the soul's face; God does not hide his glory, but we hide it from ourselves until we put them away.
Instructions 2.23Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · Covetous envy of others' wealth is folly, since death may come this very night, as God told the rich fool.
Metaphrase of Ecclesiastes 4Gregory Thaumaturgus · 3rd century · Paraphrase of Ecclesiastes 4: oppression, envy, the lonely miser, the strength of companionship, and the wise youth better than the foolish king.
Against Celsus 4.72Origen · ca. 248 · God's 'wrath' is not a passion but a figure for his stern discipline of sinners, as comparison of Scripture shows, just as his 'sleep' is not literal.
Commentary on Romans 3.4Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · The 'poison of asps' is slander and heretical teaching; cursing and bitterness are common faults of the angry tongue; and those who separate souls from God by scandal are murderers with 'feet swift to shed blood.'
Commentary on Romans 9.22Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Not avenging ourselves gives place to wrath in two ways: the offender's anger subsides, and he stores up God's wrath, which will punish him far more than we could.
To Quirinus 3.8Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · Anger must be mastered before it leads to sin.
On Jealousy and Envy 1Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 256 · Jealousy and envy seem small sins and so are not feared, but the devil uses them to ruin souls; Christians must keep watch, as Peter warns.
On Jealousy and Envy 3Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 256 · Among the devil's hidden weapons, jealousy is especially dangerous to Christians; to guard against it we must understand its origin.
On Jealousy and Envy 4Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 256 · Jealousy began with the devil, who envied man made in God's image and so fell himself; through his envy death entered the world.
On Jealousy and Envy 5Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 256 · Jealousy led Cain to kill Abel, Esau to hate Jacob, Joseph's brothers to sell him, Saul to persecute David, and many Jews to reject Christ.
On Jealousy and Envy 7Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 256 · Envy is a moth and rust of the soul that tortures the envious man from within and, unlike other sins, never comes to an end.
On Jealousy and Envy 8Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 256 · Envy shows itself in the face and breaks out in violence, as the Psalms and Paul describe.
On Jealousy and Envy 9Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 256 · Unlike a visible wound, envy is hidden and incurable, and the envious man cannot escape the enemy he carries inside himself.
On Jealousy and Envy 10Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 256 · Christ cut off rivalry by teaching that the least is greatest, and Paul tells those enlightened by Christ to cast off jealousy as a work of darkness.
On Free Will 1.8Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Methodius praises his hearers as free of envy, unlike Cain, Esau, and Joseph’s brothers.
On Free Will 18.8Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Evil began in envy at man’s honor and consists in disobedience to God.
Lepr. 5Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · The leprosy of the Law signifies sinful passions, which Christ commands us to root out at the seed, as with lustful looking and anger, and which must be shown to the priests.
Apostolic Church Order 7Anonymous · ca. 300 · Anger leads to murder; avoid jealousy and quarrelling.
Apostolic Church Order 8Anonymous · ca. 300 · Lust and anger, given room, become demons that enlarge themselves in the soul and lead it to ruin.
Letter to Zenas and Serenus 2Anonymous · 4th century (disputed) · Against anger and jealousy: say nothing harsh to an opponent, seek peace with those who differ, and teach without bearing grudges, unlike those who would hand everyone over to Gehenna.
Letter to Zenas and Serenus 11Anonymous · 4th century (disputed) · Counsel against scheming, for blamelessness and self-control in anger, and for examining oneself before admonishing others.
Divine Institutes 4.16.5Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The Jewish leaders, angered and envious, plotted his death, as the prophets foretold.
Divine Institutes 6.5.14Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Restrained anger ends strife.
Divine Institutes 6.18.21Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Anger unrestrained strips one of humanity.
Divine Institutes 6.18.33Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Do not let the sun set on anger.
Divine Institutes 6.19.2Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · They call anger the whetstone of courage.
Divine Institutes 6.19.3Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Anger was not given for killing.
Divine Institutes 6.19.7Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Anger against equals is impious and ruinous.
On the Anger of God 16.5Lactantius · ca. 313–314 · God must be angered by the wicked and punish them to protect the good; his anger is itself a kindness.
On the Anger of God 16.7Lactantius · ca. 313–314 · God lacks the emotions of vice, such as lust and envy, but truly has those of virtue: anger at the wicked, love for the good, pity for the afflicted.
On the Anger of God 17.12Lactantius · ca. 313–314 · Anger can be reasonable; the Stoics wrongly wished to root it out, the Peripatetics only to moderate it.
On the Anger of God 17.13Lactantius · ca. 313–314 · The philosophers' definitions of anger, collected by Seneca, all describe it as a desire for revenge.
On the Anger of God 17.14Lactantius · ca. 313–314 · Vengeful anger comes from injury and pain; it is found in frail man, not in God, who cannot be hurt.
On the Anger of God 17.15Lactantius · ca. 313–314 · Just anger is not a desire for revenge, since it does not arise from personal injury.
On the Anger of God 17.20Lactantius · ca. 313–314 · Anger should be defined as the mind's movement to restrain sin, not, as Cicero put it, lust for revenge.
On the Anger of God 17.21Lactantius · ca. 313–314 · Furious anger is wholly vicious, but corrective anger is useful and necessary, for man and God alike.
On the Anger of God 18.7Lactantius · ca. 313–314 · He should have waited until his anger cooled and then punished in measure.
On the Anger of God 18.11Lactantius · ca. 313–314 · Those who misuse desire for lust also misuse anger for harm, raging at the innocent and causing tragedies.
On the Anger of God 21.5Lactantius · ca. 313–314 · God forbids not anger itself but staying angry; human anger should be short-lived,
On the Anger of God 21.6Lactantius · ca. 313–314 · lest enmity become permanent; "be angry and do not sin" moderates anger rather than uprooting it.
On the Anger of God 21.8Lactantius · ca. 313–314 · God's anger, like God, is eternal, but it is always under his control, never ruling him.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 56.4Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Anger is given to restrain wrongdoing, but beyond its limits it leads to murder and war.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.6.67Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Moses forbade murder and adultery; Christ forbids even anger and lustful looking.
Book 1, lines 497–521Juvencus · ca. 330 · Anger and insult are condemned; reconcile before offering a gift; the 'adversary' is the body to be tamed by chastity; adultery of the mind.
Demonstration 9.7Aphrahat · 337-345 · Pride and humility cannot coexist; the rich man and Lazarus, and the Pharisee and the tax collector, show that God exalts the humble, whom the wicked always envy.
Demonstration 9.8Aphrahat · 337-345 · Envy brings ruin: from the serpent, Cain, and Esau to Pharaoh, Korah, Saul, Ahab, Jezebel, and Haman, the envious were punished and the humble exalted.
Demonstration 9.9Aphrahat · 337-345 · Envy houses the evil spirit as in Saul, while Christ dwells in the humble; the reader is urged to love humility, chastity, and patience and to shun anger.
Demonstration 9.10Aphrahat · 337-345 · Anger must be stifled before it reaches the tongue, for Christ dwells in the believer; as a tree by its fruit, a person is known by his speech.
Demonstration 14.13Aphrahat · 337-345 · Envy and strife ruined a long line of biblical figures from Cain to Haman, and finally scattered Israel.
Demonstration 14.43Aphrahat · 337-345 · Envy and strife divide families and destroy peoples; the evil one plants them in the heart, chokes the good seed, makes prayer hollow, and lures the quarrelsome like a bird into a snare; only pursuing peace heals.
Life of Antony 21Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Antony warns the monks against anger and desire and introduces the demons, who fill the air and wage war against Christians.
On Saint Athanasius 2.4Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · From the Sermon on the Mount (the beatitudes, anger, reconciliation, love of enemies, judging others, the speck and the beam), Lucifer shows that the bishops could not condemn Athanasius and remain Christians.
Moral Rules (Moralia) 69Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-370 · Basil's sixty-ninth rule sets out, in Scripture's own lists, the vices that are forbidden together and carry a sentence, and the virtues that are approved together and receive blessings.
Letter 311Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory rebukes the quarrelling sophists, grown men who trade insults like rams and set a bad example to their students, and blames the audiences who applaud them.
Tractates on the Psalms 58.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The psalm traces the growth of sin from enmity to rising up, iniquity, and bloodshed, which is why the Gospel restrains anger at its root.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.19.7Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Those who come near to injure the faithful move far from God's law; we must not let anger or envy turn us against our brothers.
Commentary on Ephesians 4.26Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Victorinus surveys the moral precepts of Eph 4:26–5:21 and their order, then explains that anger is allowed if it aims to correct rather than to punish and is laid aside within the day.
Commentary on Ephesians 4.27Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Lingering anger gives the devil an occasion, but he can act on us only when we give him one, since we are masters of our own will.
Commentary on Ephesians 4.31Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Victorinus defines bitterness, anger, indignation, shouting, and blasphemy, which must be put away together with the malice that makes them sins.
Commentary on Galatians 4.17Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · The Judaizers court the Galatians out of envy, to shut them out of the blessedness of Christ and make them their followers; instead the Galatians should always strive for the better gifts of faith and love.
Commentary on Philippians 1.15Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Victorinus distinguishes four motives for preaching Christ in Phil 1:15–17: envy and rivalry, good will, love, and hostile contention meant to add to Paul’s sufferings.
Oration 18.22Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory describes his father’s quick forgiveness, his mild punishments, and how those who wronged him were often struck by sudden misfortunes that led them to repent.
Oration 36.3Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory says his people love him for the learned eloquence that brings him envy, and lists the evils envy has caused from Cain to the divisions of the Church.
Homilies 10.1Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Basil's homily against anger opens: experience shows the wisdom of Scripture's warnings, since anger turns a man into a beast.
Homilies 10.4Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Retaliating against abuse brings the same guilt; Christians should bear insults humbly, remembering that they are poor and naked by nature and that Christ was slandered, struck and spat upon.
Homilies 10.6Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Rage directed by reason against sin is right, as in Moses, Phinehas, Samuel and Elijah; but anger against our brothers must be cured by the humility Christ taught and showed.
Homilies 11.1Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Envy, the devil's own vice, consumes the envious soul, rejoices only in others' fall, drove the devil against mankind and Cain against Abel, and made Saul hate David the more for his benefits.
Homilies 11.4Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Envy sold Joseph and crucified Christ; it attacks those nearest us, harms the envious most, sees only faults, and is cured by valuing only true and eternal goods and turning ambition toward virtue.
Homilies 11.6Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Envy breeds hypocrisy and brought death into the world; Basil ends with Paul's call to kindness and forgiveness.
Homilies 22.2Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Pagan literature can prepare the young for Scripture as dyeing prepares cloth: take from poets, historians and orators, like bees from flowers, what praises virtue (Homer, Solon, Theognis, Prodicus, the deeds of Pericles, Socrates, Alexander) and reject the rest.
Commentary on Ephesians 4:26Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Anger is natural but must be moderated and not kept past sundown, lest it lead to excessive punishment or give the devil a foothold.
Commentary on Ephesians 4:31Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Anger leads step by step to blasphemy; all such passions, and hidden malice too, must be removed.
Commentary on Philippians 1:12–17Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul's imprisonment has advanced the gospel: some preach Christ sincerely from love or zeal for God, others from envy or to stir up trouble for him.
Question 5, section 3Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Cain was not condemned for his poor offering but told to amend it; instead, from envy, he killed Abel and so incurred guilt.
Letter 12.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome restrains his anger and again asks Antony to write to him.
Letter 13.1Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome begins his appeal for reconciliation with his aunt Castorina with Scripture's warnings against hatred and lasting anger.
Letter 21.40Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome argues from the apostles' indignation and the parable of the laborers that envy can touch even the righteous, since only God is perfectly righteous.
Letter 108.18Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Paula met the envy and hostility she suffered at Bethlehem not by flight, as Jerome advised, but by patience and humility, sustained by many Scriptures on endurance.
Letter 108.19Jerome · ca. 370–419 · In sickness, loss of property, anxiety for her children, and slander that called her mad, Paula comforted herself with the Scriptures and armed herself with patience against envy.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 38.5.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · 1 John traces hatred to Cain.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 38.6.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Judas acted from greed and jealousy.
On Paradise 54Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · The serpent's wisdom is either pleasure or the devil, who out of envy at man's hope of heaven attacked Adam through the woman, who had learned the command only from Adam.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.46.6Anonymous · ca. 380 · Christ’s disciples must harbour no anger or hatred against anyone.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.53.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Judges must be free from anger.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.53.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · Anger must be settled quickly before it turns into resentment.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.53.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · Prayer and thanksgiving are not accepted while anger remains.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.53.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · Enmity must be ended so that prayer may be pure and heard.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.5.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · Anger and envy led Cain, Saul and Joab to murder and persecution.
On Noah 85Ambrose · ca. 378-384 · The wise man balances anger and fear by virtue, as day and night, and in persecution lets the fear of God govern both.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 53Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Since anger and desire are common to animals, they cannot define human nature; Moses, free from both yet fully human, shows they are not of the soul’s essence.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 55Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Macrina defines anger, desire, and the related passions and concludes that they are around the soul but not the soul, like warts growing on its thinking part.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 57Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Gregory points out that Scripture praises desire, anger, fear, and grief in the saints; Macrina distinguishes the soul’s godlike power of contemplation and judgment, its own by nature, from movements like anger and fear, which came upon it from outside and can be used for good or ill.
On the Beatitudes 1215Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Christ does not demand impossible freedom from all passion, but meekness, the restraint of passion by reason; anger shows by contrast how blessed meekness is, for it turns a man into a raging beast.
On the Beatitudes 1217Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · The meek man who calms his anger is blessed, the angry man pitiable; meekness grows from humility, for one who knows the lowliness of human nature cannot be insulted, and honour belongs only to the soul.
On the Lord's Prayer 1129Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · To pray for harm to an enemy is to ask God to share our anger and become cruel; such prayers, like prayers for glory or victory, are “babbling”; Gregory turns to the objection that prophets prayed against their enemies.
Liber Orsiesii 9Orsiesius · ca. 380-390 · Superiors must treat all alike, never abandon an offending brother in anger, and forgive as they hope to be forgiven.
Liber Orsiesii 54Orsiesius · ca. 380-390 · The monks are to put away anger quickly, forgive, imitate the meekness of the saints, and love one another.
Book of Heresies 131.5Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The gospel and the psalm teach the mastery of anger.
On the Complaints of Job and David 3.5Ambrose · ca. 383-390 · The psalmist nearly slipped by envying the peace of sinners; we should emulate only what is good.
On the Life of Moses 353Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–395 · The death of the firstborn teaches us to kill the first beginnings of evil, desire and anger, as Christ taught; the blood on lintel and doorposts figures the soul rightly ordered, reason above desire and spirit, guarded by faith in Christ.
On the Life of Moses 409Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–395 · To see God’s back is to follow him, never to face him as an opponent; one who follows God is beyond the reach of vice, as Moses was beyond the reach of envy, the root of evils from Eden to Cain and Joseph, which Gregory describes at length.
On the Duties of the Clergy 1.21Ambrose · ca. 386–390 · Anger must be foreseen, restrained, or at least kept from the tongue, after the examples of Jacob, children, Christ, and David.
On the Duties of the Clergy 1.34Ambrose · ca. 386–390 · Benevolence turns away anger, makes friends one, makes rebuke welcome, and can outweigh even kinship.
On the Duties of the Clergy 1.39Ambrose · ca. 386–390 · Fortitude fights all vices, above all avarice, anger, and love of glory, and Job is its supreme example.
On the Duties of the Clergy 1.47Ambrose · ca. 386–390 · Seemliness shines in a consistent life and pleasant speech, and it requires that appetite (Greek hormē) be ruled by reason, especially when anger rises.
On the Duties of the Clergy 2.30Ambrose · ca. 386–390 · Book 2 closes by urging the clergy to shun the wicked and envious, to act with forethought, to burn with zeal for God, and to keep peace and love among themselves.
Exposition of Psalm 118 9.19.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Envy and pride curdle the heart; the righteous man is humbled by meditating on the law.
Exposition of Psalm 118 18.17.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Zeal can be sinful, as envy or jealousy; it needs discipline.
Letter 38.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine reports the death of the primate Megalius and warns that anger, even just anger, if harboured, grows into hatred.
Letter 95.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine finds Scripture hard to grasp and frank criticism among brothers easily misread as envy; he longs for the solitude of the wilderness.
Letter 210.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine teaches the nuns how to give and receive correction in love and urges them to end quarrels quickly before anger corrupts the heart.
Letter 211.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine directs the nuns to end quarrels quickly, ask and give forgiveness, avoid harsh words, and keep their love spiritual rather than carnal.
Letter 250.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine urges Auxilius, if Classicianus did no wrong, to withdraw the sentence, admitting that bishops too can act in anger, and to restore peace.
On Order 2.25Augustine of Hippo · 386–387 · Augustine sets out the moral rule of life for young students of wisdom: abstinence from pleasures and ambition, moderation in anger and punishment, the golden rule, friendship, and the worship of God in faith, hope, and love.
Homilies on Matthew 4.8John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom rebukes Christians whose vices make them like beasts and demons; they examine their hair in a mirror but not their souls, though Scripture and the lives of the saints are a spiritual mirror; one who tames lions should tame his own anger.
Homilies on Matthew 4.9John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Anger is a beast within that must be tamed; its remedy is the blood of Christ received with confidence, the hearing of Scripture, and almsgiving; the passions enslave as completely as Paul served Christ; vainglory is self-defeating.
Homilies on Matthew 10.6John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The end comes when the Gospel has been preached to all, as testimony against unbelievers; we must wake from present dreams and repent by doing the opposite of our sins; peace with God must be pursued by cutting off anger and excess.
Homilies on Matthew 16.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The new commandments intensify and fulfil the old law rather than abolish it; the Old Testament is good and akin to the New, though less perfect, and Christ, legislating with his own authority, begins with anger as the root of murder.
Homilies on Matthew 16.6John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Forbidding anger safeguards the law against murder; against the Manichees the law of an eye for an eye is shown to be an act of mercy and both covenants to have one lawgiver; anger is permitted only for others’ good, and even small insults are forbidden.
Homilies on Matthew 16.8John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Small insults lead to enmity and murder, so Christ graduates the punishments for anger, “raca”, and “fool” to protect love, which God values above all and whose loss roots every wickedness.
Homilies on Matthew 16.9John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ puts reconciliation with a brother before the offering of a gift at the altar, applies this to prayer and alms, and urges settling with an adversary quickly before the matter reaches the judge.
Homilies on Matthew 18.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Love and prayer for enemies are the ninth and highest step of a ladder of virtue whose reward is likeness to God; Christ’s own forgiveness on the cross makes it possible, and the angry man is to be pitied as one sick, while the whole sermon is shown to uproot anger, desire, and greed.
Homilies on Matthew 38.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Virtue’s yoke is light, as the joy of the voluntarily poor and of the martyrs shows, while covetousness, anger and love of the body weigh the soul down; Chrysostom urges his hearers to take up Christ’s yoke.
Homilies on Matthew 40.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The Pharisees’ envy drives them to plot against Christ, who withdraws in meekness as Isaiah foretold; when he heals the blind and dumb demoniac they call it the work of Beelzebul, and Chrysostom begins a moral discourse on envy, the worst of vices.
Homilies on Matthew 40.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Envy harms the envious, not the envied, as Cain, Esau and Joseph’s brothers show; Chrysostom rebukes envy in the church, and shows that honors, authority and popular repute are dangers rather than goods to be envied.
Homilies on Matthew 40.5John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The man of popular repute is enslaved to as many masters as the crowd has heads, and pleasure harms the soul more than grief; Christians should flee the glory of the many for the glory that abides.
Homilies on Matthew 48.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · In his own country Christ teaches but does few signs, so as not to increase their envy and condemnation; his townsmen despise him for his humble family, and he answers gently that a prophet is not honored in his own country.
Homilies on Matthew 51.5John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · One who would not pray with filthy hands should not pray with a tongue soiled by insult and anger; Chrysostom urges that the tongue be cleansed by repentance, bridled, and adorned with gentleness, before approaching the awesome God.
Homilies on Matthew 61.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The forgiven servant’s cruelty to his fellow servant revokes his own pardon; bearing a grudge is a sword against oneself, and God will not be called the Father of the unforgiving.
Homilies on Matthew 61.5John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom urges his hearers to forgive from the heart: the one who wrongs us only harms himself, and Christ, Joseph, Moses, Paul and Stephen show how to love and pray for enemies.
Homilies on Matthew 62.5John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Saul’s envy ruined him while David’s gentleness spared his persecutor; the love of glory defeats itself and makes a man a slave, so Christians should lay aside such passions and love virtue.
Homilies on Matthew 64.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The thrones mean sharing Christ’s glory and condemning unbelieving Israel; leaving wife means preferring godliness, not breaking marriages; the parable of the laborers teaches that late converts can receive the full reward, while faith without a worthy life and even one neglected virtue can shut one out of heaven.
Homilies on Matthew 65.5John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · True height belongs to the humble, who are free of the passions and honored by choice, while the boaster, who despises men yet craves their honor, is low and easily caught like a bird that flies on the ground.
Homilies on Matthew 79.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Mindful of our own debts, we should hasten to forgive and even grieve with those who suffer, as God wills; reconciliation is to be sought first, grudges lead to death, and no wicked man can harm one who lives by Christian philosophy.
Homilies on Matthew 87.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The division of the garments, the vinegar and the taunts at the cross complete Christ’s humiliation, yet the robber confesses him; remembering this and sealing the breast with the cross quenches anger, since insult harms only the insulter, flattery is more dangerous than abuse, and only our own conscience can disgrace us.
On Joseph 2Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Joseph is a mirror of chastity, loved by his father more than his brothers, which roused their envy.
On Joseph 4Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · The envy among the patriarchs shows that the saints were not by nature superior but corrected their faults.
On Joseph 78Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Joseph's warning not to quarrel on the way teaches the avoidance of anger, as Christ left his disciples his peace and sent them without means of revenge.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.4.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · "Emulation" can be good or bad; the Greek of Ps 37:1 means "do not provoke the malicious to rivalry".
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.5.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Such provocation leads wives to break the marriage bond or to constant quarrels; provoking jealousy is vile.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.9.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Cain killed Abel from envy, though Abel had provoked nothing.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.9.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Saul's envy of David shows how the malicious are stirred without cause.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.10.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Provoking to rivalry is cunning, emulation simple; both must be spiritual.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.10.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Scripture distinguishes the envious rival from the good emulator.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.11.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The pious must not envy and imitate the dishonest rich.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.17.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Do not envy the prosperity of the wicked, as the psalmist was tempted to do.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.18.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Anger is a heavy passion that turns correction into killing.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.18.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Anger destroys even the wise; it must be given a limit.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.18.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · "Be angry and do not sin" concedes the feeling but limits it, like a physician.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.18.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The prophet, like a physician, does not forbid anger outright but bids it cease.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.18.5Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Paul bids anger end by sunset, lest the devil feed it in the night.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.18.6Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The devil's goads to revenge lead to the ruin that Proverbs describes.
Sermon on the Eight Beatitudes 2Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388-407 · Chromatius explains the first two steps: voluntary poverty for God's sake, and meekness, which is possible only for those who have renounced worldly cares.
Tractates on Matthew 7.1Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388–407 · Chromatius explains that Christ fulfilled the Law by forbidding even anger, the root of murder.
Tractates on Matthew 7.3Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388–407 · Chromatius explains that a gift at the altar is acceptable only after reconciliation, as the offerings of Abel and Cain show.
On True Religion 45Augustine of Hippo · ca. 389–391 · Even bodily pleasure and pride, rightly understood, point back to the unity and power that belong to God, and it is better to be conquered by a man than by a vice such as envy.
Sermon 4.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Jacob's "supplanting" is figurative: the carnal who envy the spiritual trip themselves up, as Christ's fragrance is life to some and death to others.
Sermon 8.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The sixth commandment against murder is opposed by the plague of boils: murderous souls burn with anger like festering sores.
Sermon 49.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Anger nursed becomes hatred, as a speck becomes a beam; whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and justice means hating vices while loving people.
Sermon 55.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ’s warning that whoever calls his brother a fool is liable to hell frightens believers, especially since, as James says, no man can tame the tongue.
Sermon 57.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Pray for victory over your own anger, which God wants more than you want rain; seek first his kingdom, and trust the God who loves us so much that he gave his Son for creatures of dust.
Sermon 58.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The petition is a binding pact; candidates and faithful alike must forgive from the heart in these holy days, lest Christ, the Sun of justice, set on their anger.
Sermon 58.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Anger is the lust for revenge; nursed, it becomes hatred, the beam in the eye, and whoever hates is a murderer; we must cleanse our hearts and forgive, as God, whom we daily offend, forgives us.
Sermon 63.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · An insult is the wind and anger the wave; we must wake Christ, who forgave his crucifiers, so that he may calm the storm of revenge in the heart.
Sermon 82.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The speck in the eye is anger and the beam is hatred, which grows from anger fed by suspicion.
Sermon 82.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Anger, as in a parent’s discipline, can coexist with love; hatred is far worse, for it puts out the eye.
Sermon 82.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Whoever hates another harms himself first, losing innocence and light, while the other loses only outward goods.
Sermon 208.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Lenten fasting should be without harshness or new luxuries, married people should abstain for prayer, alms should increase, and above all anger should be forgiven before Easter.
Sermon 211.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Lent calls for reconciliation; the Lord's Prayer binds us to forgive as we hope to be forgiven, and anger must not be allowed to grow into hatred.
Sermon 211.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Whoever hates his brother is in darkness and is a murderer, imprisoned in his own heart; if he seeks reconciliation and is refused, he is free.
Sermon 273.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The martyrs are the good fragrance of Christ, giving life to those who love and death to those who envy; like broken flasks of ointment, the more they were persecuted the farther their fragrance spread.
Sermon 293.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The hidden God needed the witness of the greatest of men; John, who had his own disciples and could have been a rival, was all the more credible when he confessed Christ as the bridegroom above all.
Sermon 315.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Anger is a scorpion and our real enemy: an outward enemy can at worst kill us, as a fever would, and if we die loving him he only adds to our reward, as Stephen's stoners and the devil himself unwittingly did for the martyrs.
Sermon 315.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Anger is the enemy within that blocks the Lord's Prayer at “as we forgive our debtors”; it cannot be killed but can be restrained, and conquering it is greater than taking a city.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 1.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine explains the greater righteousness that forbids anger without cause, interprets Racha as an interjection, and sets out the three grades of sin and of liability: judgment, council, and the gehenna of fire.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 2.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine reads the speck and the beam as anger and hatred, warns against rebuking others out of hatred or pretence, and explains Paul’s becoming all things to all as love, not pretence.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 19.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine argues that the righteous before Moses must already have avoided anger and abuse, so Christ’s teaching on anger cannot have filled a gap in their law.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 19.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine shows that Christ’s precepts on anger, harsh words, lust, non-retaliation, and love of enemies are already found in the Old Testament books.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 22.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine explains that “jealousy” and “anger” are said of God by a loose use of words or a Hebrew idiom, meaning his watchful care for his people's fidelity and his just punishment.
Commentary on Daniel 3, scholion 4Polychronius of Apamea · ca. 400-430 · The accusers' greeting is flattery, their charge envy.
On Holy Virginity 31Augustine of Hippo · 401 · The greater the gift of virginity, the more humility is needed, since pride and envy make the devil what he is.
Apology against Rufinus 3.43Jerome · ca. 401–402 · Jerome refuses to keep silent about heretics, and answers Rufinus with a long chain of sayings from Proverbs and with Ps 58.
Dialogues 1.12Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · Two old monks were never seen eating or angry; Gallus applies this to an irascible acquaintance and to a deserting freedman; Postumianus promises more stories.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 5.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · Cain's envy, which led him to kill Abel, shows that envy is the opposite of love; God accepted Abel's sacrifice because it was offered with love.
City of God 14.15Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The just penalty of disobedience was disobedience: man, given over to himself, cannot command his own mind and flesh; pains and pleasures of the flesh belong to the soul, and “lust” (libido) is the general name for every craving, though used chiefly of sexual desire.
City of God 14.19Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The philosophers rightly saw anger and lust as vicious parts of the soul needing reason's rule, but this disorder is the sickness of sin; lust alone moves the genitals apart from the will, which is why its acts are hidden.
City of God 15.5Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Cain the fratricide founded the earthly city, as Romulus, killing Remus, founded Rome; the good, if perfect, cannot fight each other.
City of God 15.7Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine interprets God's warning to Cain (Gen 4:6–7, in its Old Latin form), arguing that Cain's sin was envy and that man must rule over sin as the mind rules the flesh.
The Institutes 5.21John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Bodily fasting profits only if the soul also fasts from detraction, anger, envy, vainglory, and wandering desires.
The Institutes 5.22John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Fasting aims at purity of heart; it is worse to devour one's brothers by detraction, anger, and envy than to eat permitted food.
The Institutes 7.3John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Sexual desire, anger, and sadness are natural and have good uses given by the Creator, though they can be misused.
The Institutes 8.1John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Anger, the fourth vice, blinds the mind and destroys wisdom, justice, dignity, counsel, and peace, as the Scriptures show.
The Institutes 8.2John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Some excuse anger against erring brothers by citing God's anger in Scripture, thereby attributing a passion to God.
The Institutes 8.5John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Paul commands that all anger be removed; one who corrects a brother in anger is like a man with a beam in his eye.
The Institutes 8.7John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Anger has one right use: against our own impure thoughts, before God who sees all.
The Institutes 8.8John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Right anger is anger against anger itself, as David showed in pouring out the water from Bethlehem and sparing Shimei.
The Institutes 8.9John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · "Be angry and do not sin" means to be angry with our own vices; Christ, the sun of justice, must not set on an angry heart.
The Institutes 8.11John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Some nurse their anger for days, refusing to speak kindly, and think it no sin because they take no revenge.
The Institutes 8.12John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Anger held silently in the heart is still anger and excludes the Holy Spirit as much as anger expressed.
The Institutes 8.15John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Even the Old Testament law forbids hatred and remembering injuries in the heart.
The Institutes 8.16John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Monks who blame their brothers for their anger and seek solitude to escape provocation will never gain patience.
The Institutes 8.17John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Freedom from anger depends on our own long-suffering, not on others' good behaviour.
The Institutes 8.19John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · In solitude Cassian found himself angry at a pen, a knife, and a flint; anger must be cured, not merely deprived of people to vent on.
The Institutes 8.20John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Anger must be rooted out of the heart, for God judges intentions: the angry man is liable to judgment and the hater is a murderer.
The Institutes 8.21John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Cassian holds that "without cause" in Matt 5:22 is a later addition meant to excuse anger; the text forbids anger altogether.
The Institutes 8.22John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · The cure for anger: never to allow it for any cause, remembering that it darkens the mind, drives out the Spirit, bars prayer, and brings eternal punishment.
The Institutes 12.27John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · The carnally proud monk cannot bear spiritual teaching, fidgets during conferences, takes everything as aimed at himself, and is either insolently merry or sullenly silent.
Commonitorium 1.451–480Orientius of Auch · ca. 420-450 · Envy, through which the devil fell and brought death on all, caused Joseph's slavery, Cain's murder, Saul's pursuit of David, the grumbling of the vineyard labourers, and the crucifixion of Christ.
The Conferences 5.11John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Serapion lists the kinds of each vice: three of gluttony, three of sexual immorality (intercourse, self-abuse, lustful thought), three of love of money, three of anger, two of sadness, two of acedia, and two of vainglory.
The Conferences 8.10John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · The devil had already fallen through pride before tempting Adam and Eve, since Genesis already calls him the serpent; envy of man's calling to the glory he had lost caused his second fall, after which God set enmity between him and humanity.
The Conferences 9.3John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Pure prayer requires first cutting away worldly cares, idle talk, anger, sadness, lust, and avarice, laying the foundation of humility, and preparing the mind beforehand, since whatever occupies it before prayer returns during prayer.
The Conferences 16.6John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Joseph gives six foundations of lasting friendship: contempt for possessions, cutting off one’s own will, preferring peace to everything, never being angry, healing a brother’s anger against oneself, and daily remembrance of death.
The Conferences 16.7John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Nothing should be preferred to love, and anything, however useful, should be given up to avoid anger.
The Conferences 16.17John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Some monks excuse their anger against a brother as more justified than against a pagan, but Christ’s warning concerns precisely anger against a brother.
The Conferences 16.18John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Mocking silence and scornful gestures that inflame a brother’s anger are as guilty as open insults, since God judges intention; such false patience is like Judas’s treacherous kiss.
The Conferences 16.19John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Some monks fast for days out of anger, which is sacrilege, like sacrificing to demons rather than to God.
The Conferences 16.20John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Some provoke others to strike them and then turn the other cheek in anger, misusing Christ’s command, which aims to uproot anger.
The Conferences 16.26John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · A weak partner may eventually break away despite a strong one’s patience; to keep friendship, one should keep inner calm, fall silent when disturbed, and remember past and future love even in anger.
The Conferences 16.27John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Anger must be restrained by discernment and dissolved in a heart made wide by patience; “giving place to wrath” means humbly yielding, not walking away, and anger that must be hidden should be hidden in order to die.
The Conferences 18.15John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · The young Paphnutius, falsely accused of theft by an envious monk, does penance in silence until the accuser, possessed by a demon, confesses and is healed only by Paphnutius’s prayers.
The Conferences 18.16John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Piamun concludes that peace must be found within, not in solitude or good company, warns that envy is the most incurable vice, and so fires Cassian and Germanus with desire for the solitary life.
The Conferences 19.12John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · John explains that solitude only represses the outward acts of unhealed vices, and gives signs by which a solitary can detect lingering impatience, anger, avarice, lust, and pride.
The Conferences 19.14John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · John prescribes that the solitary rehearse imagined insults to train patience, rebuke himself sharply when any disturbance is revealed, and hold that anger is never lawful.