§ 38. The tongue does countless evil in the world.

1) The tongue of one monarch slanders another: from what enmity, quarrels, battles, bloodshed occur; so many thousands of innocent people fall; so many widows and orphans who weep remain; so many states, cities, villages are desolate; so many sums of money and all dependents are wasted in vain.

2) The tongue dispels heresies, schisms, and temptations, and for this reason much harm is done to the Holy Church, to the destruction of people, to the church rulers of anxiety and labor, as the deed itself shows.

3) The tongue fills the ears of kings, princes and other powers that be with slander, from which many innocent people die.

4) The tongue also burdens the judicial seats with insidious and unscrupulous slander, from which those present and clerical servants are useless to worry and embarrass.

5) The tongue, touching the authorities with backbiting, makes them suspicious, from which they have contempt, disobedience from the ruled, and in themselves fearlessness, self-will; there is confusion and all kinds of disorder in society.

6) The language of the weak and faint-hearted leads to unbearable sorrow, despondency and despair.

7) Language in the same city and village between neighbors, in the same house between wife and husband, between brothers, sisters, slaves, between friendly friends, makes quarrels and fights.

(8) The tongue reveals the secrets which the sworn office must firmly keep, from which also many difficulties and misfortunes arise.

9) The tongue often brings the slanderer himself to great repentance and sorrow, because he has released a word that cannot be returned.

To put it briefly: how many misfortunes there are or have been in the world – the tongue has either created or multiplied everything. Oh, unbridled tongue! A small member, but it does a lot, it is an irrepressible evil, full of deadly poison (James 3:5-8). Blessed and wise is the man who bridles the tongue! Blessed is he who has made weight and measure for his words, and a door and a bar for his mouth! He who bridles the tongue will live peacefully, and he who hates talkativeness will reduce evil, says Sirach (Sir. 19:6; 28:29). Verily, Solomon wrote: "He who guards his mouth guards his soul" (Proverbs 13:3); and again: "He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps his soul from trouble" (Proverbs 21:23). Cursed and foolish is he who does not keep his tongue, does not know the time to be silent and the time to speak: "A man with evil tongues shall not reform on earth" (Psalm 139:12). Death and life are in the power of the tongue (Prov. 18:22); for stumbling is better from the earth than from the tongue (Sir. 20:18). Many fell by the edge of the sword, but not as many as those who fell by the tongue; happy is he who has hid himself from him, who has not experienced his wrath, who has not dragged his yoke and has not been bound by his chains; for his yoke is a yoke of iron, and his bands are bands of brass, a cruel death is his death, and hell itself is better than it (Sir. 28:21-23).

§ 39. If the tongue, which is not controlled by reason, is the cause of so many sins and misfortunes, we must try to restrain it. But effort without God's help can do little, for evil is irrepressible, as the Apostle says. And although it has two fences, that is, teeth and lips, it breaks through. For the human heart, like an overflowing vessel, throws out everything that cannot be contained, and thus out of the abundance of the heart its mouth speaks, according to the words of the Lord (Luke 6:45). That is why we must humbly pray with the Psalmist to Almighty God: "Put a guard, O Lord, on my lips, and guard the doors of my mouth" (Psalm 140:3), so that the Lord may correct both the heart and the tongue – the instrument of the heart – and teach us how to speak in good time, and how to speak, and what not to say, not to think about in the heart.

Article 3.

On Sin in General and the Consequences of Sin