Miracles no proof of holiness

Truth. And if you give weight to holiness of life and its security, with what harlot’s brow do you so highly accept the life of these prelatesprelatus: prelate,¹ who have sinned often and gravely, and set aside the life of Christ, infinitely holier, infinitely more secure, easier and more common? And no one can evade [the conclusion] that in so doing you sin not moderately and plunge yourself into the devil’s wallow. And so, if you object that I am inventing [the claim] that these saints finally repented of this turning aside from the law of the Lord, teach you that they are saints, and I will teach that they had, as a rule, finally so repented. The Evangelist indeed, who was far holier than these three,² says that "if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves" (1 John 1:8). How then does he not honour these saints who ascribes to them that they so fruitfully repented at the end, since it is clearer than light that, in leaving this king’s highway and choosing a doubtful way unknown to the earlier apostles, they sinned not moderately? And so we do not contend about this, that these three persons excel common priestssacerdos / presbiter: priest / presbyter and the people in holiness and in the efficacy of prayer; for of these three, of common priestssacerdotes vulgares: common priests 32and the people, we have no evidenceevidencia: evidence that they are saints. And as for prayers and miracles, it is clear that they are illusions of the devil, dreamed up, since it is published today that any priest, in consecrating the eucharist, does infinite miracles, and as great as the Lord Jesus Christ did. And according to the apostle, 1 Corinthians 13: "If a wayfarerviator: wayfarer should have all faith, so that he could remove mountains, and have not charitycaritas: charity, he is nothing."³ Much more, then, do signs shown by God or by the devil in the presence of a dead body not indicate that it is holy. Therefore one of the devil’s chief wiles, by which he deceives wayfarers, is deception in these signs. Let us therefore believe living works in conformity with God’s lawlex dei / lex Christi / lex evangelica: God's law / the law of Christ / the gospel law,⁴ and set aside these frivolous signs, since Pharaoh’s magicians, after Moses, had done great signs, as is clear in Exodus 7 and 8; and according to the truth of the gospel the foreknownprescitus, -i: the foreknown will say on the day of judgment: "Lord, have not we prophesied in thy name, and cast out devils, and done many miracles?", as is clear in Matthew 7.⁵ And Christ asserts in Matthew 24 that "false Christs and false prophets shall shew great signs and wonders" (Matt. 24:24). Blush, therefore, henceforth to be of the generation of adultery (Matt. 12:39), unless you know how to teach that these dead signs are miraculously done by the man whom you assert to be a saint. Since near the day of judgment Antichrist will work many signs. And so you should consider how these chronicles are apocryphaapocrifa; apocrifus: apocrypha; apocryphal, outside the faith, and how in all probability many false things have been inserted into them to please the satrapssatrapa: satrap. It is the same, therefore, to put the true law behind⁶ and prefer these apocrypha, as to forsake the ancient of days and faithlessly accept new gods.⁷ And as for the faith to be given to a man’s absolution from sin, it is clear that one ought to hope this but not believe it as faith,⁸ although a conditional faith is joined to such things, namely that if a man fruitfully and finally repents, then he is absolved from all his sins that he had committed.