at is called by God": and Chrysostom says: "To
desire supremacy in the Church is neither just nor useful. For what
wise man seeks of his own accord to submit to such servitude and
peril, as to have to render an account of the whole Church? None save
him who fears not God's judgment, and makes a secular abuse of his
ecclesiastical authority, by turning it to secular uses."

Reply Obj. 3: The dispensing of spiritual corn is not to be carried
on in an arbitrary fashion, but chiefly according to the appointment
and disposition of God, and in the second place according to the
appointment of the higher prelates, in whose person it is said (1
Cor. 4:1): "Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ,
and the dispensers of the mysteries of God." Wherefore a man is not
deemed to hide spiritual corn if he avoids governing or correcting
others, and is not competent to do so, neither in virtue of his
office nor of his superior's command; thus alone is he deemed to hide
it, when he neglects to dispense it while under obligation to do so
in virtue of his office, or obstinately refuses to accept the office
when it is imposed on him. Hence Augustine says (De Civ. Dei xix,
19): "The love of truth seeks a holy leisure, the demands of charity
undertake an honest labor. If no one imposes this burden upon us, we
must devote ourselves to the research and contemplation of truth, but
if it be imposed on us, we must bear it because charity demands it of
us."

Reply Obj. 4: As Gregory says (Pastor. i, 7), "Isaias, who wishing to
be sent, knew himself to be already cleansed by the live coal taken
from the altar, shows us that no one should dare uncleansed to
approach the sacred ministry. Since, then, it is very difficult for
anyone to be able to know that he is cleansed, it is safer to decline
the office of preacher."
_______________________

SECOND ARTICLE [II-II, Q. 185, Art. 2]

Whether It Is Lawful for a Man to Refuse Absolutely an Appointment to
the Episcopate?

Objection 1: It would seem that it is lawful to refuse absolutely an
appointment to the episcopate. For as Gregory says (Pastor. i, 7),
"Isaias wishing to be of profit to his neighbor by means of the
active life, desired the office of preaching, whereas Jeremias who
was fain to hold fast to the love of his Creator by contemplation
exclaimed against being sent to preach." Now no man sins by being
unwilling to forgo better things in order to adhere to things that
are