Annotatio CXLV

”He died an old man, and full of days.” — Job 42:16

Gregory, at the end of book 35 of the Morals, says:¹ “What place of safety remains among these things, when even our evils are more evil [than we suppose], and our good things — which we believe ourselves to have — can by no means be pure goods?” Martin Luther, in the book of his Articles, article 35, strives by this testimony to show that no one is certain that he does not always sin mortally: because no pure good is ever done by us, nor can it be done. John [Fisher], Bishop of Rochester, in the confutation of that same article, says that Gregory does not speak of all our good works, but only of those which we ourselves approve as good, and in which we take complacency; and for this reason (he says) [Gregory] said that the goods which we believe ourselves to have cannot be pure goods, because in them we applaud ourselves, and vainly glory in their goodness.