63. And what, in the case of holy Naboth, was the cause of his death, except his regard for a virtuous life? For when the king demanded the vineyard from him, promising to give him money, he refused the price for his father’s heritage as unseemly, and preferred to shun such shame by dying. “The Lord forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee;” 1 [3] Kings xxi. 3. that is, that such reproach may not fall on me, that God may not allow such wickedness to be attained by force. He is not speaking about the vines—nor has God care for vines or plots of ground—but he says it of his fathers’ rights. He could have received another or the king’s vineyards and been his friend, wherein men think there is no small usefulness so far as this world is concerned. But because it was base he thought it could not be useful, and so he preferred to endure danger with honour intact, rather than gain what was useful to his own disgrace. I am here again speaking of what is commonly understood as useful, not that in which there is the grace of virtuous life.