For if secular offices confer the chief place, not on those who have entered the vestibule of action, but who have been tested through very many grades over a course of time, who is found so arrogant, so shameless, that in the heavenly warfare—which is to be weighed more carefully, and to be tried like gold in repeated fires—he should desire to be a commander at once, when he has not first been a recruit, and wishes to speak before he learns? Let him grow accustomed in the camp of the Lord, in the grade of readers first, to the rudiments of divine service; nor let it seem to him a low thing to be made exorcist, acolyte, subdeacon, deacon through the proper order—and this not all at once, but in the times appointed for ordination by our elders.
But now let such a one approach the summit of the presbyterate, that both his age may fulfill the name and the desert of his probity may be attested by his prior service. From thence by right he will be entitled to hope for the place of the high pontiff. This is brought about by the excessive laxity of our fellow priests, who seek the pomp of a multitude and think that some dignity is acquired for themselves out of this crowd. Hence everywhere a numerous popularity of such men is found, even in those places where there is solitude, while they desire that the parishes be extended, or to those upon whom they can bestow nothing else they grant divine orders generously. Wherefore there must always be strict judgment, for everything that is great is rare. But if anyone shall despise these prohibitions, he is liable to the peril of his own grade. 2.
Accordingly, lest we detract anything from the merits of your charity, we have directed our writings especially to you, which you are to bring to the notice of all our brothers and fellow bishops—not only of those who are in that province, but also of those who are joined to the neighboring provinces of your charity. Let whoever shall neglect this, setting aside the authority of the Fathers and of the Apostolic See, know that he is to be punished by us more strictly, so that he should by no means doubt that the standing of his own place is not assured to him, if he thinks that after so many prohibitions this can be attempted with impunity; for whatever has been so often forbidden is usurped out of a zeal for contumacy. What periods of time are appointed in the several grades of the clergy. 3. These are the periods to be observed in the several grades:
If from infancy he has enrolled his name in the ecclesiastical ministries, let him continue with unbroken observance among the readers up to his twentieth year. But if he comes when already older and of mature age—yet so that immediately after baptism he desires to dedicate himself to the divine warfare—let him be held among the readers or among the exorcists for a period of five years; thence as acolyte or subdeacon for four years; and thus let him approach the blessing of the diaconate, if he merits it, in which order he ought to remain for five years, if he has conducted himself blamelessly. Thence, with his service availing, having given the documents of his own faith through so many grades, he will be able to merit the priesthood of the presbyterate.
From this place, if a life more exact in good morals shall have advanced him, he will be entitled to hope for the highest pontificate—yet with this law observed, that neither a man twice married nor a penitent can be admitted to these grades. Indeed, let even the defenders of the Church, who are made from laymen, be held to the aforesaid observance, if they have merited to be in the order of the clergy. Given on the ninth day before the Kalends of March, in the consulship of our lords Honorius for the twelfth time and Theodosius for the eighth, the Augusti. To the presbyters of Ravenna. 4. The admonition of Bishop Zosimus to the presbyters and deacons who are at Ravenna. From the report of our brother Archidamus the presbyter, we have learned how you were received, or what you did;
and how those men were received who, contrary to the canons, with I know not what daring rashness, wished to go against us to the imperial court. To these men we had long ago written these things which we now send, in answer to the letters which they had injuriously sent. But since these wanderers were not able to remain in their own—that is, in our Roman Church—together with our fellow presbyters, we have appointed these letters to be handed over to them by you, in which by our decree we have sanctioned that the aforesaid disturbers of all were estranged from the communion of our Apostolic See, and that they have received the sentence pronounced by our subscription.
Those also who wished to lend their assent to this unbridled deed and design, it belongs to your charity to estimate in what manner they are to be held. To these you ought to object this: that they have run into a charge according to the precepts of the canons, and have attempted to be rebels in a manner unbecoming presbyters. We nevertheless admonish you that you ought to be on the watchtowers, as to from where their audacity may break forth—men whom the holy and apostolic Church knows to have been anathematized. But concerning those who have joined themselves to their fellowship, what we ought to do about them we shall treat with better counsel when you have returned. And in another hand: Given on the fifth day before the Nones of October, in the consulship of Honorius for the twelfth time and Theodosius for the eighth, the Augusti. (In the year of Christ 418.) THE DECREES OF POPE BONIFACE.
The supplication of Pope Boniface, that it be established by the prince that in the city of Rome a bishop should never be ordained through canvassing. 1. Boniface, bishop, to Honorius Augustus. The care of my Church, to which our God appointed my priesthood while you govern human affairs, constrains me, lest in its causes—although I am as yet detained by bodily infirmity—on account of the assemblies which are stirred up by all the priests and clergy and by the disturbances of the Christian people, I should be wanting before the ears of the most Christian prince. If indeed anything should turn out otherwise than it ought, it is not you who do this, who compose all things with even-handed moderation;
but we, keeping silent through our own slothfulness, shall seem to have lost what might avail to overturn the quiet of the city and the peace of the Church. For since you, by the Lord's favor, as a worshiper of the divine religion preside over human affairs, it will be our fault if this is not, under your glory (which it is certain has always favored divine matters with a more ready mind), guarded by a firm and stable right—that which through so long a series of years, and even under those princes whom no care for our religion constrained, prevailed: namely, that the things permitted be kept, and that under the rule of your clemency the things unlawful be in no way feared.
For the Church herself appeals to your devotion, most Christian emperor—by my discourse indeed, but with her own venerable affection—she whom Christ our God, the faithful ruler and governor of your empire, keeps betrothed to himself alone, an inviolate virgin. Do not suffer in her any of the assaulting tempests of plotters to dash against her, nor her quiet countenance to be disturbed by the swelling of an unwonted storm, most glorious and most tranquil emperor Augustus. She indeed, who is betrothed to one, is yet your mother, the Church; by this embassy, which she has committed to her priests, she appeals to your piety, and recalls things past and present.
'To you,' she says, 'reigning religiously, a people has now been entrusted, as faithful to God as to you, who are a Christian prince.' For behold, amid the very mysteries, amid her own prayers which she offers up for the felicity of your empire—with holy Peter as witness, before whom and concerning whose see the matter is treated—she cries out with voices anxious for the observance of religion, when prayer is mingled with anxious petition, that discord, once torn away, should not, with the tempter urging on, drag us into various courses away from our accustomed worship. She would plead at greater length, most Christian prince, were she not secure of her causes before you, and had she not prevailed in the suppression of idols, in the correction of heretics—your faith, with divine worship flourishing alike together with the empire forever.
She has a refuge: the pious mind of your gentleness, joined with veneration of her religion. Since whatever may profit her, you do and confer—upon my brothers and fellow priests, men most approved, whom I send as legates, by whom we entreat, from me and from all who constitute such a Church—as they pursue the cause of the sacred religion, in the city of your gentleness, with this mind by which you assent to what is asked, may you provide that the welfare of the universal Church be established forever. Given on the Kalends of July. The rescript of Honorius Augustus to Boniface, the Roman pope, in which he establishes that if at Rome two bishops should again be ordained, both should be expelled from the city. 2.
The victorious Honorius, illustrious triumpher, ever Augustus, to the holy and venerable Boniface, pope of the eternal city. We have received the writings of your beatitude with the gratulation due to reverence; on reviewing them, I gave the greatest thanks to almighty God, because we learned that your sanctity, after a long indisposition, has been restored to the wished-for health. And therefore, as the venerable men are returning, we signify our joy by the attestation of these sacred letters, and we ask that your apostolate may deign to bestow, in daily prayers, its zeal and its vow concerning the welfare and the rule of our empire. Know, moreover, that this has been quite pleasing to our piety, that your sanctity is solicitous concerning the disturbance of the Churches or of the people.
That this may by no means be able to find any occasion, our clemency has judged sufficient provision to have been made. Finally, by the proclamation of your beatitude, we wished this to come to the knowledge of all the clergy: that if by chance anything should befall your religion (which we do not wish) by the lot of mankind, all should know that they must cease from canvassings. But if two, contending against right by their rashness, should be ordained, none of these shall in any way be a future bishop, but only that one shall remain in the apostolic see whom, by a new ordination, the divine judgment and the consent of the whole body shall have chosen from the number of the clergy.
Whence this must be observed, that all should keep a tranquil mind and peaceful spirits from the admonition of our serenity, nor attempt anything by seditious conspiracies—since it is certain that their zealous efforts will profit neither of the parties. The letter of Boniface, bishop of the city of Rome, to the bishops of Gaul, concerning Maximus, a bishop accused of various crimes. 3. Boniface, bishop, to Patroclus, Remigius, Maximus, Hilarius, Severus, Valerius, Julianus, Castorius, Leontius, Constantinus, Joannes, Montanus, Marinus, Mauritius, and the rest of the bishops established throughout Gaul and the seven provinces.
The clergy of the city of Valentia have come to us, setting forth by a petition the crimes which, with the whole province as witness, they assert that Maximus has committed: that, when cognizance was so often delegated, he always evaded the appointed judgments, and, not trusting in his own conscience, did not hasten—so that, if he were innocent, all things being examined, he might be cleared—those things which we have learned were so often decreed, also from the instruction of our own documents. He, on the contrary, proved those things concerning himself which were alleged, since to refute them, as they were innumerable, a provincial cognizance was delegated by my predecessors.
He is also said to have avoided the assembly and to have been quite unwilling to be present; and no one doubts that one who is guilty thus evades judgment, just as one who is innocent seeks to be acquitted. But the cunning quibble of those who think the matter must be conducted by crafty counsels will never receive the name of innocence. For whoever thinks to evade judgment by delays confesses concerning all things. Yet that man who is reputed to be of such a sort will one day come into the open, nor does it profit him to have hidden so often, to have evaded so often, whom his own acts and deeds—wherever he flees—the crimes objected against him, if they are true, pursue.
I ought indeed even now to have passed a sentence worthy, in our judgment, for the acts of which he is accused—he who, by so often declining the cognizance and the decree of the judges, believed it could be mocked; but lest anyone should perhaps judge it premature, and should say that nothing had been reserved for him who is absent, although he has been summoned by us, we preferred, an interval of time being granted, that it be deferred—since even his accusers asserted this. About whose intentions and character one may be secure: that Maximus commits the more damnable things the more tardily he should present himself before the appointed judgment.
They charge that he is enveloped in the darkness of the Manichaeans, a sect base of old, so that he cannot wash his soul clean of the sordid reprobation of the matter objected against him, producing the synodal acts, and enveloped on every side in committed disgraces; for they assert that he had no regard for soundness, whom, by his own fury and insane rashness, they objected to have come even to the tribunals of secular judges, subjected to questioning—which is most shameful even in a base person—and they assert, by the records produced into the open, that he was condemned of homicide. And such a man as this, after such and so great crimes committed, still claims for himself in his hiding-places the name of the episcopate, to the infamy of his own city; with excessive grief they complain that he wishes to defile the holy name by claiming it for himself.
And therefore, most dear brethren, since this man who ought to be heard was unwilling to present himself—lest perhaps, being convicted by the clergy who accuse him, he might at last, once presented, be struck by a sentence of fitting pronouncement in episcopal judgment. Although, when these things shall have been demonstrated against him, what loss can there be of this name to him who is reported never to have had the modesty of the priesthood, and not to have guarded his own place even for a short time: we have granted a delay, and we have decreed that your judgment ought to be within the province, and that a synod be gathered before the day of the Kalends of November, so that, if he shall wish to be present, present, if he is confident, he may answer to the objections; but if he shall neglect to be present, let him not gain a deferment of the sentence by his absence;
for it is manifest that one confesses concerning the crime, who, when judgment has been indulged and so often delegated, does not use the occasion of clearing himself. For it makes no difference whether all the things that have been alleged are proven in the present examination, since by his very procured confession his absence is so often established. We, moreover, shall direct letters through all the provinces, lest he should pretend the excuse of ignorance for himself: so that he may be compelled to come to the province, and there present himself to the appointed judgment. But whatever your charity shall judge must be decreed concerning this cause, when it has been reported to us, it is necessary, as is fitting, that it be confirmed by our authority. Given on the Ides of June, in the consulship of Monaxius, vir clarissimus. (In the year
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Christi 419.) V, inunaquaqueprovincianemo, contemptometropolitano, episcopusordinetur. IV. Bonifacius, episcopusurbisRomæ, Hilarioepi- scopoNarbonensi. Difficilemquidemfidemquerimoniiscommodamus, quarumsacerdotesDominipulsatintentio : maxime, cumeosloquunturquidpiamcontraPatrumstatutatentasse, sedfrequenterhasasserit, sicutnunc, multitudocausantium.
of Christ 419.) That in each individual province no one should be ordained bishop with the metropolitan held in contempt. 4. Boniface, bishop of the city of Rome, to Hilary, bishop of Narbonne. We lend a difficult credence indeed to complaints by which the intention strikes against the priests of the Lord—especially when they say that these have attempted something contrary to the statutes of the Fathers; but frequently, as now, a multitude of plaintiffs asserts these things.
For behold, as your charity recognizes from the documents submitted, the order of clergy of the Church of Lodève, or the prayers, or the tears of the people, they have sent to us, as far as can be understood, with great grief, saying that our fellow bishop Patroclus, his own request notwithstanding, ordained—into the place of the departing bishop—I know not whom, in another province, the metropolitan being passed over, contrary to the rules of the Fathers; which we can by no means bear patiently, since it befits us to be diligent guardians of the paternal sanctions. For to no one does the constitution of the Council of Nicaea seem unknown, which thus prescribes:
that we may set down the very words properly, throughout each individual province the right ought to have its single metropolitans, nor ought two to be subject to anyone—which they, since it must not be believed otherwise, judged for themselves must be observed, the Holy Spirit suggesting it.
Wherefore, most dear brother, if the matters are thus, and the boundary of your province includes the aforesaid Church, then, fortified by our authority—which indeed you ought to do of your own accord—with the desires and will of the supplicants regarded, approach that same place in which such an ordination is said to have been celebrated, fortified by the right of the metropolitan and relying on our injunctions, understanding that whatever things must be done, according to the rules of the Fathers, have been granted by us to your discretion; so that, all things being accomplished, whatever you shall have established may become clear to the Apostolic See by your report, to whom it is evident that the ordination of the whole province has been entrusted.
Let no bold transgressor of theirs therefore exceed their boundaries, nor defend anything to the contumely of those men in his own quarters, which does not seem to have been granted to him. Let this kind of presumption cease, pressed down by our authority, on the part of those who extend the limit of their dignity beyond what is lawful. We say this for the reason that your charity may observe that we so keep the precepts of the canons, that thus our constitution also defines: that each individual province should always await, in all matters, the ordination of its own metropolitan. Given on the fifth day before the Ides of February, in the consulship of our lords Honorius for the thirteenth time and Theodosius for the tenth, the Augusti. (In the year of Christ 422.) THE DECREES OF POPE CELESTINE.
Concerning Prosper and Hilary, who accuse certain presbyters of Gaul of being followers of Pelagius. 1. Celestine, bishop, to his most beloved brothers Venerius, Marinus, Leontius, Auxonius, Arcadius, Filtanius, and the rest of the bishops of the Gauls. The words of the apostolic precept are that we ought to be without offense among the Jews and the Gentiles (1 Cor. 10:32; Rom. 14). Whoever is a Christian guards this with all the strength of his soul. Since this is so, no little peril will be able to remain before God for him who refuses to show this even to the faithful (1 Cor. 8). For how these things, which strike the souls of Christians by Christian authors, distress us, who wish no one to perish, the Lord's discourse in the Gospel testifies.
For the Savior himself says that it is expedient for one who scandalizes one of these little ones to be sunk in the depths of the sea (Matt. 18); and therefore let us seek what is now his punishment, for whom we read that such a penalty is expedient. Our sons here present, Prosper and Hilary, whose solicitude concerning our God is to be praised, have pursued before us that only so much is permitted to certain presbyters there—I know not whom—who are zealous for the dissension of the Churches, that, calling undisciplined questions into the midst, they obstinately say that these men preach things adverse to the truth; but we more justly impute it to your charity, when those men have, above you, an abundance of disputing. We have read that the disciple is not above his master (Matt.
10)—that is, no one ought to claim for himself, to the injury of the teachers, a doctrine. For we know that these very men have been placed by our God for teaching, since, as the Apostle says (1 Cor. 12), to them a third place within the Church must be assigned. What hope is there there, where, while the masters are silent, these men speak, who, if it is so, were not their disciples? I fear lest to keep silent here be to connive; I fear lest they themselves speak the more, who permit those men to speak in such a way. In such causes silence is not without suspicion, because the truth would come forth, if falsehood displeased. For deservedly does the cause concern us, if by silence we favor error.
Therefore let such men be rebuked; let it not be free for these to have discourse according to their own will; let novelty cease, if the matters are so, to assail antiquity; let restlessness cease to disturb the quiet of the Churches. They often try to plunge into shipwreck those whom, standing within the harbor, a faithful anchorage makes secure. For an anchorage is the station of all those whose footsteps, with perfected steps, are not moved. The aforesaid men have had recourse to the apostolic see, complaining to us of this very disturbance which assails them. Hold, most dear brethren, a deliberation for the peace of the catholic people; let them know (if indeed they are reckoned with the dignity of the presbyterate) that they are subject to you; let them know that it befits all who teach badly to learn more and more, rather than to teach.
For what are you doing in the Churches, if those men should hold the chief place of preaching? unless perhaps that stands in the way, which is gathered neither by authority nor as yet by reason: that some from the number of the brethren, lately from the fellowship of laymen, perhaps admitted into our college, do not know what they ought to claim for themselves. Concerning these matters many things have already been said at the time when we gave a response to the writings of brother Tuentius. Now, however, repeating it, we admonish more often that such men be avoided, who labor to sow throughout the lands something other than what that husbandman of ours commanded. Nor yet can we wonder if these men now dare to attempt these things against the living, who strive even to scatter the memory of the brethren at rest.
Concerning the holy bishop Augustine, a wondrous declaration of praise. 2. Augustine, a man of holy memory, we have always held in our communion for his life and his merits, nor has even a rumor of sinister suspicion ever besprinkled him—whom we remember to have been of such great learning long ago, that he was always reckoned among the best masters even by my predecessors. Well, therefore, have all judged of him in common, as one who everywhere was to all both an object of love and of honor. Wherefore let resistance be made to such men, whom we see growing wickedly; it is impious that religious souls should suffer these things, by whose affliction, because they are our members, it befits us also to be tormented—although the promised blessedness remains for these (Matt.
5): Whoever are proven to endure persecution for the sake of justice. What the Lord promises to them for the future, the following discourse declares. The cause is not of these agents alone; the universal Church is assailed by whatever novelty. Let us understand that these very things which displease us displease you. This we shall be able at last to prove, if, silence being imposed upon the wicked, complaint concerning such a matter shall in future have ceased. May God keep you safe, most dear brethren. Concerning the grace of God, from the authority of the bishops of the Apostolic See who went before. 3.
Since certain men, who glory in the catholic name, lingering amid the condemned opinions of the heretics, whether through depravity or through ignorance, presume to oppose the most devout disputants; and although they do not hesitate to anathematize Pelagius and Caelestius, they nevertheless rail against our masters, as though these had exceeded the necessary measure; and they profess to follow and approve only those things which the most sacred See of the blessed Apostle Peter has ratified and taught against the enemies of the grace of God through the ministry of its prelates.
It was necessary to inquire diligently what the rulers of the Roman Church judged concerning the heresy which had arisen in their times, and what they decreed should be held concerning the grace of God against the most pernicious defenders of free will; so that we might also join to these certain sentences of the African councils, which the apostolic prelates assuredly made their own when they approved them.
Therefore, that those who doubt in any matter may be more fully instructed, we set forth the decrees of the holy Fathers in a concise index, whereby anyone who is not overly contentious may recognize that the connection of all the disputations hangs upon this brevity of the appended authorities, and that no ground of contradiction remains for him, if he believes and speaks with the catholics. That Adam injured all men, and that no one can be saved except by the grace of Christ. IV.
That in the transgression of Adam all men lost their natural capacity and innocence, and that no one can rise up from the depth of that ruin by free will, unless the grace of the merciful God should raise him up; as Pope Innocent of blessed memory pronounced, saying in his letter to the Council of Carthage: 'For man, having received free will, while he uses his own goods too rashly, falls and is plunged into the depths of transgression, and finds no way by which he might thence arise;'
'and deceived forever of his own liberty, he would have lain hidden, crushed by this ruin, had not the coming of Christ afterward, by His grace, lifted him up — He who, through the purification of the new regeneration, cleansed away every past fault by the laver of His baptism.' That no one is good by his own powers, except by participation in Him who alone is good. V. That no one is good through himself, unless He grant him participation in Himself who alone is good (Matthew 19); which truth the sentence of the same pontiff in these same writings attests, saying:
'Shall we then hold a right judgment in our minds concerning those who think that they owe to themselves the fact that they are good, and do not consider Him whose grace they daily obtain — who trust that without Him they can attain so much by themselves?' That unless we are continually aided by the grace of God, we cannot overcome the snares of the devil. VI. That no one, even renewed by the grace of baptism, is fit to overcome the snares of the devil and to vanquish the concupiscences of the flesh, unless through the daily help of God he has received perseverance in good conduct; which the teaching of the same prelate confirms in these same pages, saying:
'For although He redeemed man from his past sins, yet knowing that he could sin again, He reserved many means for his restoration, by which He might correct him even after these things. He bestows daily remedies, upon which, unless we rely and trust as we strive, we shall in no way be able to conquer human errors. For it is necessary that by whose aid we conquer, by Him again not aiding, we should be conquered.' That through Christ we may rightly use free will. VII. That no one save through Christ rightly uses free will, the same master proclaims in the letter given to the Council of Milevis, saying:
'Take heed at last, O perverse doctrine of most depraved minds, that liberty itself so deceived the first man that, while he used its reins too indulgently, he fell by presumption into transgression; nor could he be drawn out of it, unless the coming of Christ the Lord, by the providence of regeneration, restored to him the state of his pristine liberty.' That all the merits of the saints are gifts of God. VIII. That all the zeal and all the works and merits of the saints are to be referred to the glory and praise of God, because no one pleases Him from any other source than from that which He Himself has bestowed. To this judgment the canonical authority of Pope Zosimus of blessed memory directs us, when, writing to the bishops of the whole world, he says: