Variae & Works 14

It is manifest, by the outreaching of your magnanimity, that a bishop is bound by the very nature of his ministry to intercede on behalf of any persons whatever. Trusting in the piety of your Christian mind, I have thought to commend to you by my letters the honorable Constantius, inasmuch as I am called upon, by the principle of the priestly office, to make supplication on behalf of any man. If the conscience of Eucharistus is secure, either he ought not to have come hither alone in advance, since his accuser was held by sickness, or, after his accuser came hither, he rather ought to have remained here, until, with his accuser most plainly confuted in his presence, he might most plainly prove his innocence to us.

We, however, preserving justice in his case, although we perceive that by his evasions he shuns a hearing in which he could in no way deceive, have sent the defender Anastasius with a written order, so that, if he were confident he could be cleared, he should hasten to our examination, where, suitably released from his accuser's charges, he might stand free in our presence; but if he should not do this, he should know that he has confessed out of his own conscience. Likewise: as for your saying that the words of Faustus accusing Eucharistus ought not to be brought forward before me, because he himself had formerly praised him, all the more is credence to be given to this man, who could the more truly know his crime from that very familiarity.

This is shown to be true to such a degree that he by no means presumes to come to confront Faustus; which assuredly, if he were confident that he had a conscience free from Faustus's charges, he ought to have done even with no one bidding him. Likewise: your nobility says that certain kinsmen of Faustus there had already been convicted. All the more confidently ought Eucharistus to have hastened hither, so as to convict Faustus, as he did his kinsmen, of the fabrication of a lie, as has often been said. For the kinsmen of Faustus did not bring a complaint against Eucharistus before us, but it is Faustus, here present, who accuses him.

It does not therefore pertain to us, if he has convicted those who had made no mention of him before us, or who even now make a show of not coming to accuse Eucharistus, unless he should convict, in our examination, Faustus, who persists in accusing him. But what has seemed good to your nobility, that you should do me injury, I do not know, while you suppose that the case ought to be removed from our jurisdiction and transferred to the bishops situated within the province, in accordance with the will of Eucharistus and his associates—which can in no way whatever be done. Likewise.

We admonish your nobility more and more, that you would deign to abstain from ecclesiastical causes and affairs, and that you would permit, all agitation ceasing, the rule of religion to be kept—especially since it is not in doubt that you are of another communion, nor ought you with any intent to mix your person in matters not pertaining to you—lest you compel us, as we have said above, to refer all these things by a dispatched report to my lord son the king; because, since he himself in his wisdom wishes to be in no way opposed to ecclesiastical causes, it is just that whoever lives under his reign should imitate what the magnificent king does, lest he seem to stretch beyond that king's will.

Your magnificence weighs well that I am bound by the necessity of the priestly office, that I may approach as an intercessor before your clemency, which is known to weigh all things wisely. Since I was supplicating my lord son, the most excellent king, on behalf of the sustenance of the poor by my letters, I made haste to send Peter, defender of the church. When he comes, I have not ceased to greet your sublimity as well, earnestly entreating that, for the increase of your safety and prosperity, you would deign to aid the causes of the needy. Given on the fifth day before the Kalends of March.

I marvel that Felix and Peter, clerics of the church of Nola, could have stolen away from the perceptions of your sublimity, so that, against both divine and human laws, spurning ecclesiastical privileges and suppressing their clerical title, they ran off to the public courts—when, by the imperial constitutions, it had been decreed that among persons of this kind whatever the apostolic see had judged ought to be observed; not only mocking my lord son, the magnificent king, as though laymen they should demand royal decrees against their own priest, but even, having brought in barbarians under the name of your house, raging to the ruin and slaughter of their own prelate; whereas, having for just causes been previously convicted, and being compelled to repay church money, a great sum had been remitted to them by the humane kindness of their bishop.

Since therefore your sublimity perceives that they have proceeded even to the contempt of the apostolic see, having received the duty of my greeting, we pray that you would suffer the privileges of blessed Peter the apostle, which antiquity granted by divine and human laws, to be torn away by no subterfuge. It is certain that your magnificence wishes the laws of the Roman princes, which it has commanded to be kept in the business of men, to be observed much more concerning the reverence of blessed Peter the apostle, for the increase of your own felicity. Our brother and fellow-bishop Serenus has been assailed with such insults that he was not provoked without injury to us, since he was compelled, on account of the enormity of the deed, to come to the court of our lord son the king.

This man therefore it befits all to be aided by us with comfort, since whatever is shown to be bestowed in such a cause increases for all. Felix and Peter, clerics of the church of Nola, obstinately and rebelliously against the ordinance, thought they should hasten to the court of my son the king, saying that violence had been done to them while their clerical office was passed over in silence; and, by an undeserved authority, against civil order, having ransomed barbarians for themselves, they afflicted with grave injuries and losses the above-written bishop, their own.

Accordingly it was necessary that our aforesaid brother Serenus the bishop should hasten to that same lord my son; and, the fraud having been disclosed, in accordance with the blessedness of his times, that most excellent man, my son King Theodoric, sent the contumacious clerics back to our examination. To the Tamer of the world, the patron and restorer of liberty, to the senate of the city of Rome, Flavius Theodoric the king. There has come to us, conscript fathers, a suggestion concerning the dispatched advantage of the church, and the ordinance of your sacred assembly, pleasing to our mildness, has struck our hearts.

And although, after the venerable synod, your ordinance of judgment alone would suffice for decrees of this kind, nevertheless, for your sake, we have given by these present oracles a response to your consultation, that it be lawful for no one, under any alienation whatever, to make a contract concerning the property of the bishop of any church. Plainly they shall grant their own usufruct to whomever they wish, with equity preserved. For neither ought the property bequeathed—owed to all strangers, or to the standing of the church—to be defrauded by the will of the bishop or clergy alone. For what is so profane as that in this matter the will of the one bestowing should be violated, while what each man wished to belong to the church, private persons should claim for themselves as a contract for the usufruct of the thing?

Therefore if anyone, with wicked daring, shall have presumed upon what is forbidden, and desires to hold the property beyond the usufruct, the bishop or clergy granting it, the alienated property shall forthwith, together with its fruits, be reclaimed by the venerable prelate. And the rest. Given on the fifth day before the Ides of March at Ravenna, Venantius, vir clarissimus, being consul.