Canon Law & Easter Computus 3 part 6/11

'But we, by the inspiration of God — for all good things are to be referred to their Author, whence they are born — have referred all matters to the conscience of our brethren and fellow-bishops.' And this discourse, radiant with the light of most sincere truth, the African bishops venerated with such honor that they wrote thus to the same man: 'But that which you set down in the letter you caused to be sent into all the provinces, saying, "We, however, by the inspiration of God," etc., we have so understood it to be said, that, like one passing swiftly by, with the keen sword of truth you would cut off those who against the help of God exalt the liberty of human will.'

'For what did you do by free will more truly than that you referred all matters to the conscience of our lowliness? And yet you faithfully and wisely saw, you truthfully and confidently said, that it was done by the inspiration of God. For this very reason, surely, because the will is prepared by the Lord, and that they may do something good, He Himself touches the hearts of His sons by paternal inspirations. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God; so that we neither feel our own free will to be wanting, nor doubt that in all good things His help avails more than the several movements of human wills.' That every holy thought and movement of pious will is from God. IX.

That God so works in the hearts of men and in free will itself, that a holy thought, a pious resolve, and every movement of good will is from God, because through Him we are able to do some good, without whom we can do nothing. To this profession the same teacher instructs us, who, when speaking to the bishops of the whole world concerning the help of divine grace, says: 'What time then has intervened in which we do not need His aid? In all our acts, therefore, and causes, thoughts, and movements, He must be entreated as helper and protector. For it is presumptuous that human nature should claim anything for itself, while the Apostle cries out (Ephesians 6):'

'Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and powers, against the rulers of this air, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.' And as he himself again says (Romans 7): 'Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.' And again (1 Corinthians 15): 'By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace in me has not been void, but I have labored more than all of them: yet not I, but the grace of God with me.' That the grace of God not only remits sins, but also helps that they be not committed, and grants that the law be fulfilled — not, as Pelagius says, more easily, as though without the grace of God it could be fulfilled with more difficulty. X.

That also which was established within the decrees of the Council of Carthage, we embrace as proper to the apostolic See — namely what was defined in the third chapter: That whoever shall say that the grace of God, by which we are justified through Jesus Christ our Lord, avails only for the remission of sins already committed, and not also as a help that they be not committed, let him be anathema. And again in the fourth chapter: That whoever shall say that the grace of God through Jesus Christ helps us only in this respect to not sin, namely because through Him is revealed and opened to us the understanding of the commandments, so that we may know what we ought to seek and what to shun;

but that through that grace it is not granted to us that what we have come to know must be done, we should also love and be able to do — let him be anathema. For since the Apostle says: 'Knowledge puffs up, but charity edifies' (1 Corinthians 8), it is exceedingly impious that we should believe we have the grace of Christ for that which puffs up, and do not have it for that which edifies, since both are the gift of God — both to know what we ought to do, and to love that we may do it, so that, with charity edifying, knowledge cannot puff up. And just as it is written of God: 'Who teaches man knowledge' (Psalm 93), so also it is written: 'Charity is from God' (1 John 4). Likewise the fifth chapter:

That whoever shall say that the grace of justification is given to us for this purpose, that what we are commanded to do through free will we might more easily fulfill through grace — as though, even if grace were not given, we could indeed not easily, yet still fulfill the divine commandments even without it — let him be anathema. For the Lord was speaking of the fruits of the commandments when He said not, 'Without me you can do with more difficulty,' but said, 'Without me you can do nothing.' That, besides the decrees of the apostolic See, all the prayers resound with the grace of Christ, by which the human race is restored from eternal damnation. XI.

Furthermore, the inviolable sanctions of the most blessed and apostolic See, by which the most devout Fathers, having cast down the pestilential pride of novelty, taught us to refer both the beginnings of good will, and the increase of praiseworthy zeal, and perseverance therein unto the end, to the grace of Christ. Let us also regard the mysteries of the priestly supplications, which, handed down from the apostles, are uniformly celebrated throughout the whole world and in the whole catholic Church, so that the law of supplication may establish the law of believing.

For when the prelates of the holy peoples fulfill their commanded embassy, they plead before the divine mercy the cause of the human race, and, with the whole Church groaning together with them, they beseech and pray: that faith may be given to unbelievers; that idolaters may be freed from the errors of their impiety; that, the veil of the heart being taken away from the Jews, the light of truth may appear; that heretics may come to their senses by the reception of the catholic faith; that schismatics may receive the spirit of revived charity; that to the lapsed the remedies of penance may be granted; and that, finally, to the catechumens led to the sacraments of regeneration, the court of heavenly mercy may be opened.

And that these things are not sought from the Lord perfunctorily nor in vain, the effect of the things themselves shows; since out of every kind of error God deigns to draw many, whom, rescued from the power of darkness, He transfers into the kingdom of the Son of His love (Colossians 1), and out of vessels of wrath He makes vessels of mercy (Romans 9); which is felt to be so entirely the work of God, that to God who effects these things there is ever rendered thanksgiving and the confession of praise for the enlightenment or correction of such persons. That the grace of God is attested even by the appointed purification of those to be baptized, when by exorcisms and exsufflations the unclean spirits are driven from them. XII.

That also which the holy Church performs uniformly throughout the whole world concerning those to be baptized, we contemplate with no idle gaze. For when either infants or youths come to the sacrament of regeneration, they do not approach the font of life before the unclean spirit is driven from them by the exorcisms and exsufflations of the clergy; so that then it may truly appear how the prince of this world is cast out (John 12), and how first the strong man is bound (Matthew 12; Mark 3), and thereafter his vessels are plundered, transferred into the possession of the conqueror, who leads captivity captive and gives gifts to men (Ephesians 4).

By these ecclesiastical rules, then, and by the documents taken from divine authority, we have, with the Lord helping, been so conformed that we confess God to be the Author of all good affections and works and of all zeal and of all virtues by which from the beginning of faith one strives toward God; and we doubt not that all the merits of man are prevented by His grace, through whom it comes about that we both begin to will something good and to do it. By which help and gift of God free will is not taken away, but is set free, that from darkened it may become bright, from crooked straight, from sickly healthy, from imprudent provident.

For so great is the goodness of God toward all men, that He wills those things to be our merits which are His own gifts, and for those things which He has bestowed He will give eternal rewards. He indeed works in us, that we may both will and do what He wills, nor does He suffer those things which He has given to be exercised, not neglected, to be idle in us; so that we too may be fellow-workers of the grace of God (1 Corinthians 3); and if anything in us seems to grow faint from our own slackness, we may anxiously have recourse to Him who heals all our infirmities (Psalm 102), and redeems our life from destruction, and to whom we daily say: 'Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil' (Matthew 6). That the more profound questions are neither to be despised nor positively asserted.

XIII. But the more profound and difficult parts of the questions that arise, which those who resisted the heretics have treated more amply — just as we do not dare to despise them, so we have no need to lay them down as established; because, for the confession of the grace of God, from whose work and condescension absolutely nothing is to be withdrawn, we believe it sufficiently suffices, whatever the writings of the apostolic See, according to the aforesaid rules, have taught us; so that we by no means hold to be catholic whatever shall appear to be contrary to the aforestated sentences. Celestine, to all the bishops established throughout the provinces of Vienne and Narbonne, greeting in the Lord.

We would indeed desire to rejoice over the ordering of your Churches in such a way that we might rather congratulate you on progress than grieve over anything committed against ecclesiastical discipline. For both good deeds reach us to our joy, and the misdeeds that have been done prick us with the stings of sorrow. Nor can we keep silent, when by the prompting of our office we are called to recall some men from unlawful things, having been set by God upon the watchtowers, so that, proving the diligence of our vigilance, we may both cut away what must be restrained and sanction what must be observed. And although spiritual care does not fail concerning things far off, but extends through all places where the name of God is preached:

nor do those things escape our notice which are attempted by the authority of a novel presumption to the overthrow of the rules. That priests or clerics ought not to minister in church clothed in mantles and girded about the loins. XIV. For we have learned that certain priests of the Lord serve superstitious observance rather than purity of mind or faith. But it is no wonder if they act against ecclesiastical custom, who have not grown up in the Church, but, coming by another route, have brought into the Church these things which they had held in another manner of life; clothed with a mantle and girded about the loins, they believe they will fulfill the faith of Holy Scripture not according to the spirit, but according to the letter.

For if these precepts were given to be observed in such a manner, why are not those things which follow likewise done — that lamps should be held burning in the hands together with a staff? These things have their own mystery, and to those who understand they are so clear that they should rather be kept by the signification that befits them. For in the girding of the loins is signified chastity; in the staff, pastoral rule; in the burning lamps, the splendor of good works (concerning which it is said, 'Let your works shine'). Yet perhaps they have this practice following custom rather than reason, who dwell in more remote places and live far from others; whence has this dress come into the Gallican Churches, that the custom of so many years and of so many pontiffs should be turned into another manner of dress?

We are to be distinguished from the people and from the rest by doctrine, not by dress; by conduct, not by garb; by purity of mind, not by attire. For if we begin to strive after novelty, we shall trample upon the order handed down to us by the Fathers, so as to make room for superfluous superstitions. Therefore we ought not to lead the untrained minds of the faithful to such things. For they must rather be taught than mocked, nor must things be imposed upon their eyes, but precepts must be infused into their minds. There were indeed many things which we could say for the sake of ecclesiastical discipline, or by reason of the matter itself, but from these we are called away to other matters. That to no one is final penance to be denied. XV.

For we have learned that penance is denied to the dying, and that the desires of those are refused who, at the time of their death, desire that their soul be succored by this remedy. We shudder (I confess) that anyone of such great impiety should be found, as to despair of the mercy of God — as though He could not, at any time whatsoever, come to the aid of one who runs to Him, and as though to let a man perish, imperiled under the burden of sins, from which that man desires to be freed and delivered. What else, I ask, is this than to add death to the dying, and by one's cruelty to slay his soul, lest it be able to be absolved — when God, most ready to succor, inviting to penance, thus promises to the sinner, saying: 'On whatsoever day he shall be converted, his sins shall not be reckoned to him' (Ezekiel 18)?

And again: 'I do not desire the death of the sinner, but only that he be converted and live' (ibid.). Therefore whoever shall deny penance at the time of death takes away salvation from a man, and despairs of the clemency of God, who believes that He cannot suffice, even for a moment, to succor the dying. The thief on the cross, hanging at Christ's right hand, would have lost his reward, if the penance of one hour had not aided him; when he was in punishment, he repented, and by the promise of one word, with God promising, he earned the dwelling of paradise (Luke 23). Therefore true conversion to God in the case of those placed at their last is rather to be estimated by the mind than by the time, the Prophet asserting this thus: 'When being converted you have groaned, then you shall be saved' (Ezekiel 18; 33).

Since therefore the Lord is the inspector of the heart (1 Samuel 16; Jeremiah 17), penance is at no time to be denied to him who asks for it, when he binds himself to that Judge to whom he knows all hidden things to be revealed. That the office of the episcopate ought to be reached through the ecclesiastical grades. XVI.

But we have learned, most dear brethren, that certain men have been ordained bishops who were established at the summit of so great a dignity by no ecclesiastical orders, contrary to the decrees of the Fathers, by the usurpation of him who acknowledges that he did this — when the episcopate ought to be reached by those grades through which it has most frequently been provided, so that, initiated in the lesser offices, men may be confirmed for the greater. For whoever desires to be a teacher ought first to be a disciple, that he may be able to teach what he has learned. Every institution of life confirms itself by this reasoning toward that to which it tends. He who has by no means given labor to letters cannot be a teacher of letters. He who has not advanced through the several stages of service cannot reach the order of a veteran's service:

is the priesthood alone, among these, I ask, so cheap, that it is more easily conferred, while it is more difficult to fulfill? But now it is not enough to ordain laymen, whom no order permits to be made clerics, but even those whose crimes are far and wide known through almost all the provinces are ordained. For Daniel, by a report recently sent to us from the Eastern parts, was accused with abominable charges by the whole monastery of virgins which he had held, many disgraceful deeds being alleged among many.

He was sought out in whatever part of the lands he might lie hidden, so that, if he trusted in his own innocence, he might by no means decline the judgment demanded against him; orders were sent to the bishop of Arles through our subdeacon Fortunatus, that he should be assigned to episcopal judgment. Weighed down by so great testimonies, assailed by so great an accusation of crimes, polluted (as is said) by the incest of sacred virgins, he is asserted to have been ordained bishop. These matters are contained in the records of our archives, copies of which we have also directed to you. He crept into the dignity of the pontificate at this very time, when by letters sent from us he was being summoned to plead his cause.

Far be injury from the sacred name! It is easier that the ordainer himself should lose this dignity by giving it to such a man, than that the one ordained should obtain it — he who, once convicted, will be associated with him who believed he must be granted the pontificate by bestowing it on him; for whatever sort of man he himself is, whoever shall ordain another shows. These things therefore being now brought into the open — since very many of you are such as have come to know the statutes of the apostolic See, having spent some time with us — let your fraternity hasten to summon all things, gathered together by our exhortations, to the standard of discipline. That each province ought to be content with its own metropolitan. XVII.

First, that according to the decrees of the canons each province be content with its own metropolitan, as the constitutions given by our predecessor to the bishop of Narbonne contain, nor let any place for usurpation be granted to any priest to the injury of another. Let each one be content with the limits conceded to him. Let one presume nothing in the province of another, nor let foreigners and strangers, and those who were before unknown, be preferred in their own Churches over clerics who are veterans, to the exclusion of those who are well deserving by the testimony of their own citizens, lest some new college, of which bishops are made, seem to have been instituted. That no one ought to be ordained bishop against the will of the clergy or the people. XVIII.

Let no bishop be given to the unwilling; let the consent and desire of the clergy, the people, and the order be sought. Then let one be chosen from another Church, if from the clerics of that very city for which a bishop is to be ordained no worthy man can be found (which we do not believe will happen): for first those must be rejected, that some from other Churches may deservedly be preferred. Let each one have the fruit of his service in the Church in which he has spent his age through all his duties. Let not another creep into another's stipend, nor let one dare to claim for himself the reward owed to another. Let there be liberty for the clerics to resist, if they see themselves overborne, and let them not fear to refuse those whom they have recognized to be thrust upon them from outside.

Who, if not a due reward, ought at least to have a free judgment concerning him who is to rule them. That unlawful ordinations are to be abstained from. XIX. Let one also abstain from unlawful ordinations: let no one of the laity, no one twice married, no one who is or has been the husband of a widow, be ordained; but let him be irreproachable, and such as the Apostle chose (1 Timothy 3; Leviticus 21; 2 Timothy 3). Through Moses the Lord commanded that the priest take a virgin to wife; the Apostle, speaking by the same Spirit, follows and supplies, that the bishop ought to be consecrated the husband of one wife. To this rule, therefore, let priests be chosen, and if any ordinations have been made:

that are unlawful, let them be removed, since they cannot stand, nor will they be able to escape our scrutiny: although they may suppose they lie hidden as to how they attained their position, so that by no reverence of religion may it be obscured by darkness. Let there be no vain boasting for those who wear the mantle; let those who are bishops follow the episcopal manner. Daniel, as we have said, who believed he could escape accusation by pontifical honor, and reached so high a station only by hiding from his accusers, let him know himself meanwhile to be separated from the assembly of your holiness — he who ought to submit himself to our judgment, if he knows that he possesses the confidence of his own conscience.

But the priest of the Church of Marseilles, who is said (a thing unspeakable to utter) thus to have congratulated his brother upon the death of ten, so that he ran to meet this man who had come stained with his brother's blood, intending to share a portion with him — him we assign to be heard by your college. Given on the seventh day before the Kalends of August, in the consulship of Felix and Taurus. That to no priest is it permitted to be ignorant of the canons. XX. Celestine, to all the bishops established throughout Apulia and Calabria. Let it be permitted to no one of the priests to be ignorant of his own canons, nor to do anything that could be contrary to the rules of the Fathers. For what worthy thing will be preserved by us, if the norm of the decretal constitutions, by license granted to the peoples according to the whim of certain men, be broken?

That it is not fitting, the clerics of the Churches being despised, to ordain bishops from among laymen. XXI. We have heard that certain cities, deprived of their own rulers, wish to seek for themselves bishops from among the laity, and that they deem so great a dignity to be so cheap, that they reckon we are able to confer this upon those who have served not God but the world: judging not only ill of their own clerics, in contempt of whom they do this, but also most wickedly of us, supposing that we are able to do this. Which they would never dare, were not the connivance of certain men there, consenting in their opinion. Thus the decrees, which are more frequently issued, profit nothing:

so that this is ignored as though it had never been written concerning this matter — what will it profit to have served through the several stipends as clerics, and to have spent one's whole age in the Lord's camp, if those who are to preside over them are sought from among the laity, who, being at leisure for the world and knowing nothing of the whole ecclesiastical order, by an overhasty leap aspire with immoderate desire to mount up into an honor not their own, and to pass, with the reverence of ecclesiastical discipline trodden underfoot, into another kind of life? To such men therefore, most dear brethren, it is necessary that we, who keep the helm of our law, that is, of the canons, set ourselves in opposition;

And by these letters we admonish your fraternity that no one admit a layman to the rank of the episcopate, nor allow it to be done, whereby he both deceives that man and brings upon himself charges by which he becomes liable under the decrees established. That the people are to be taught, not followed. XXII. The people are to be taught, not followed; and we, if they do not know what is lawful or what is not lawful, ought to admonish them and not lend them our consent. But whoever shall attempt to try what is forbidden shall feel that the censure of the Apostolic See will by no means be wanting. For those things which we do not bring into order by the authority of admonition alone, we must of necessity vindicate by a severity befitting the rules. Through all those Churches, therefore, which lack their own rulers, we wish this to become known:

that no one, flattering himself perhaps with some hope, may delude himself. Given on the twelfth before the Kalends of August, in the consulship of Florentius and Dionysius (in the year of Christ 429). THE DECREES OF POPE LEO. Leo, bishop of the city of Rome, to all the bishops established in the Lord throughout Campania, Picenum, Tuscany, and through all the regions, greeting. As the state of the Churches, ordered by a wholesome arrangement, gives us cause for gladness, so it saddens us with no light grief whenever we come to know that anything has been presumed or committed against the established canons and ecclesiastical discipline; and if we do not prune these away with the vigilance we owe, we cannot excuse ourselves before Him who willed us to be watchmen (Ezekiel,

chapters 18 and 33), permitting the pure body of the Church, which we ought to keep clean from every stain, to be defiled by base contagion creeping in: when the very joining of its members, through such dissimulation, fails to cohere with itself. That no bishop presume to promote another's slave to the office of the clergy. I. There are admitted everywhere to sacred orders men whom no dignity of birth, no dignity of character recommends, and men who could by no means obtain liberty from their masters are advanced to the height of the priesthood, as though servile vileness might receive this honour; and one is believed able to be approved by God who could not yet prove himself to his own master.

Therefore in this matter the guilt is twofold: that the sacred ministry is polluted by the vileness of such association, and that the rights of masters, so far as concerns the rashness of an unlawful usurpation, are dissolved. From such men, therefore, dearest brethren, let all the priests of your province abstain; and not only from these, but from others also who are bound to a condition of origin or to any other condition, we wish them to refrain: unless perchance there has come forward the petition or consent of those who claim some power over them. For he who is to be enrolled in the divine warfare ought to be free from others: that from the Lord's camp, to which his name is inscribed, he may be drawn away by no bonds of necessity.

That whoever has been promoted to the priesthood, being either the husbands of widows or men having multiple marriages, are to be barred from all ecclesiastical offices. II. What manner of honourable birth each one must have, and of what character he ought to be who is to be joined to the ministry of the sacred altar, we have learned both from the teaching of the Apostle and from divine precept, and from the rules of the canons, from which we find that very many of the brethren have turned aside and gone utterly astray. For it is established that husbands of widows have attained to the priesthood, and certain men also who have had multiple marriages; and that men of looser life, given to every licence, have been admitted to the sacred order everywhere, the doors lying open, against that voice of the blessed Apostle, by which he cries out against such men, saying:

'The husband of one wife,' and against that precept of the ancient law, by which it is said and provided: 'Let the priest take a virgin to wife, not a widow, not one divorced' (1 Timothy 3; Leviticus 21). Therefore all such as have been admitted, we command by the authority of the Apostolic See to be barred from ecclesiastical offices and from the priestly name. Nor can they claim for themselves that of which they were not capable, through this very thing which stood in their way. Claiming for ourselves in particular the care of this examination, that if perhaps any offences have been committed in these matters, they may be corrected, nor be allowed to be committed any further. And lest any excuse arise from ignorance: although it has never been lawful for a priest to be ignorant of what has been defined by the rules of the canons.

These things therefore we have sent written to your provinces through Innocentius, Legitimus, and Segetius, our brothers and fellow-bishops: that what is known to have sprouted up wickedly may be plucked out by the roots, and that no tares corrupt the Lord's harvest. For thus the things that are pure will yield abundant fruit, if those things which are wont to choke the rising crop be more diligently cut away. That not only clerics ought not to exact usury, but neither should Christian laymen. III.