Pastoral Rule, Dialogues & Letters 517

The most illustrious lady Nereida has complained to us that your Fraternity is not ashamed to exact from her a hundred solidi for the burial of her daughter, and that, over and above the groaning of her grief, you strive to bring upon her the greater trouble of expense. If the truth is really so, then—since it is exceedingly grievous and far from the office of a priest to seek a price for ground given over to corruption, and to wish to make gain out of another's mourning—let your Fraternity refrain from this demand, and be no longer troublesome to her; especially since she recounts that a certain Hortulanus, of whom she asserts she received the said daughter, was in no small measure a benefactor to your Church.

This vice, moreover, we too, after we had by God's authorship come to the honour of the episcopate, have utterly forbidden in our Church, and we have by no means permitted the practice henceforth to be usurped anywhere; mindful that, when Abraham asked of the sons of Emor—that is, of Ephron the son of Seor—a sepulchre at a price for the burial of his wife's body, Ephron refused to accept the price, lest he should seem to gain profit from the corpse (Genesis 23). If then a pagan man was of such great consideration, how much more ought we, who are called priests, not to do this? Wherefore I admonish that this vice of avarice be not presumed to be attempted anew even in others' affairs.

But if at any time you grant that someone be buried in your Church, and indeed his parents, kinsfolk, or heirs of their own accord wish to offer something for lights, we do not forbid its being accepted. But that anything be demanded or exacted we altogether forbid: for it is exceedingly irreligious—lest perchance, which God forbid, the Church be called venal, or you seem to take joy in human deaths, if from their corpses you strive to seek gain in any manner whatever. (See Book VIII, letter...)

But as for the other causes which the petition of the aforesaid Nereida has embraced, we exhort you either to settle them by a peaceable arrangement, if it can be done, or else not to omit to send a person duly instructed to the judgment appointed by us; for to this end we have directed thither Redemptus our defensor, the bearer of these presents, both that he may compel the parties to observe the terms in the judgment, and that by the diligence of his execution he may bring to effect whatever shall have been adjudged.