Pastoral Rule, Dialogues & Letters 604

Gregory to Syagrius of Autun, Etherius of Lyons, Virgilius of Arles, and Desiderius of Vienne, bishops of the Gauls, equally. Our Head, which is Christ, willed us to be his members to this end, that through the framework of charity and faith he might make us one body in himself. To whom it befits us so to cleave with the heart that, since without him we can be nothing, through him we may be able to be what we are called. Let no thing divide us from the citadel of our Head, lest we be forsaken by it, if we shrink from being its members, and, like vine-shoots cast off from the vine, we wither away. Therefore, that we may deserve to be the dwelling-place of our Redeemer, let us abide in his love with the whole zeal of the mind. For he himself says:

"He who loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and will make our dwelling with him" (John 14:23). But since we cannot cleave to the Author of good things otherwise than by cutting off from ourselves covetousness, which is the root of all evils, through the present writing—which joins us to one another with the eternal discourse of a longed-for visitation—we address Your Fraternity with apostolic institutions, that, leaning upon the rules of the Fathers and the precepts of the Lord, we may exclude from the temple of faith avarice, which is the service of idols, so that in the house of the Lord we may allow nothing hurtful and nothing confused to be present.

For it has been noised abroad, a rumor some time ago running current among us, that in the regions of the Gauls sacred orders are conferred through the simoniacal heresy. And we are affected with a vehement weariness of grief, if in ecclesiastical offices money has any place, and that which is sacred becomes worldly. Whoever therefore is eager to purchase this by the giving of a price, while he attends not to the office but to the name, vainly covets not to be a priest, but only to be called one. What, forsooth? What else is thereby done, but that there be no proof of conduct, no solicitude about morals, no discussion about life, but that he alone be esteemed worthy who has sufficed to give the price?

From which matter, if it be weighed by the examination of a right balance, while he wickedly hastens to seize a place of usefulness for the sake of empty glory, by that very thing the more, in that he seeks honor, he is unworthy. But as he who, when invited, refuses, when sought, flees, is to be moved toward the sacred altars, so he who of his own accord ambitiously canvasses, or importunately thrusts himself in, is beyond doubt to be repelled. For he who thus strives to ascend to higher things, what does he do but that by growing he shrinks, and by ascending outwardly he descends inwardly to the depths?

Therefore, dearest brethren, in the ordaining of priests let sincerity flourish; let consent be simple, without venality; let a pure election be preferred, so that to the summit of the priesthood one may be believed to be advanced not by the suffrage of vendors, but by the judgment of God. For that it is a wholly grievous crime to wish to procure or to sell the gift of God for a price, the evangelical authority is witness (Matt. 21). For when our Lord and Redeemer had entered the temple, he overturned the seats of those selling doves. What else is it to sell doves, but to receive a price for the laying on of hands, and to make merchandise of the Holy Spirit, whom Almighty God bestows upon men? That the priesthood of such falls before the eyes of God was surely plainly signified by the overturning of the seats.

And yet the depravity of wickedness still puts forth its strength. For it forces to sell those whom it deceives into buying. And while there is no heed to what is enjoined by the divine voice: "Freely you have received, freely give" (Matt. 10:8), it comes about that it grows, and that the contagion of the offense is doubled in one and the same person—namely of the buyer and of the seller. And since it is clear that this heresy, with its pestilent root, crept into the Church before all others, and in its very origin was condemned by apostolic detestation, why is it not guarded against, why is it not weighed that the blessing…

It is turned into a curse for the man who is advanced to this end, that he may become a heretic. For the most part, then, the adversary of souls, when he cannot snatch away by things that are openly depraved, craftily strives to trip us up under a show, as it were, of piety, and perhaps urges that goods ought to be received from those who have, so that there may be something which can be doled out to those who have not — provided that in this very way he may pour in his deadly poison, veiled under the cloaking shadow of almsgiving. For neither would the hunter beguile the wild beast, nor the fowler the bird, nor the fisherman catch the fish, if the one set his snare out in the open, or the other did not keep his hook hidden by the bait.

Wholly to be feared, therefore, and to be guarded against is the cunning of the enemy, lest those whom he cannot overthrow by open temptation he may the more savagely slaughter with a hidden dart. For that is not to be reckoned almsgiving, if what is received from unlawful things be dispensed to the poor; because he who receives ill with this intention, that he may seem to dispense well, is rather burdened than helped. That almsgiving pleases the eyes of our Redeemer which is gathered not from unlawful things and iniquity, but which is bestowed from things permitted and rightly acquired.

Hence too this is certain: that even if monasteries or hospices, or anything else, be built out of money that is given for sacred orders, it profits nothing toward reward; because while a perverse man and a buyer of honour is passed into a holy place, and sets up others in his own likeness under the giving of some advantage, he destroys more by ordaining ill than he can build who received from him the money of ordination. Lest, then, under the pretext of almsgiving we be eager to receive anything together with sin, the order of Sacred Scripture openly forbids us, saying: 'The sacrifices of the wicked are abominable, which are offered from crime' (Prov. 21:27). For whatsoever in God's sacrifice is offered from crime does not appease the wrath of Almighty God, but provokes it.

Hence again it is written: 'Honour the Lord out of thy just labours' (Prov. 3:9). He, therefore, who takes ill in order to bestow, as it were, well, doubtless it is established that he does not honour the Lord. Hence also it is said through Solomon: 'He who offers a sacrifice from the substance of the poor, is as one who sacrifices a son in the sight of his father' (Ecclus. 34:24). But let us weigh how great a father's grief must be, if in his sight a son be slaughtered. And hence we easily recognize how great a grief is aggravated before God, when a sacrifice from plunder is rendered to Him. Exceedingly, then, must it be shunned, most beloved brethren, to perpetrate the sins of the simoniacal heresy under the pretext of almsgiving.

For it is one thing to give alms on account of sins, and another to commit sins on account of alms. This too we embrace with not dissimilar detestation, that it has reached us that certain men, puffed up with desire of honour, when bishops die are tonsured, and suddenly from laymen become priests, and shamelessly seize the leadership of a religious calling, who have not yet even learned to be soldiers. What do we suppose these men are going to furnish for their subjects, who, before they reach the threshold of discipleship, do not dread to hold the place of mastery? For which reason it is necessary that, even though a man be of blameless merit, he should first be exercised in ecclesiastical offices through the distinct ranks.

Let him see what he is to imitate, learn what he is to teach, be formed in what he is to hold; so that he who is chosen to point out the way to those who wander may not afterward himself go astray. Let him, then, long be polished by religious meditation that he may please, and thus let the lamp, set upon the lampstand, shine, so that the adverse force of the winds rushing upon it may not extinguish the kindled flame of learning, but increase it. For since it is written, 'Let a man first be proved, and so let him minister' (1 Tim. 3:10), much more must he be proved beforehand who is taken up as intercessor for the people, lest evil priests become the cause of the people's ruin.

There is therefore no excuse against this, no defence can there be, since it is clearly known to all what is the solicitude of the holy and eminent Doctor in his diligence over this matter, who forbids a neophyte to approach sacred orders (1 Tim. 3). Now just as at that time he was called a neophyte who at the beginning was but newly planted in the manner of holy faith, so now he is to be held a neophyte who, suddenly planted in the habit of religion, has crept in to canvass for sacred honours. Therefore one must ascend to orders in orderly fashion; for he courts a fall who seeks his ascent by steep and broken ways to the highest summits of the place, with the intervening degrees passed over.

And since the same Apostle teaches, among other institutions of the sacred order, that a disciple must not too hastily lay hands on anyone (1 Tim. 5), what is more hurried, what more headlong, than that a man should begin from the summit, and become a bishop before he is a minister? Whosoever, therefore, desires to obtain the priesthood not for the pomp of exaltation but for usefulness, let him first measure his own strength against this burden which he is to undergo, so that both, if unequal, he may abstain, and, even if he thinks himself sufficient, he may approach it with fear. Nor do we act beside the point if, for the sake of argument, we gather examples of the use of rational things from irrational.

For timber fit for building is felled from the woods, yet the weight of the edifice is not laid upon it while still green, unless the delay of many days has dried out its greenness and made it fit for the needful use. And if by chance this observance be neglected, the timbers, once the mass is imposed upon them, are the sooner broken, and the thing provided for help begets ruin. Hence too physicians, who have care of the body, do not offer certain remedies, formed of a still fresh preparation, to one in need, but leave them to be steeped by time. For if anyone give them prematurely, there is no doubt that a thing meant for health becomes a cause of danger.

Let priests, then, to whom the care of souls is entrusted, learn — yes, learn — to preserve in their office what men of divers arts keep by the teaching of reason, and let them hold themselves back from headlong ambition, if not by fear, at least by shame. But lest perchance someone should wish to defend himself by the plea of a depraved custom, let the discretion of your fraternity restrain such men with the bridle of reason, and not permit them to slip into unlawful things; for whatever is worthy of punishment ought to be brought forward not for imitation, but rather as an example of correction. Nor do we suffer this, which likewise must be corrected, to be negligently passed over. For what does it profit to have fortified everything, if through one place a ruinous access be offered to the enemy?

Since, then, women are forbidden to dwell with those who are constituted in sacred order — concerning whom, lest the ancient enemy of the human race exult, it must be determined by the consent of all that, besides those whom the sacred canons embrace, they ought not to keep other women with them. And although this interdiction may perchance be bitter to some for a time, it is certain that afterward it grows sweet from the very benefit of the soul, if that whereby the enemy was able to prevail be itself overcome. Nor in this part of our solicitude do we leave out this, which by the foresight of the Fathers, for the sake of usefulness, has been decreed concerning the holding of councils throughout the parishes.

Whence, lest any dissension arise among the brethren, lest there be any kindlings of discord between prelates and subjects, it is necessary for the priests to come together into one, so that there may be both a discussion of pressing cases and a wholesome conferring concerning ecclesiastical observance; so that, while through this both past things are corrected and future things receive a rule, the Almighty Lord, present everywhere, may be praised in the concord of the brethren. And know that His presence is at hand to you, if you shall observe these things; for it is written: 'Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them' (Matt. 18:20). If, then, He deigns to be present where two or three shall be, how much the more will He not be absent where more priests shall have come together?

And indeed it is not hidden that by the rules of the Fathers it was ordained that a council be held twice a year. But lest perchance some necessity should not permit this to be fulfilled, we decree that at least once, without any excuse, they be gathered together, so that in expectation of the council nothing depraved, nothing unlawful may be presumed. For for the most part, if not from love of justice, yet from fear of examination, men abstain from that which is known by all to be able to displease the judgment. This observance, dearest brethren, let us hold as to be left to our posterity, and let us meditate on all things that have been written for our instruction in the sacred pages, and let us incite to them as many as we can. For it is indeed certain that if with our whole heart we occupy ourselves with the saving precepts,

we escape every stain of vices, because while we lean upon those things by which we are edified, we without doubt exclude any place of deception. Concerning those things, therefore, which have been said above, we wish your fraternity, God being the author, to gather a synod, and in it, with our most reverend brother and fellow-bishop Aregius and our most beloved son the abbot Cyriacus acting as mediators, that all things which are contrary to the sacred canons, as we have said before, be strictly condemned under the interposition of anathema — that is, that no one presume to give any advantage for the obtaining of ecclesiastical orders, or to receive for things given; nor let anyone in lay habit dare suddenly to arrive at the place of sacred governance.

Nor let other women dwell with priests, except those who, as has been said, are permitted by the sacred canons. Concerning all which matters let our most reverend brother Bishop Syagrius, together with the whole synod, upon the return of our most beloved son the abbot Cyriacus, be diligent to report to us what has been done; so that, learning subtly what and with what caution, or in what manner, it has been decreed, we may unceasingly render thanks to Almighty God for your life and morals. (See the following letter.)