Sermons & Letters 81 part 3/3

and he was of opinion that the same thing afterward befell Hormisdas and Gregory, and before that, our Leo. Read 'Vindiciae Veterum Codicum Confirmatae,' chapter 13, page 713. That this happened to this letter is, from what has been observed before, most probable to us. St. Leo had written, as it seems, with his first hand the letter such as it is given from the manuscripts of the abridged edition; and from this copy, once published or found, the authors of the collections of that edition took this letter. But with a later hand, when perhaps something new had supervened—for example, the cause of bishop Restitutus, whom he now relates to have complained, as it were after those things which Potentius had reported, in chapter 10—

the pontiff, in transcribing the same letter, set forth some things in other words, and added certain things on account of the newness of the case. So too letters 30 and 31, which, partly in the same, partly in different words, are found upon the same matter, addressed to Pulcheria, in distinct and most ancient collections, we shall show in the admonition to be a twofold copy of one and the same letter.

But in the subjoined letter to the Africans, that long fragment which is read in the Hadrianic collection seems indeed to have been added with second care, on account of certain items of information which supervened after the report of Potentius—brought perhaps by bishop David, who is mentioned in that fragment, or by others who had migrated from Africa to Rome, and are indicated by those words of the Hadrianic reading, 'the talk of travellers might convey.' Hence the holy pontiff, into the first reading of the abridged edition, chapter 9, 'Since therefore concerning all things,' with second care inserted the particle 'to convey,' which is read in the Hadrianic edition, because certain things had come in which ought earlier to have been added to the writings.

Nor let the discourse concerning the virgins oppressed by barbarian violence, repeated in chapters 8 and 11, cause difficulty; for in chapter 8 he teaches what the virgins themselves ought to think concerning themselves, while in chapter 11 he decrees what is to be done concerning them by the bishops. Nay, this twofold mention of such virgins sufficiently intimates that the fragment of the Hadrianic edition does not pertain to other letters of Leo, which have perhaps perished, as some have supposed, but to this very same letter 12, as it is exhibited in the Florentine manuscript. And this is confirmed much more by those words which (while the mention of virgins is repeated) are inserted in chapter 11 in the same codex, as was said above. 15.

But in the edition of the entire letter, which we shall give in the first place, we have preferred the Hadrianic readings to the readings of the codices of the abridged letter, not only because the Florentine codex follows the Hadrianic readings—from which the entire letter, as it was written by Leo, has come down to us—but also because readings of this kind seem to have pleased more the author himself as he reconsidered and emended the letter. For indeed these are so fitting that Quesnel himself preferred nearly the same to the readings of those codices which contain the abridged letter. But lest anyone be defrauded of the readings of either edition, the entire and the abridged, after having published the entire letter from the reading of the Florentine and Hadrianic manuscripts

with their variants, we shall subjoin the same abridged letter, chiefly after the exemplar of the most ancient book Barberini 2888, and of another similar one, Vatican 1342, which by Montfaucon, volume I of the Paris Library, page 131, is called 'a most elegant and most ancient codex'; and we shall note the variants of the other codices which likewise present this same letter abridged. But whoever shall compare this abridged edition, which no one hitherto has exactly reproduced, with the entire one (we ask, moreover, that it may not be irksome to compare), we hope it will come to pass that, adding his vote to ours, he will confess that it was emended and sharpened by the author himself. 16. As to the time of this letter, Quesnel rightly established in his notes that it was written before the year

455, in which Valentinian III was slain. For since it is known to have been drawn up while the Moors were still subject to the Roman catholic emperor, and on that account many from Africa from time to time came to Rome, whereas after the murder of Valentinian himself these same Moors had been subdued by the Arian Vandals, persecutors of the Catholics, the Roman pontiff could no longer so easily provide for that province in the matters which are set forth in this letter. Furthermore, since Quesnel could not fix the certain year of this letter, he thought it should be published in the first place, not so much to supply the lack of the letters which were written by Leo at the beginning of his pontificate, as lest he should interrupt the order of the rest which are extant and are marked with a certain chronological notation;

and only in a marginal postil does he indicate that it was written about the beginnings of Leo's pontificate, and in the notes about the year 443. The war indeed which raged in Africa between the emperor Valentinian and Genseric, king of the Vandals, seems to have hindered such an interchange of letters. But this war raged until the year 442, in which year Prosper in his Chronicle relates: 'With Genseric, moreover, peace was confirmed by Valentinian Augustus, and Africa was divided between them into fixed portions.' From Novella 23 of book II it is evident that in the year 443, from the African provinces left to Valentinian, envoys came to Rome, and that it was enacted by law that it should be permitted to appeal to the Prefect of the City. On this occasion of appeals, perhaps, certain things unlawfully usurped among the Moors

was carried to the pontiff by the talk of travellers. Therefore, it is more probable and more cautious to place this letter between this year 445 and the year 455. Furthermore, Leo in chapter 1 signifies that he had learned from those travelling from Africa the things which, on the occasion of a peaceful time—that is, during the war—had been wrongly done in various cities of Mauretania. But it is credible that he learned these things from them rather after peace had been composed, in the year 445, since on the occasion of appeals probably more passed over to Rome than later. And that a suitable time may be given for the transmission and report of Potentius, upon receiving which Leo wrote this letter, it seems to have been issued about the year 446. Now for the first time published entire from the manuscript of the Florentine St. Mark. SYNOPSIS.—I.

He rebukes ordinations made through tumult.—II. What it is to lay on hands hastily.—III. That only men who are husbands of one wife ought to be deacons, presbyters, and bishops.—IV. That the raw and neophytes ought not to be ordained.—V. Those ordained from among the laity are tolerated by Leo, but not the twice-married.—VI. Concerning Donatus, converted from the Novatians, and Maximus from the Donatists.—VII. Concerning Aggarus and Tiberianus, from among the laity and ordained through tumult.—VIII. That virgins violated by force ought not to compare themselves to the uncontaminated.—IX. He exhorts to obedience, and threatens punishments to the disobedient. X. In which places bishops ought to be ordained, and concerning the petition of bishop Restitutus.—XI. What is to be done concerning the aforesaid virgins oppressed by barbarian violence.

—XII. Concerning the cause of bishop Lupicinus.—XIII. Concerning ecclesiastical causes to be ventilated and referred to the Apostolic See. Leo, bishop of the city of Rome, to all the bishops established throughout Caesarean Mauretania, greeting in the Lord. CHAPTER I.—Whereas concerning the ordinations of priests a more frequent report from travellers reached us that certain things were unlawfully usurped among you, the principle of piety demanded that, in keeping with the solicitude which we owe to the universal Church by divine institution, we should be zealous to ascertain the truth of these matters:

delegating the office of our care to our brother and fellow-priest Potentius, who was setting out from us, that he might inquire, according to the writings which we directed to you through him, what the truth held concerning the bishops whose election was reported to be blameworthy, and might faithfully indicate all things to us. Wherefore, since he has most fully disclosed all things to our knowledge, and has revealed to us by a sincere report under what and what sort of rulers certain flocks of Christ are held in the parts of the province of Caesarea, it was necessary that we should relieve, by letters now also given to your love, the grief of our heart, with which we are troubled over the perils of the Lord's flocks—marvelling that among you, through the occasion of a peaceless time, either the presumption of ambitious men or a popular tumult should have so prevailed, that to any unworthy men, set far beyond priestly merit, the pastoral eminence and the governance of the Church should have been given.

This is not to take counsel for the people, but to harm them; not to furnish governance, but to increase peril. For the integrity of those who preside is the safety of the subjects, and where there is soundness of obedience, there the form of doctrine is sound. But a headship which either sedition has conferred or ambition has seized, even if it does not offend in morals and deeds, is nevertheless pernicious by the example of its very beginning; and it is difficult that those things should be brought to a good outcome whose foundations were laid ill. CHAPTER II.—But if in any grades whatever of the Church it is to be cared for providently and knowingly, that in the house of the Lord there be nothing disordered and nothing preposterous, how much more must it be laboured that in the election of him who is set over all the grades there be no error?

For the state and order of the whole household of the Lord will totter, if what is required in the body be not found in the head. Where is that precept of the blessed apostle Paul, sent forth through the Spirit of God, by which, in the person of Timothy, the whole number of Christ's priests is instructed, and it is said to each one of us: 'Lay hands hastily on no one, neither be partaker in other men's sins' (1 Timothy 5:22)? What is it to lay on hands hastily, but to bestow priestly honour on those not approved, before the age of maturity, before the time of examination, before the merit of obedience, before the experience of discipline?

And what is it to be partaker in other men's sins, but to make the ordainer also such as is he who did not deserve to be ordained? For just as he procures for himself the fruit of a good work who holds right judgement in choosing a priest, so he afflicts himself with grave loss who takes an unworthy man into his college. Therefore, in no one's person is that to be passed over which is contained in the general institutes, nor is that honour to be thought lawful which shall have been conferred against the precepts of the divine law. CHAPTER III.—For since the Apostle says that among the other rules of election a bishop is to be ordained who is proved to have been or to be the husband of one wife (1 Timothy 3:2),

this precept was always held so sacred, that even concerning the wife of the priest to be chosen that condition was understood to be observed: lest perchance she, before she came into the marriage of him who had had no other wife, should have experienced the wedlock of another man. Who therefore would dare to tolerate what is perpetrated to the injury of so great a sacrament, since for this great and venerable mystery not even the statutes of the divine law have been wanting, by which it is evidently defined that a priest should take a virgin to wife (Leviticus 21:13-14; Ezekiel 44:22), and that she who is to be a priest's wife should know no other man's bed?

For even then, in the priests, the spiritual marriage of Christ and the Church was figured, that, since the man is the head of the woman (Ephesians 5:23; 1 Corinthians 11:3), the Spouse of the Word might learn to know no other man than Christ, who deservedly chooses one, loves one, and joins no other to His fellowship besides her. If therefore.

Even in the Old Testament this rule for the marriages of priests was preserved; how much more, then, we who are established under the grace of the Gospel ought to serve the apostolic precepts. And however endowed with good morals a man may be, and however adorned with holy works he may be found, let him by no means ascend either to the grade of deacon, or to the honor of the priesthood, or to the summit of the episcopate, if it be evident that he himself was not the husband of one wife, or that his wife was not the wife of one husband. Chapter IV. — When the Apostle admonishes and says: 'And let these also first be proved, and so let them minister' (1 Timothy),

(1 Timothy 3:10), what else are we to understand than that in these promotions we should consider not only the chastity of their marriages but also the merits of their labors, lest the pastoral office be entrusted to those newly come from baptism, or to those suddenly converted from a secular manner of life? For through all the grades of the Christian warfare it ought to be estimated from the increase of their progress whether greater things can be committed to anyone. Deservedly the venerable ordinances of the blessed Fathers, when they spoke of the election of priests, judged those men fit for the sacred administrations who, advanced over a long time through the individual grades of office, had furnished a commendable proof of themselves, so that the account of his deeds might bear witness to the life of each one.

For if it is unworthy to attain to the honors of the world without the support of time and without the merit of labor, and those are wont to be branded with ambition whom no proofs of integrity assist, how careful and how prudent must be the dispensation of the divine gifts and heavenly dignities, that in nothing the apostolic and canonical decrees be violated, and that the Church of the Lord not be entrusted to be governed by those who, ignorant of the lawful institutions and unacquainted with all humility, wish not to take their increase from the lowest positions but to have their beginning from the highest? For it is exceedingly unjust and absurd that the unskilled be preferred to masters, the new to the old, and the raw to the veterans. Indeed in a great house, as the Apostle discourses (2 Timothy),

(2 Timothy 2:20), it is necessary that there be diverse vessels, some of gold and silver, but others of wood and clay; yet the service of these is distinguished according to the quality of the material, nor is the use of the precious the same as that of the cheap. For all things will be disordered if clay vessels be preferred to golden, and wooden to silver. And just as in the wooden and clay vessels is figured the kind of those men who as yet shine with no virtues, so in the golden and silver ones are without doubt declared those who, refined through the fire of long instruction and through the furnace of protracted labor, have merited to be proven gold and pure silver.

If the reward according to their devotion is not rendered to these, all ecclesiastical discipline is dissolved, all order is thrown into confusion, while in the Church those who have undertaken no ministry, by the perverse judgment of those electing, obtain an undue primacy. Chapter V. — Since therefore either the partisanships of the common people or the ambitions of the proud have so prevailed among you that we learn that not only laymen, but even husbands of second wives, or the husbands of widows, have been advanced to the pastoral office, do not the most manifest causes demand that the Churches in which these things have been committed be purged by a severer judgment, and that a fitting punishment be brought forth not only against such prelates, but even against those who ordained them?

But on this side the gentleness of clemency, on that side the strictness of justice, stand around us. And because all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth, we are compelled, according to the piety of the Apostolic See, so to temper our sentence that, the weight of the offenses having been weighed—of which surely there is not one single measure—we judge some to be in some way tolerable, but others to be utterly cut off. For those who have either entered into second marriages, or have joined themselves to the wedlock of widows, neither apostolic nor legal authority permits to obtain the priesthood; and much more that man—if he shall have been convicted in your judgment—who, as has been reported to us, is at the same time the husband of two wives, or that man who, dismissed by his wife, is said to have married another.

But the rest, whose promotion incurs only this much of reproach, that they were chosen from among laymen to the episcopal office, and cannot be culpable on the ground that they have wives—these we permit to retain the priesthood they have received, not prejudicing the statutes of the Apostolic See, nor dissolving the rules of the blessed Fathers, by which it has been wholesomely established that no layman, supported by whatever votes, may ascend to the first, or second, or third grade in the Church before he attains to this merit through lawful increments. For what we now in some manner allow to be pardonable will not afterward be able to go unpunished, if anyone should presume to usurp that which we altogether forbid;

for the remission of a sin does not grant license to offend, nor will it be lawful for that which could by some reason be conceded to be henceforth committed with impunity. Chapter VI. — But Donatus of Salicina, having been converted from the Novatians together with his people, as we have ascertained, we wish so to preside over the Lord's flock that he remember he must direct to us the little book of his faith, by which he both condemns the error of the Novatian doctrine and most fully confesses the catholic truth. Especially since one ordained from a layman, though blameworthily, yet if he is no longer a Donatist, and is estranged from the spirit of schismatic depravity, we do not repel from the episcopal dignity which he has obtained in whatever manner; provided that he too, by a book issued to us, manifest himself to be catholic. Chapter VII.

— But concerning Aggarus and Tiberianus, whose case differs from the rest who were ordained from among laymen in this respect, that their ordination is recorded to have been attended by dreadful tumults and savage seditions, we have committed all things to your judgment: so that, when the trustworthy account of the examination held before you has been reported, we may be able to know what ought to be determined concerning the aforesaid. Chapter VIII. But those handmaids of God who lost the integrity of their chastity through barbarian violence will be the more praiseworthy in their humility and modesty if they do not dare to compare themselves to the uncontaminated virgins. For although every sin is born of the will, and an unconquered mind could remain undefiled by the corruption of the flesh, yet this will be less harmful to them

if they grieve that they have lost even in body that which they were able not to lose in soul. Chapter IX. — Since therefore concerning almost all the matters which the report of our brother Potentius contained, you see your Charity most fully instructed through our brother and fellow bishop David, who has been proven to us both by the merit of his priesthood and by his conduct; it remains, brethren, that you harmoniously receive these wholesome exhortations, and, doing nothing through contention, but being of one mind in every zeal of devotion, obey the divine and apostolic constitutions, and in nothing suffer the most provident decrees of the canons to be violated.

For the things which we now remit by consideration of certain causes are henceforth to be kept according to the ancient rules, lest we afterward punish with just vengeance that which we granted for a time out of pious leniency, being moved more especially and more readily against those who, in ordaining bishops, have neglected the statutes of the holy Fathers, and have consecrated those whom they ought to have refused. Wherefore if any bishops shall have consecrated such a priest as it was not lawful to be, even if in some manner they escape the loss of their own honor, they shall nevertheless no longer have the right of ordination, nor shall they ever take part in that sacrament which, in disregard of the divine judgment, they unworthily conferred. Chapter X.

— That indeed which pertains to the priestly dignity, we wish to be observed among all the statutes of the canons, that bishops not be consecrated in any places whatever, nor in whatever fortress-towns, and where formerly there were none; since where the congregations are smaller and the assemblies fewer, the care of presbyters suffices, but it is fitting that episcopal government preside only over larger peoples and more populous cities, lest—what the divinely inspired decrees of the holy Fathers have forbidden—the priestly summit be bestowed upon hamlets and estates, or upon obscure and solitary townships, and the honor to which more excellent things ought to be committed grow cheap by its very multiplicity.

This, Bishop Restitutus complained had now been done in his diocese, and reasonably requested that, if the bishops of those places in which they ought not to have been ordained should depart by the human condition, those very places should revert to the jurisdiction of the same prelate to whom they formerly belonged as his own or as adjacent. And it is useless that the priestly dignity be diminished by superfluous multiplication through an inconsiderate ease of ordination. Chapter XI. — But concerning those women who, established in the sacred purpose of virginity, as was said above,

endured barbarian violence, and lost the integrity of their chastity not in soul but in body, this moderation seems to us to be observed, that they be neither cast down into the grade of widows, nor be reckoned in the number of the sacred and persevering virgins: to whom, if they persevere in virginal conduct and guard the firmness of their chastity in mind, the communion of the sacraments is not to be denied, because it is unjust that they be either accused or branded in that in which no will has sinned, but hostile force has snatched it away. Chapter XII.

— We also command that the case of Bishop Lupicinus be heard there, to whom, though he often and repeatedly demanded it, we restored communion for this reason, because, when he had appealed to our judgment, we saw that he had been undeservedly suspended from communion while the matter was pending. This too has been added, that one is found to have been rashly ordained over him, who ought not to have been ordained before Lupicinus, being present in person, could be subjected to a just sentence, whether convicted or indeed confessing; so that the one being consecrated might receive a vacant place, as ecclesiastical discipline requires. Chapter XIII.

— But if any other causes should arise which pertain to the ecclesiastical state and to the concord of the priests, we wish them to be aired there in the fear of the Lord, and that a full report be sent to us concerning all things to be settled and those already settled, so that whatever things shall have been justly and reasonably determined according to ecclesiastical custom may be strengthened also by our judgment. Given on the fourth day before the Ides of August.