教牧守則·對話錄與書信 第 845 章 第 3/29 段

In the name of the Lord God our Saviour Jesus Christ, in the reign of our lord Maurice Tiberius, ever-august, in the thirteenth year of his rule, and the eleventh after his consulship, on the third day before the Nones of October, in the [first] indiction, the most blessed and apostolic pope Gregory presiding, and there sitting with him the most reverend bishops Menna of Telese, Basil of Capua, Constantius of Nomentum, Montanus

of Sabinum, Victor of Fausana, and John presbyter of the title of Saints Gervasius and Protasius, Deusdedit presbyter of the title of Saints John and Paul, Andromachus presbyter of the title of Eudoxia, Rusticus presbyter of the title of Saint Susanna, Vibulus presbyter of the title of Saint Marcellus, Probinus presbyter of the title of Saint Cyriacus, John presbyter of the title of Saints John and Paul, Agapitus presbyter of the title of Eudoxia, Felix presbyter of the title of Saint Sabina, Gratiosus presbyter of the title of Saints Nereus and Achilleus, Boniface presbyter of the title of Saint Sixtus. There being present also deacons and clergy, Paterius the Secundicerius said:

Probus, abbot of the monastery of Saints Andrew and Lucy, desires, if you so command, to be presented to your sight. Gregory, bishop of the holy Catholic Church of the city of Rome, said: Let him come. And when he had entered, Gregory said: It behooves you to declare why you have wished to be present. Abbot Probus said: I have a petition in my hands. I beg of the Beatitude of my lord that you order it to be received and read aloud to you. Gregory said: Let it be done. And when it had been received, Paterius read it there aloud: In the name of the Lord our God Jesus Christ, in the reign of the lord Maurice Tiberius, most pious Augustus, in the fourteenth year, after the thirteenth consulship of the same our lord, on the third day before the Kalends of October, in the fourth indiction.

The things which I now desire to make known to your Beatitude were long since well ascertained to my lord, and I know that your own conscience is a witness to me of what I set forth. For, since some years ago I had passed over from the lay estate to the religious office, I had determined to dwell as a solitary in my little cell upon God, and there to pass the few days that remain of my life; on which account I had beforehand neither disposed nor arranged anything of my small substance, knowing that my son could succeed me both by intestacy and by testament. But one day, while I had entered among others for the services of my lord, you commanded me suddenly and unexpectedly to enter the monastery and to take up the burdens of the abbacy.

And rising up at once, without any space being granted me for deliberating or considering, I was compelled to walk to the monastery already together with the monks. Whence, because I was previously able to arrange nothing of what pertained to my small substance, therefore with tears I beseech that, license being granted by the constitution of your decree, it may be lawful for me to dispose of my own will concerning all my goods, so that neither may my obedience be to my own detriment, nor be able to be harmful to my poor son.

For it is known to all that the legal sanction forbids those to arrange anything of their substance after they have entered a monastery, to whom license of disposing of their affairs was available beforehand; but it does not compel those to obey the insistence of their superiors regarding that which they had never contemplated. For as the will of the law contradicts those who do this from deliberation, so it comes to the aid of those who are compelled by force. This my suggestion and supplication I have dictated to Aemilianus, notary of the holy Roman Church, my acquaintance, to be written down, and I, Probus your servant, have subscribed it with my own hand, and have presented it to you, my most blessed lord pope Gregory.

I, Probus your servant, have subscribed to this petition offered by me. Gregory said: Now that the text of the offered petition has become known to us, let abbot Probus withdraw for a little while, that we may be able to deliberate with our brothers and sons what ought to be decided concerning the things he asks. And when he had withdrawn, after the matter of his petition had been long discussed, he said: Let abbot Probus, whom we had caused to be absent for a little, come again, that we may decree what has appeared to us in common with our brothers and sons. And when he had been presented, he said: Where truth accords with reason, to fulfill the desires of a petitioner is no less just than kind. Having therefore weighed the whole tenor of the petition offered by you, we recognize that all the things which you have spoken in it are so.

For it had never before entered even into our thought that we should have enjoined upon you the care of an abbacy in any monastery whatsoever. But on a certain day, while we were discussing with our sons the ordaining of the monastery over which you are known to preside, and were long seeking a suitable person for this office, when you unexpectedly entered, it suddenly arose in our heart and in the hearts of those who were present with us for the discussion, that we ought, with God's favor, to appoint you there as abbot. And because it is established that this was imposed on you against your will, and our exhortations were able to bend the firmness of your will, it was necessary, lest perchance you might have had the ability to return after a time,

to send you already ordained abbot to that same monastery, of which you had not previously even been a monk. Therefore, lest this obedience be able to bring sadness to your affection or loss to others, we grant to you, by the statutes of this our constitution, free license of alienating all your goods, or of disposing of them as you shall wish. Through which you shall know that you have, in disposing of them, that faculty as it may please you, which you were able to have before you entered the monastery. Nor need you fear that the office of abbot, which, as has been said, you are known to have taken up suddenly and unwillingly, offers any obstacle; for that you should not have license in ordering and disposing of your goods,

our insistence, as we have said, compelled your affection, that our own might not afterward return upon itself. Accordingly, lest any suspicion make you doubtful concerning those things which you shall wish to arrange, we decree that no one, ever, of our Church or of your monastery, or under any other name, whether from the state of the monastic conversion or from the office of abbot, by any device whatsoever, or under any pretext of excuse, can come against the tenor of the present constitution;

but, just as if you had not entered the monastery, so all the things which you shall have ordered or disposed concerning your entire estate, we establish, God being the author, to be kept inviolate and without any refragation. As often as the eye of the heart, overcast by the cloud of error, is made serene by the light of supernal illumination, we must strive with great caution lest the author of schism secretly rush in, and cut off again, by the dart of error, from the root of unity those who had returned to it. And therefore I, so-and-so, bishop of such a city, having discovered the snare of division by which I was held, pondering with myself in long deliberation, of my prompt and spontaneous will returned, with divine grace leading, to the unity of the apostolic see.

And lest I should be thought to have returned with an impure or feigned mind, I pledge, under the fall of my order, and by the obligation of anathema, and I promise to you, and through you to holy Peter the prince of the apostles,

and to his vicar the most blessed Gregory, or to his successors, that I will never, by the persuasions of any persons whatsoever, or in any other way, return to the schism from which, by the mercy of our Redeemer setting me free, I have been rescued, but that I will forever remain in the unity of the holy Catholic Church and in communion with the Roman pontiff through all things. Wherefore, swearing, I say by God almighty, and by these holy four Gospels which I hold in my hands, and by the safety and genius of our illustrious lords who govern the commonwealth, that I will, as I have said, forever and without doubt remain in the unity of the Catholic Church, to which by God's favor I have returned, and in communion with the Roman pontiff.

But if (which God forbid) by any excuse or pretext I shall have divided myself from this unity, incurring the guilt of perjury, let me be found bound to eternal punishment, and let me have my portion with the author of schism in the age to come. This document of my confession and promise I have dictated to my notary to be written, with the consent of the presbyters, deacons, and clerics who, binding me in this unity, in all the above-written things have followed me with ready will alike, and are about to subscribe with their own hands; and, subscribing with my own hand, I have delivered it to you. Enacted in such a place, on the day and under the consuls above-written. The subscription of the aforesaid bishop.

I, so-and-so, bishop of such a city, having taken an oath concerning the observance of all the above-written things, have subscribed to this my confession and promise. To my most beloved brother Peter, Gregory. We know it to accord with all reason that we should adorn with the mantle of the pallium those whom, in those cities where the divine mercy inspiring it, the honor of the priesthood illumines, in which cities it is established that this too was granted by those who in past times deserved to be made pontiffs, and by the apostolic see.

Therefore we grant to your Charity the use of the pallium, just as your predecessors are known to have had it, by present authority, and we will that all those things should remain about the privilege of your honor which are established to have been preserved to your Church in former times, so that you may grieve at nothing at all diminished from its privileges. And the subscription of the lord pope. May God keep you safe. Given on the tenth Kalends of October, in the reign of the lord Justinian, Augustus. And the lord pope subscribed.

In the name of the Lord God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, through the sixth indiction, on the 23rd day of the month of November, in the times of the lord and most blessed pope Gregory, Phocas was crowned, and Leontia Augusta, on the seventh, in the palace which is called Secundianae, and the emperor Maurice was slain, together with all his male sons, that is, Theodosius already crowned, Tiberius, Peter, Paul, and Justinian, and also Peter the brother of the above-written Maurice Augustus. But also certain of the nobles who adhered to him, that is, Constantius the patrician and curator, and Placidas, and also George the notary of the prince.

Now the image of the above-written Phocas and Leontia Augusti came to Rome on the eve of the Kalends of May, and acclamation was made to them in the Lateran, in the basilica of Julius, by all the clergy and the senate. Hear, O Christ: To Phocas Augustus and Leontia Augusta, life! Then the lord most blessed and apostolic pope Gregory commanded that same image to be placed in the oratory of Saint Caesarius the martyr within the palace. (John the Deacon, Book IV, chapter 20.) Gregory to Augustine, bishop of the Angles. Finally, let the priests and deacons and all the rest whom the dignity of ecclesiastical rank adorns take up the resolve of fasting from Quinquagesima,

so that they may both add something to the measure of the holy institution, and by their place, as also by their religion, may excel the observance of those who are set in the lay order. But concerning the Lord's Day itself we hesitate what ought to be said, since all laymen and secular persons on that day, more than is customary on the other days, more eagerly seek out meat-foods; and unless with a certain new avidity they gorge themselves even until midnight, they think that otherwise they do not undertake the observance of this holy season. Which surely is to be ascribed not to reason but to pleasure, nay rather to a certain blindness of mind;

whence they can neither be turned from such a custom, and therefore they are to be left, with indulgence, to their own disposition, lest perchance they become worse if they be forbidden from such a custom. For as Solomon says: He who blows his nose too hard brings forth blood (Prov. XXX, 33). And after a few words: But it is fitting that on those days on which we abstain from the flesh of living creatures, we should also fast from all things which draw their origin from flesh, namely from milk, cheese, and eggs. And after a few words: But the broth of fish is so left to a Christian, that it may afford him a solace of infirmity, not kindle a fire of luxury. Finally, let him who abstains from flesh by no means prepare more sumptuous banquets of the beasts of the sea.

Wine also is permitted to be drunk in such a way that we altogether flee drunkenness; otherwise it remains that we should likewise do all the things which are pleasing to the body. Pope Agapitus, a Catholic vessel, the trumpet of the Gospel, the herald of justice, washed the sacred veils of the altar and of the see, infected by the sacrilegious fables of Anthimus, with his Catholic prayers. (On consecration, dialogue 1, chapter 23.) We have known many from the ecclesiastical or secular military service hastening to the service of almighty God, that, being freed from human servitude, they may be seen more intimately to converse in monasteries in the divine service. If we let these go freely, we afford to all an occasion of fleeing the dominion of ecclesiastical or secular law.

But if we heedlessly retain those hastening to the service of almighty God, we find ourselves denying certain things to Him who gave all things. Whence it is necessary that whoever from the servitude of ecclesiastical or secular military law desires to be converted to the service of God, should first be tested while set in the lay habit; and if his character and manner of life bear witness to that good desire, let him without any reconsideration be permitted to serve almighty God in the monastery, so that he who seeks to undergo a stricter servitude in the divine obeisance may depart free from human servitude.

But if he shall also have conversed irreproachably in the monastic habit according to the rules of the Fathers, then after the times fixed by the sacred canons, he may lawfully be advanced to any ecclesiastical office, provided nevertheless that he has not been stained by those crimes which in the Old Testament were punished with death. — What it signifies that Aaron bore the rational on his breast bound with fillets, 13. What it is that Aaron bore the judgment of the sons of Israel on his breast before the Lord, 14. Abbot means the same as father, 724, 997. The election of the abbot is committed to the monks, 603, 641. Let him be chosen from the congregation, 602, 603. Or, if no one is suitable, from neighboring monasteries, 603. How solicitous Gregory is in choosing an abbot, 1194, 1193.

What endowments are required in an abbot, 997, 1294. Let him be ordained by the bishop, 997, 1137. Let him obey his bishop, 599. How the abbot should conduct himself in the monastery, 1091, 1098 and following. Let him not neglect the sacred reading and prayer, 626. Nor hospitality and almsgiving, ibid. Let him be solicitous for the souls of his brothers, ibid. — Let one who enjoys a clerical title of any order in any Church not be abbot of a monastery, 691, 727. Very many abbots are read to have been advanced to the presbyterate, 496, 691, 729, 730, 1222, 1223. See Monks. Why an abbot advanced to the episcopate ought to be deprived of the office of abbot, 1223. What an abbot acquires, he acquires not for himself but for the monastery, 1042. Whether it is lawful for abbots to make a testament, See Testament.

Against the abbot's will, monks are not to be taken away either to sacred orders or to ordain other monasteries, 604, 815, 906. — An abbot who has lapsed from sacred order is irrevocably deposed, but after penance he obtains the foremost place among the monks, 729, 730. An abbot afflicted with long penance on account of negligence is restored, 732. — Abbots were sometimes bound to the guarding of walls, 988. — The more distinguished monks in the Eastern Church are called by the name of abbot, 725. Gregory brings help to a harassed and oppressed abbot, 1048, 1049. The abbot of Mount Praeneste, See Praeneste. What sort of woman ought to be chosen as abbess, 692; A virgin not sixty years old is forbidden to be made abbess, 692. The Council of Trent permits a forty-year-old to be chosen, ibid.

To be veiled as an abbess, and to be veiled as a nun, are not the same, 692. Certain abbesses in Gregory's time who did not put on the monastic garment, 931. They used the garments of presbyteresses, ibid. The testament of such an abbess is void, 931, 932. At the petition of a bishop, an abbess is set by Gregory over a monastery, 1074. There was no Abel who did not have Cain for a brother, 1127. In Abel it was not the gifts that pleased from the offerer, but the gifts pleased from the one offering, 1029. Abigail laudably kept silent about the fault of the drunken Nabal, which she disclosed to him when he had digested it, 58. What it is for the abject to be led back, 23. Abner is interpreted father's lamp, 58. Whose form he exhibits, ibid. What it signifies to strike a pursuer with the reversed spear, ibid.

An abnormal monk, who does not care for his rule and the observances of his state, 529. Abraham greeting three men, receiving angels, and greeting one; what it signifies, 617. That Abraham's seed should be multiplied through Isaac, 184. Abramius of Alexandria, sent by Eulogius to Gregory, 1069. Nothing can be hidden from God, 789. Those are not reckoned absent whose mind does not differ from the charity of either party, 659. To absolve. In what form one purged canonically of crimes charged against him should be absolved, 864. Absolution was formerly called the viaticum of penitents, 733. Of this viaticum, by the ancient rule, penitents were not to be defrauded, ibid. Absolution was also called communion, peace, reconciliation, ibid.

An ancient custom: to those who put off penance until the very end of life, once penance has been granted, to deny communion or absolution, 734. Absolution, if satisfaction be lacking, profits little, 929. Which of the abstinent are to be admonished, 61, 62. Of what merit abstinence is, 62. Abstinence is subdued to sin (i.e. the flesh is mortified) while the mind is stretched toward the precepts of charity, 16. Abstinence is the handmaid of chastity, ibid. Impatience lies in ambush for abstinence, 62. So too does pride, ibid. Abstinence is commended only by reason of the other virtues, 62. What it is to sanctify a fast, 62. He who separates abstinence from concord praises God on the timbrel but not in the choir, 68, 880.

Mercy toward the poor commends abstinence, 63. Abstinence approved by a miracle, 153. In vain is the body afflicted by abstinence if the mind be scattered by disordered impulses, 62. To abstain. Holy men abstain even from things permitted, either to increase their merits or to wipe away their faults, 1130 and following. He overcomes what is unlawful who abstains from what is permitted, 977. Abundius, see Acontius. Accellus redeems Stephen for eight solidi, 1210. See Stephanus. What is required that an accusation be lawful, 804. Let the proofs of criminal accusations be clearer than the light, 707. On the penalty of one who evades, who desists from an accusation, 780. If the accuser be not lawful, he is not easily to be given credence; the accused, 817.

Accusers are not easily to be believed, 860, 1238, 1249. With what penalties accusers are struck who fail in proving their charge, 707. If an accuser has no ready proofs, let him bear the penalty of a slanderer, 803. The persons of accusers are to be diligently investigated, 1251. The Acephali, enemies of the Council of Chalcedon, 615. Condemned by Pope Vigilius, ibid. The Acephali are called Monophysites, 616. The Acephali were called Monophysites, ibid. Who the Acephali monks are, 529. Achochus, bishop of Thessalonica, vicar of the Apostolic See throughout Eastern Illyricum, 487. Acolyte means the same as an attendant, an usher, 900. Acolytes were sometimes appointed to spiritual offices, 894. An acolyte of the Roman Church.

Gregory orders a fugitive to be seized and, deprived of communion, to be sent to Rome, 899. Acontius, sacristan of the Church of St. Peter, a man of great humility and gravity, 333. By some called Abundius, 334. He heals a paralytic woman sent to him by St. Peter, 336. Acosimus, a Sicilian boy, handed over to Theodore in place of a slave, 637. That is called 'acroama' which is received by the ears, 1031. Acropolis, formerly an episcopal city in Lucania, 605. Felix, bishop of Acropolis, ibid. The 'actacae' are called the ornaments or pleasant features of the shores, 713. 'Action' means the same as administration, 644. Action (the active life) is signified by Martha, 491. An 'actionarius' is one set over an administration, 644, 1121. The 'actionarii' and stewards are the same, 122.

An 'actionarius' or 'actionator' among the jurists of others is a steward who conducts affairs before a judge, ibid. 595. Such men, perhaps, were tonsured. Other 'actionarii' were those who managed business under the rectors, 595. They were for the most part slaves, but by the tonsure they were claimed into freedom, 1183, 596. Public 'actionarii'. The active life is signified by Leah, 491. An 'actor' is called the manager of affairs, 491. If the plaintiff (actor) does not prove his case, the defendant is acquitted, 597. See Actionarii. The uprightness of good deeds, like the light of a lamp, is spread abroad through the neighboring places, 560. Adam, 372. He was deceived through the woman; what good things he enjoyed before the fall, 744. He was made blind after sin, 572. Yet not to invisible things, 373.

He suffered doubt, 883. Through sin the soul died in punishment, 803. The posterity of Adam are likened, 312. All men are born into a prison, and through Adam's sin have died in soul, 883, 970. Adam through penance returned to life, 883. The diamond (adamant), hard against iron, is made soft by the blood of goats: what this signifies, 53. 'Addicere' means to condemn, 503, 570, 571, 726. Adelphius, a heretic condemned in the Council of Ephesus, 802. The Adelphian monks, heretics, 802, 803. Adeodata complains to Gregory about Fidentia her mother, 950. Adeodata, an illustrious lady, is roused to contempt of temporal things and love of eternal things; relics are sent to her, 1077, 1088.

She goes to a monastery with her own possessions, 659. Adeodatus, bishop and primate of Numidia, 659, 660 and following. His solicitude for ecclesiastical order is praised and encouraged, 903. Adeodatus, a priest released, asks his bishop, on account of illness, to be restored, 693. Adeodatus, abbot of the monastery under which Romanus dwelt, 209. Adeodatus, abbot of Naples, is appointed father of very many monasteries, 1085 and following. It is decreed that the Craterene monastery be united to his monastery, 1215 and following. Adeodatus, deacon of the Church of Ravenna, 736, 819, 837. Adeodatus, servant of God, 1216. His donation, made by word before he received the monastic habit, is permitted to be set down in writing and is confirmed, ibid.

Adeodatus, a citizen of Pesaro, by what law he appointed a guardian for his sons, 756, 1186. Adeodatus, 1186. Adiacium (Ajaccio), an episcopal city of Corsica, 1177, 1178. Gregory asks that the household of Adorius be released, 571. Adolescence is sometimes in Scripture called youth, 76. The wise man asserts that adolescence and pleasure are vanity, 377. Who the enrolled colonists (ascriptitii) are, 700. 'Ad sedem'—what place is so called, 1173, 1174. Those who delight in flatteries are signified by those who are clothed in soft garments, 1127. Flatterers are called abettors of death, 524. They are to be reckoned enemies the greater, the more they flatter with praises, 743. Adaloald, son of Agilulf king of the Lombards and of Theodelinda, 1270. To him St. Gregory sends phylacteries.

Gregory, 1270. How many years he reigned, ibid. He is driven out and dies by poison, 1271. Arioald succeeds him, ibid. Adultery. A ruler who strives to please is guilty of adultery against the bride of Christ, 27. A lapse of the flesh, why it should be called adultery in nuns, since it is not against Christ, 688. What adversity signifies in Gregory, 1049. The usefulness of adversity is compared with the peril of prosperity, 5. Adversity is sometimes useful like a storm, 519. What adversity teaches us, 662. It is not the wrath of the Creator but grace, ibid. By God's benefit adverse things befall us, 78. Instructed by adversities, we more subtly discover the understanding of God, 895. Adversity, which is set against good desires, is a testing of virtue, not a judgment of reprobation, 1029.

Adversities are not lacking to those who live piously, 876. How those wearied by the labor of adversity are to be admonished, 78. How adversity is to be endured, 1062. Let those who are humbled by adversity rejoice in the hope of the eternal inheritance, 78. We ought neither to be broken by adverse things nor lifted up by prosperous ones, 662. Let adversity itself increase the zeal for good work, 876. There is then sure confidence in God, when for a good work one receives something of adversity in this world, 1128. The excellent consolation of one enduring adverse things, 1233. See Affliction, Scourges of God, Tribulation. The adversary in judgments is to be admonished to come to hear the witnesses, 1255.

An advocate is the patron of causes; by the vigor and subtlety of soul, with death impending, what he once foretold, 409. Advocates were admitted, 615. He conceals a fraud of edification, he perpetrates it, who withholds the good counsels that ought to be given, 50. The sick. What is to give to the sick, or to deny to the sick. To the sick, whatever remedy we can we deny is a crime, 51. To the sick one whom the physician despairs of, he grants all that he desires, 78. But the one to be healed is forbidden many things that he craves, ibid. What counsels are to be given to the sick, 50, 51. It is a crime to deny to the sick the remedy that we can give, 74. To the sick one whom the physician despairs of, he grants all he desires, 78. But the one to be healed is forbidden by many the things he craves, ibid. Sickness is the scourge of God chastising his sons, 50.

The trouble of the body is the health of the heart, ibid. Of how great a gift bodily trouble is, 51. In curing sickness the physician takes counsel for the weakness of the patient, 98. As with the body, so also with the ailments of the mind, prompter remedies profit, slower ones harm, 715. Frequently sickness is granted for amendment, 729. We who have sinned much through the flattery of the flesh are purged by the affliction of the flesh, 1114. See Bodily infirmity. Egypt. What it is for the breasts to be pressed in Egypt, 82. What it is for the paps of puberty to be bruised in Egypt, ibid. Aelius, archdeacon of Constantinople, how he was cast down from office, 504. Brass. Who is turned into brass in the midst of the furnace. Aesina or Aesis, or Auximum, a city in Picenum, 996.