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| To the Bishops of the Province of Vienne. In the matter of Hilary, Bishop of Arles.
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Letter
X.
To the Bishops of the Province of
Vienne. In the matter of Hilary, Bishop of Arles64
| 64 Cf. Introduction p.
vi. | .
To the beloved brothers, the whole body of bishops of
the province of Vienne, Leo, bishop of Rome.
I. The solidarity of the Church built
upon the rock of S. Peter must be everywhere maintained.
Our Lord Jesus Christ,
Saviour of mankind, instituted the observance of the Divine religion
which He wished by the grace of God to shed
its brightness upon all nations and all peoples in such a way that the
Truth, which before was confined to the announcements of the Law and
the Prophets, might through the Apostles’ trumpet blast go out
for the salvation of all men65
| 65 Per Apostolicam tubam
in salutem universitatis (Gk. τῆς
οἰκουμένης)
exiret, cf. Letter IX. Chap. ii. apostoli a Domino
prædicandi omnibus gentibus evangelii tubam sumunt. | , as it is
written: “Their sound has gone out into every land, and
their words into the ends of the world66
.”
But this mysterious function67
| 67 Huius muneris
sacramentum, his mind is running forward to his favourite
sacramentum, that of Peter as the rock-man of the Church. | the Lord wished to be indeed the concern of all the apostles,
but in such a way that He has placed the principal charge on the
blessed Peter, chief of all the Apostles68
| 68 Cf. Letter XXVIII.
chap. v. a principali petra (B. Petrus), soliditatem
et virtutis traxit et nominis, etc.: also Cyprian de unit.
eccl. chapt. iv. | : and from him as from the Head
wishes His gifts to flow to all the body: so that any one who
dares to secede from Peter’s solid rock may understand that he
has no part or lot in the divine mystery. For He wished him who
had been received into partnership in His undivided unity to be named
what He Himself was, when He said: “Thou art Peter, and
upon this rock I will build My Church69
:”
that the building of the eternal temple by the wondrous gift of
God’s grace might rest on Peter’s
solid rock: strengthening His Church so surely that neither could
human rashness assail it nor the gates of hell prevail against
it. But this most holy firmness of the rock, reared, as we have
said, by the building hand of God, a man must
wish to destroy in over-weaning
wickedness when he tries to break down
its power, by favouring his own desires, and not following what he
received from men of old: for he believes himself subject to no
law, and held in check by no rules of God’s ordinances and breaks away, in his eagerness
for novelty, from your use and ours, by adopting illegal practices, and
letting what he ought to keep fall into abeyance.
II. Hilary is disturbing the peace of the
Church by his insubordination.
But with the approval, as we believe, of
God, and retaining towards you the fulness of
our love which the Apostolic See always, as you remember, expends upon
you, holy brethren we are striving to correct these things by mature
counsel, and to share with you the task of setting your churches in
order, not by innovations but by restoration of the old; that we may
persevere in the accustomed state which our fathers handed down to us,
and please our God through the ministry of a
good work by removing the scandals of disturbances. And so we
would have you recollect, brethren, as we do, that the Apostolic See,
such is the reverence in which it is held, has times out of number been
referred to and consulted by the priests of your province as well as
others, and in the various matters of appeal, as the old usage
demanded, it has reversed or confirmed decisions: and in this way
“the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace70
” has been kept, and by the interchange
of letters, our honourable proceedings have promoted a lasting
affection: for “seeking not our own but the things of
Christ71
,” we have been careful not to do
despite to the dignity which God has given
both to the churches and their priests. But this path which with
our fathers has been always so well kept to and wisely maintained,
Hilary has quitted, and is likely to disturb the position and agreement
of the priests by his novel arrogance: desiring to subject you to
his power in such a way as not to suffer himself to be subject to the
blessed Apostle Peter, claiming for himself the ordinations of all the
churches throughout the provinces of Gaul, and transferring to himself
the dignity which is due to metropolitan priests; he diminishes even
the reverence that is paid to the blessed Peter himself with his proud
words: for not only was the power of loosing and binding given to
Peter before the others, but also to Peter more especially was
entrusted the care of feeding the sheep72
| 72 Cui cum præ
(Quesnel conj. pro) cæteris solvendi et
ligandi tradita sit potestas, pascendarum tamen ovium cura specialius
mandata est. Cf. S. John xxi. 15–17. | . Yet any one who holds that the
headship must be denied to Peter, cannot really diminish his
dignity: but is puffed up with the breath of his pride, and
plunges himself into the lowest depth.
III. Celidonius has been restored to his
bishopric, the charges against him having been found
false.
Accordingly the written record of our proceedings
shows what action we have taken in the matter of Celidonius73
| 73 Celidonius was
probably either bishop of Vienne or of Vesontis (Besançon):
see Perthel, p. 25. | , the bishop, and what Hilary said in the
presence and hearing of the aforesaid bishop. For when Hilary had
no reasonable answer to give in the council of the holy priests,
“the secrets of his heart74
” gave vent to
utterances such as no layman could make and no priest listen to.
We were grieved, I acknowledge, brothers, and endeavoured to appease
the tumult of his mind by patient treatment. For we did not wish
to exasperate those wounds which he was inflicting on his soul by his
insolent retorts, and strove rather to pacify him whom we had taken up
as a brother, although it was he who was entangling himself by his
replies, than to cause him pain by our remarks. Celidonius, the
bishop, was therefore acquitted, for he had proved himself wrongfully
deposed from the priesthood, by the clear replies of his witnesses made
in his own presence: so that Hilary, who remained with us, had no
opposition to offer. The judgment, therefore, was rescinded,
which was brought forward and read to the effect that, as the husband
of a widow75
| 75 Cf. Letter IV. chap.
iii. | , he could not hold
the priesthood. Now this rule we, maintaining the legal
constitutions76
, have wished
scrupulously adhered to, not only in respect of priests but also of
clergy of the lower ranks: that those who have contracted such a
marriage, or those who are proved not to be the husbands of only one
wife contrary to the apostle’s discipline, should not be suffered
to enter the sacred service77
| 77 Militiam (lit.
military service). | . But though
we decree that those, whom their own acts condemn, must either not be
admitted at all, or, if they have, must be removed, so those who are
falsely so accused we are bound to clear after examination held, and
not allow to lose their office. For the sentence pronounced would
have remained against him, if the truth of the charge had been
proved. And so Celidonius, our fellow-bishop, was restored to his
church and to that dignity which he ought not to have
lost, as the course of our
proceedings, and the sentence which was pronounced by us after holding
the inquiry testifies.
IV. Hilary’s treatment of Projectus
does not redound to his credit.
When this business was so concluded, the complaint
of our brother and fellow-bishop, Projectus78
| 78 Projectus was
perhaps a bishop of the province of Gallia Narbonensis I.:
Perthel, p. 27. | ,
next came before us: who addressed us in a tearful and piteous
letter, about the ordaining of a bishop over his head. A letter
was also brought to us from his own fellow-citizens, corroborated by a
great many individual signatures, and full of the most unpleasant
complaints against Hilary: to the effect that Projectus, their
bishop, was not allowed to be ill, but his priesthood had been
transferred to another without their knowledge, and the heir brought
into possession by Hilary, the intruder as if to fill up a vacancy,
though the possessor was still alive79
| 79 Quod Projecto
episcopo suo ægrotare liberum non fuisset, eiusque sacerdotium in
alium præter suam notitiam esse translatum, et tamquam in vacuam
possessionem ab Hilario pervasore hæredem viventis
inductum. The construction is changed from
quod.…fuisset, to the ordinary accus. and infin. | . We
should like to hear what you, brothers, think on the point:
although we ought not to entertain any doubt about your feelings, when
you picture to yourselves a brother lying on a sick-bed and tortured,
not so much by his bodily weakness as by pains of another kind.
What hope in life is left a man who is visited with despair about his
priesthood whilst another is set up in his place? Hilary gives a
clear proof of his gentle heart when he believed that the tardiness of
a brother’s death is but a hindrance to his own ambitious
designs. For, as far as in him lay, he quenched the light for
him; he robbed him of life by setting up another in his room, and thus
causing him such pain as to hinder his recovery. And supposing
that his brother’s passage from this world was brief, but after
the common course of men, what does Hilary seek for himself in
another’s province, and why does he claim that which none of his
predecessors before Patroclus possessed? whereas that very position
which seemed to have been temporarily granted to Patroclus by the
Apostolic See was afterwards withdrawn by a wiser decision80
| 80 Patroclus had been
Bishop of Arles circ. 416, and the then Bishop of Rome, Zosimus,
had granted him metropolitan rights over the provinces of S.E. Gaul,
which did not gain the acceptance of the other chief bishops in the
district, and Boniface I. (Ep. 12), in 422, seems to have withdrawn the
rights granted by Zosimus (Schaff, I, p. 297). | . At least the wishes of the citizens
should have been waited for, and the testimony of the people81
| 81 Civium:
populorum. The former are apparently called lower down
fidelium, and the latter, qui foris sunt. | : the opinion of those held in honour
should have been asked, and the choice of the clergy—things which
those who know the rules of the fathers are wont to observe in the
ordination of priests: that the rule of the Apostle’s
authority might in all things be kept, which enjoins that one who is to
be the priest of a church should be fortified, not only by the
attestation of the faithful but also by the testimony of “those
who are without82
,” and that no
occasion for offence be left, when, in peace and in God-pleasing
harmony with the full approval of all, one who will be a teacher of
peace is ordained.
V. Hilary’s action was very
reprehensible throughout, and we have restored
Projectus.
But Hilary came upon them unawares and departed no
less suddenly, accomplishing many journeys with great speed, as we have
ascertained, and traversing distant provinces with such haste that he
seems to have coveted a reputation for the swiftness of a courier
rather than for the sobriety of a priest83
| 83 Gloriam de
scurrili velocitate potius quam de sacerdotali moderatione
captasse. | . For these are the words of the
citizens in the letter that has been addressed to us:—“He
departed before we knew he had come.” This is not to return
but to flee, not to exercise a shepherd’s wholesome care, but to
employ the violence of a thief and a robber, as saith the Lord: “he that entereth not by the door into
the sheep-fold84
| 84 In cortem
ovium: the low Latin word (cors) is in the Vulgate
changed to ovile. | , but climbeth up
some other way, is a thief and a robber.” Hilary,
therefore, was anxious not so much to consecrate a bishop as to kill
him who was sick, and to mislead the man whom he set over his head by
wrongful ordination. We, however, have done what, as God is our Judge, we believe you will approve: after
holding counsel with all the brethren we have decreed that the
wrongfully ordained man should be deposed and the Bishop Projectus
abide in his priesthood: with the further provision that when any
of our brethren in whatsoever province shall decease, he who has been
agreed upon to be metropolitan of that province shall claim for himself
the ordination of his successor.
These two matters, as we see, have been settled, though
there are many other points in them which seem to have violated the
principles of the Church, and ought to be visited with just censure and
judgment. But we cannot linger on them any further, for we are
called off to other matters on which we must carefully confer with you,
holy brethren.
VI.
Hilary’s practice of using armed violence must be
suppressed.
A band of soldiers, as we have learnt, follows the
priest through the provinces and helps him who relies upon their armed
support in turbulently invading churches, which have lost their own
priests. Before this court85
are dragged for
ordination men who are quite unknown to the cities over which they are
to be set. For as one who is well known and approved is sought
out in peace, so must one who is unknown, when brought forward, be
established by violence. I beg and entreat and beseech you in
God’s name prevent such things,
brethren, and remove all occasion for discord from your
provinces. At all events we acquit ourselves before God in beseeching you not to allow this to proceed
further. In peace and quietness should they be asked for who are
to be priests. The consent of the clergy, the testimony of those
held in honour, the approval of the orders and the laity should be
required86
| 86 Cf. Cypr. Ep. lv. cap.
vii., factus est Cornelius episcopus de Dei et Christi eius iudicio,
de clericorum pæne omnium testimonio, de plebis, quæ tunc
adfuit, suffragio et sacerdotum antiquorum et bonorum virorum
collegio. | . He who is to govern all, should be
chosen by all87
| 87 Quesnel appositely
quotes Pliny (Paneg. Traiani) imperaturus omnibus eligi debet ex
omnibus. | . As we said
before, each metropolitan should keep in his own hands the ordinations
that occur in his own province, acting in concert with those who
precede the rest in seniority of priesthood, a privilege restored to
him through us. No man should claim for himself another’s
rights. Each should keep within his own limits and boundaries,
and should understand that he cannot pass on to another a privilege
that belongs to himself. But if any one neglecting the
Apostle’s prohibitions and paying too much heed to personal
favour, wishes to give up his precedence, thinking he can pass his
rights on to another, not he to whom he has yielded, but he who ranks
before the rest of the priests within the province in episcopal
seniority, should claim to himself the power of ordaining. The
ordination should be performed not at random but on the proper
day: and it should be known that any one who has not been
ordained on the evening of Saturday, which precedes the dawn of the
first day of the week88
| 88 Quod lucescit in
prima sabbati; the phrase is repeated from Letter IX., chap. ii.,
to which refer to the whole passage. | , or actually on
the Lord’s day cannot be sure of his
status. For our forefathers judged the day of the Lord’s resurrection89
as alone
worthy of the honour of being the occasion on which those who are to be
made priests are given to God.
VII. Hilary is deposed not only from his
usurped jurisdiction, but also from what of right belongs to him, and
is restricted to his own single bishopric.
Let each province be content with its own
councils, and let not Hilary dare to summon synodal meetings besides,
and by his interference disturb the judgments of the Lord’s priests. And let him know that he is
not only deposed from another’s rights, but also deprived of his
power over the province of Vienne which he had wrongfully
assumed. For it is but fair, brethren, that the ordinances of
antiquity should be restored, seeing that he who claimed for himself
the ordinations of a province for which he was not responsible, has
been shown in a similar way in the present case also to have acted so
that, as he has on more than one occasion brought on himself sentence
of condemnation by his rash and insolent words, he may now be kept by
our command in accordance with the clemency of the Apostolic
See90
| 90 Pro apostolicæ
sedis pietate, or “as loyalty to the Apostolic See
demands.” | to the priesthood of his own city alone.
He is not to be present then at any ordination: he is not to
ordain because, conscious of his deserts, when he was required to
answer for his action, he trusted to make good his escape by
disgraceful flight, and has put himself out of Apostolic communion, of
which he did not deserve to be a partaker91
| 91 This does not mean that
Hilary is excommunicated, but that he is to have no share in episcopal
privileges as a successor of the apostles. | :
and we believe this was by God’s
providence, who brought him to our court, though we did not expect him,
and caused him to retire by stealth in the midst of holding the
inquiry, that he should not be a partner in our communion92
| 92 These words of course
refer to Hilary’s journey on foot to Rome, and his subsequent
escape from something very much like prison: see Introduction, p.
vi.: for his degradation, cf. Letter XII., chap. ix., where a
similar punishment is enacted. | .
VIII. Excommunication should be inflicted
only on those who are guilty of some great crime, and even then not
hastily.
No Christian should lightly be denied
communion93
| 93 Here, no doubt,
excommunication pure and simple is meant. Cf. note 4,
supr. | , nor should that be done at the will of an
angry priest which the judge’s mind ought to a certain extent
unwillingly and regretfully to carry out for the punishment of a great
crime. For we have ascertained that some have been cut off from
the grace of communion for trivial deeds and words, and that the soul
for which Christ’s blood was shed has been exposed to the
devil’s attacks and wounded, disarmed, so to say, and stript of
all
defence by the
infliction of so savage a punishment as to fall an easy prey to
him. Of course if ever a case has arisen of such a kind as in due
proportion to the nature of the crime committed to deprive a man of
communion, he only who is involved in the accusation must be subjected
to punishment: and he who is not shown to be a partner in its
commission ought not to share in the penalty. But what wonder
that one who is wont to exult over the condemnation of priests, should
show himself in the same light towards laymen.
IX. Leontius is appointed in
Hilary’s room.
Wherefore, because our desire seems very different
to this (for we are anxious that the settled state of all the Churches
and the harmony of the priests should be maintained,) exhorting you to
unity in the bond of love, we both entreat, and consistently with our
affection admonish you, in the interests of your peace and dignity, to
keep what has been decreed by us at the inspiration of God and the most blessed Apostle Peter, after sifting and
testing all the matters at issue, being assured that what we are known
to have decided in this way is not so much to our own advantage as to
yours. For we are not keeping in our own hands the ordinations of
your provinces, as perhaps Hilary, with his usual untruthfulness, may
suggest in order to mislead your minds, holy brethren: but in our
anxiety we are claiming for you that no further innovations should be
allowed, and that for the future no opportunity should be given for the
usurper to infringe your privileges. For we acknowledge that it
can only redound to our credit, if the diligence of the Apostolic See
be kept unimpaired among you, and if in our maintenance of Apostolic
discipline we do not allow what belongs to your position to fall to the
ground through unscrupulous aggressions. And since seniority is
always to be respected, we wish Leontius94
| 94 Leontius seems to have
had little but his age to recommend him for this promotion: the
name of his bishopric is unknown, and the weakness of the appointment
may, I think, be gathered from Leo’s insisting so strongly on the
principle of seniority both here and in chap vi. above. | , our
brother and fellow-bishop, a priest well approved among you, to be
promoted to this dignity, if it please you that without his consent no
further council be summoned by you, holy brethren, and that he may be
honoured by you all as his age and good fame demands, the metropolitans
being secured in their own dignity and rights. For it is but
fair, and no injury seems to accrue to any of the brethren, if those
who come first in seniority of the priesthood should, as their age
deserves, have deference paid to them by the rest of the priests in
their own provinces. God keep you safe,
beloved brethren.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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