Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| To All the Bishops of Mauritania Cæsariensis.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Letter
XII.
Leo, bishop of the city of Rome, to all the
bishops of Mauritania Cæsariensis in Africa, greeting the
Lord.
I. The disorderly appointments of bishops
which have been made in the province are reprehensible.
Inasmuch as the frequent accounts of those who
visited us made mention of certain unlawful practices among you with
regard to the ordination of priests, the demands of religion required
that we should strive to arrive at the exact state of the case in
accordance with that solicitude which by the Divine command we bestow
on the whole Church: and so we delegated the charge of this to
our brother and fellow-priest, Potentius, who was setting out from
us: and who, according to what we wrote and addressed to you by
him, was to make inquiry as to the facts about the bishops whose
election was said to be faulty, and to report everything faithfully to
us. Wherefore, because the same Potentius has most fully
disclosed all to our knowledge, and has by his truthful account made
clear to us, under what and what manner of governors some of
Christ’s congregations are placed in certain parts of the
province of (Mauritania) Cæsariensis, we have found it necessary
to open out the grief wherewith our hearts are vexed for the dangers of
the Lord’s flocks, by sending this
letter also to you beloved: for we are surprised that either the
over-bearing conduct of intriguers or the rioting of the people had so
much weight with you in a time of disorder, that the chief pastorate
and governance of the Church was handed over to the unworthiest
persons, and such as were farthest removed from the priestly
standard. This is not to consult but harm the peoples’
interests: and not to enforce discipline but to increase
differences. For the integrity of the rulers is the safeguard of
those who are under them: and where there is complete obedience,
there the form of doctrine is sound. But an appointment which has
either been made by sedition or seized by intrigue, even though it
offend not in morals or in practice, is nevertheless pernicious from
the mere example of its beginning: and it is hard for
things to be carried to a good
issue which were started with a bad beginning.
II. In no case ought bishops to be
ordained hastily.
But if in every grade of the Church great
forethought and knowledge has to be employed, lest there be any thing
disorderly or out of place95
| 95 Nihil sit inordinatum
nihilque præposterum: the two words are well chosen (as
usual), and bearing a distinct meaning: the former expressing
“disorder” in the sense of want of the divine commission,
the latter “disorder” in the sense of choosing the younger
over the old, the inferior over the superior, &c.; the same two
epithets occur in Lett. XIX., chap. i. | in the house of the
Lord: how much more carefully must we
strive to prevent mistakes in the election of him who is set over all
the grades? For the peace and order of the Lord’s whole household will be shaken, if what is
required in the body be not found in the head. Where is that
precept of the blessed Apostle Paul uttered through the Spirit of
God, whereby in the person of Timothy the
whole number of Christ’s priests are instructed, and to each one
of us is said: “Lay hands hastily on no one, and do not
share in other men’s sins96
?” What is
to lay on hands hastily but to confer the priestly dignity on unproved
men before the proper age97
| 97 Ante ætatem
maturitatis. The Council of Carthage (a.d. 397), c. 4, fixed the downward limit for deacons at
25, and for priests at 30: and we may presume that that was the
general rule in Leo’s time, for we find the same ages ordained
afterwards in the Novellæ of Justinian (535–565) and
elsewhere. | , before there has
been time to test them, before they have deserved it by their
obedience, before they have been tried by discipline? And what is
to share in other men’s sins but for the ordainer to become such
as is he who ought not to have been ordained by him? For just as
a man stores up for himself the fruit of his good work, if he maintains
a right judgment in choosing a priest: so one who receives an
unworthy priest into the number of his colleagues, inflicts grievous
loss upon himself. We must not then pass over in the case of any
one that which is laid down in the general ordinances: nor is
that advancement to be reckoned lawful which has been made contrary to
the precepts of God’s law.
III. The Apostolic precept about the
marriage of the clergy based upon the marriage of Christ with the
Church of which it is a figure.
For as the Apostle says that among other rules for
election he shall be ordained bishop who is known to have been or to be
“the husband of one wife,” this command was always held so
sacred that the same condition was understood as necessary to be
observed even in the wife98
| 98 Cf. Letter IV., chap
ii., and elsewhere. | of the
priest-elect: lest she should happen to have been married to
another man before she entered into wedlock with him, even though he
himself had had no other wife. Who then would dare to allow this
injury to be perpetrated upon so great a sacrament99
| 99 No one will by this time
be surprised to find Leo calling Sacred Orders either a
sacramentum, as here, or mysterium, as in the next
sentence: the two terms are indeed in his usage almost
equivalents. | ,
seeing that this great and venerable mystery is not without the support
of the statutes of God’s law as well,
whereby it is clearly laid down that a priest is to marry a virgin, and
that she who is to be the wife of a priest100
is not
to know another husband? For even then in the priests was
prefigured the Spiritual marriage of Christ and His Church: so
that since “the man is the head of the woman101
,” the spouse of the Word may learn to
know no other man but Christ, who did rightly choose her only, loves
her only, and takes none but her into His alliance. If then even
in the Old Testament this kind of marriage among priests is adhered to,
how much more ought we who are placed under the grace of the Gospel to
conform to the Apostle’s precepts: so that though a man be
found endowed with good character, and furnished with holy works, he
may nevertheless in no wise ascend either to the grade of deacon, or
the dignity of the presbytery, or to the highest rank of the bishopric,
if it has been spread abroad either that he himself is not the husband
of one wife, or that his wife is not the wife of one
husband.
IV. Premature promotions are to be
avoided.
But when the Apostle warns and says:
“and let these also first be proved, and so let them
minister102
,” what else do
we think must be understood but that in these promotions we should
consider not only the chastity of their marriages, but also the deserts
of their labours, lest the pastoral office be entrusted to men who are
either fresh from baptism, or suddenly diverted from worldly pursuits?
for through all the ranks of the Christian army in the matter of
promotions it ought to be considered whether a man can manage a greater
charge. Rightly did the venerable opinions of the blessed Fathers
in speaking of the election of priests reckon those men fit for the
administration of sacred things who had been slowly advanced through
the various grades of office, and had given such good proof of
themselves therein that in each one of them the character of their
practices bore witness to their lives103
| 103 The shorter edition of
this letter, which is extent, gives this sentence in a very different
form: the qualifications are much more exactly defined, e.g.,
bishops are to have spent their lives in orders a puerilibus
exordiis usque ad provectiores annos. I think Quesnel is
right in considering this a later version and alteration the better to
inculcate the usage of the Church. For although no doubt people
were often mere boys [Readers (lectores) for instance: see
Bright’s note 46] when they entered minor orders, yet the fact
that one was an adult layman before taking orders could not ipso
facto have precluded a man from becoming bishop, however desirable
the rule and general principle might be: in fact Cyprian at least
is evidence to the contrary. | .
For
if it is improper
to attain to the world’s dignities without the help of time and
without the merit of having toiled, and if the seeking of office is
branded unless it be supported by proofs of uprightness, how diligently
and how carefully ought the dispensing of divine duties and heavenly
dignities to be carried out, lest in aught the apostolic and canonical
decrees be violated, and the ruling of the Lord’s Church be committed to men who being ignorant
of the lawful constitutions and devoid of all humility wish not to rise
from the lowest grade, but to begin with the highest: for it is
extremely unfair and preposterous that the inexpert should be preferred
to the expert, the young to the old, the raw recruits to those who have
seen much service. In a great house, indeed, as the Apostle
explains104
, there must needs be
divers vessels, some of gold and of silver, and some of wood and of
earth: but their purpose varies with the quality of their
material, and the use of the precious and of the cheap kinds is not the
same. For everything will be in disorder if the earthen ware be
preferred to the golden, or the wooden to the silver. And as the
wooden or earthen vessels are a figure of those men who are hitherto
conspicuous for no virtues; so in the golden or silver vessels they no
doubt are represented who, having passed through the fire of long
experience, and through the furnace of protracted toil have deserved to
be tried gold and pure silver. And if such men get no reward for
their devotion, all the discipline of the Church is loosened, all order
is disturbed, while men who have undergone no service obtain undeserved
preferment by the wrongful choice of the electing body.
V. He distinguishes between laymen who
have been raised to the bishoprics and digamous clerks, forgiving the
former and not the latter.
Since then either the eager wishes of the people
or the intrigues of the ambitious have had so much weight among you
that we understand not only laymen, but even husbands of second wives
or widows have been promoted to the pastoral office, are there not the
clearest reasons for requiring that the churches in which such things
have been done should be cleansed by a severer judgment than usual, and
that not only the rulers themselves, but also those who ordained them
should receive condign punishment? But there stand on our one
hand the gentleness of mercy, on our other the strictness of
justice. And because “all the paths of the Lord are loving-kindness and truth105
,” we are forced according to our loyalty
to the Apostolic See so to moderate our opinion as to weigh men’s
misdeeds in the balance (for of course they are not all of one
measure), and to reckon some as to a certain extent106
pardonable, but others as altogether to be repressed. For they
who have either entered into second marriages or joined themselves in
wedlock with widows are not allowed to hold the priesthood, either by
the apostolic or legal authority: and much more is this the case
with him who, as it was reported to us, is the husband of two wives at
once, or him who being divorced by his wife is said to have married
another, that is, supposing these charges are in your judgment
proved. But the rest, whose preferment only so far incurs blame
that they have been chosen to the episcopal function from among the
laity, and are not culpable in the matter of their wives, we allow to
retain the priesthood upon which they have entered, without prejudice
to the statutes of the Apostolic See, and without breaking the rules of
the blessed Fathers, whose wholesome ordinance it is that no layman,
whatever amount of support he may receive, shall ascend to the first,
second, or third rank in the Church until he reach that position by the
legitimate steps107
| 107 Per legitama
augmenta, cf. n. 7 above. This passage makes it clear what is
there required is not the puerilia exordia of the shorter
edition of this letter, but the multum tempus of this longer
edition. | . For what we
now suffer to be to a certain extent108
venial, cannot
hereafter pass unpunished, if any one perpetrates what we altogether
forbid: because the forgiveness of a sin does not grant a licence
to do wrong, nor will it be right to repeat an offence with impunity
which has partly109
been
condoned.
VI. Donatus, a converted Novatian, and
Maximus, an ex-Donatist, are retained in their episcopal
office.
Donatus of Salacia, who, as we learn, has been
converted from the Novatians110
| 110 In the case of these two
noted African schisms it is hardly necessary to do more than refer the
reader to Smith’s or any other standard dictionary. | with his people, we
wish to preside over the Lord’s flock,
on condition that he remembers he must send a certificate of his faith
to us, in which
he not only
condemns the error of the Novatian dogma, but also unreservedly
confesses the catholic truth. Maximus, also, although he was
culpably ordained when a layman, yet if he is now no longer a Donatist,
and has abjured the spirit of schismatic depravity, we do not depose
from his episcopal dignity, which he has obtained irregularly, on
condition that he declare himself a catholic by drawing up a
certificate for us.
VII. The case of Aggarus and Tyberianus
(ordained with tumult) is referred to the bishops.
But concerning Aggarus and Tyberianus, whose case is
different from the others who were ordained from among the laity, in
this that their ordination is reported to have been accompanied by
fierce riots and savage disturbances, we have entrusted the whole
matter to your judgment, that relying upon your investigation of the
case, we may know what to decide about them.
VIII. Maidens who have suffered violence
are not to compare themselves with others.
Those handmaids of God
who have lost their chastity by the violence of barbarians, will be
more praiseworthy in their humility and shame-fastness, if they do not
venture to compare themselves to undefiled virgins. For although
every sin springs from the desire, and the will may have remained
unconquered and unpolluted by the fall of the flesh, still this will be
less to their detriment, if they grieve over losing even in the body
what they did not lose in spirit.
IX. These injunctions to be carried out
without contentiousness.
And so now that you see yourselves, beloved, fully
instructed through David, our brother and fellow-bishop, who is
approved to us both by his personal character and his priestly worth,
on [nearly]111
| 111 Fere here added
probably to account for the long tail of extraneous or repeated matter
tacked on to the letter. | all the points which
our brother Potentius’ account contained, it remains, brothers,
that you receive our healthful exhortations harmoniously, and that
doing nothing in rivalry, but acting unanimously with entire devotion
and zeal, you obey the constitution of God and
His Apostles, and in nothing suffer the well-considered decrees of the
canons to be violated. For what we from the consideration of
certain reasons have now relaxed must henceforward be guarded by the
ancient rules, lest, what we have on this occasion with merciful lenity
conceded, we may hereafter have to visit with condign
punishment112
| 112 Here the shorter
edition of the letter breaks off, and there are certainly difficulties
in considering that the long coda or repetitions and fresh matter here
attached formed part of the original draft of the letter. Is it
possible that two letters (the one later than the other) have been
welded into one? | , acting with special
and direct vigour against those who in ordaining bishops have neglected
the statutes of the holy fathers, and have consecrated men whom they
ought to have rejected. Wherefore if any bishops have consecrated
such an one priest as ought not to be, even though in some measure they
have escaped any loss of their personal dignity, yet they shall have no
further right of ordination, nor shall ever be present at that
sacrament which, neglecting the judgment of God, they have improperly conferred.
X. The appointment of bishops over too
small places is inexpedient and must be discontinued.
That of course which pertains to the priestly
dignity we wish to be observed in common with all the statutes of the
canons, viz., that bishops be not consecrated in any place nor in any
hamlet113
, nor where they have not been consecrated
before; for where the flocks are small and the congregations small, the
care of the presbyters may suffice, whereas the episcopal authority
ought to preside only over larger flocks and more crowded cities, lest
contrary to the divinely-inspired decrees of the holy Fathers the
priestly office be assigned over villages and rural estates114
or obscure and thinly-populated townships,
and the position of honour, to which only the more important charges
should be given, be held cheap from the very number of these that hold
it. And this bishop Restitutus has reported to have been done in
his own diocese, and he has with good reason requested that when the
bishops of those places where they ought not to have been ordained die
in the natural course, the places themselves should revert to the
jurisdiction of the same prelate to whom they formerly belonged and
were attached. It is indeed useless for the priestly dignity to
be diminished by the superfluous multiplications of the office through
the inconsiderate complaisance of the ordainer.
XI. Virgins violated against their will
are to be treated as somewhat different to the others, but not to be
denied Communion.
Now concerning those who, having made a holy vow of
virginity [as we said above, chap. viii.], have suffered the violence
of barbarians, and have lost their spotless purity not in spirit but in
body, we consider such mode
ration ought to be observed that they
should be neither degraded to the rank of widows115
| 115 Cyprian (de hab.
Virg.) speaks of women who have lost their virginity by their own
fault as viduæ antequam nuptæ, and S. Jerome, using
the same expression (Lett. to Eustochius on the preservation of
Virginity), implies that they very often dressed like widows
(plerasque viduas antequam nuptas infelicem conscientiam
mentita tantum veste protegere): this will account for
Leo’s here providing that these unhappy women are not deiici
in viduarum gradum. Ball. |
nor yet reckoned in the number of holy and undefiled virgins:
yet, if they persevere in the virgin life, and in heart and mind guard
the reality of chastity, participation in the sacraments is not to be
denied them, because it is unfair that they should be accused or
branded for what their wishes did not surrender, but was stolen by the
violence of foes.
XII. The care of Lupicinus is in part
dealt with and in part referred to them.
The case also of bishop Lupicinus116
| 116 The case of Lupicinus
seems somewhat similar to that of Projectus in Lett. X., chap. iv, and
was similarly referred to local experts. | we order to be heard there, but at his
urgent and frequent entreaties we have restored him to communion for
this reason, that, as he had appealed to our judgment, we saw that
while the matter was pending he had been undeservedly suspended from
communion. Moreover there is this also in addition, that it was
clearly rash to ordain one over his head who ought not to have been
ordained until Lupicinus, having been placed before you or convicted,
or having at least confessed, had opportunity to submit to a just
sentence, so that, according to the requirements of ecclesiastical
discipline, he who was consecrated might receive his vacant
place.
XIII. All disputes to be dealt with on
the spot first and then referred to the Apostolic See.
But whenever other cases arise which concern the
state of the Church and the harmony of priests, we wish them to be
first sifted by yourselves in the fear of the Lord, and a full account of all matters settled or needing
settlement sent to us, that those things which have been properly and
reasonably decided, according to the usage of the Church, may receive
our corroborative sanction also. Dated 10th
August. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
